Ghostface Killah, 'Fishscale' (Def Jam)
A pusher allegory that proves there's no business like snow business.
By Julianne Shepherd 04.11.06 3:00 AM
Rap about crack cocaine hit big last year, with Young Jeezy and Juelz Santana flooding the streets and the charts. So when Ghostface Killah announced he was releasing an album christened after fishscale, a pure form of Peruvian flake cocaine, trepidation struck. Sure, the Wu-Tang Clan vet detailed a drug empire on Raekwon’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… 11 years ago, but since then, his solo albums have veered toward stream-of-consciousness verbal hijinks. Coke seemed too rote a topic for a rapper who never had to bend his will to mainstream tastes.
But this is also Ghost’s first album since his beloved Wu brother Ol’ Dirty Bastard died from a cocaine-related overdose in 2004, and perhaps in tribute, Ghost has made the definitive blow opus. Toning down his oddball style and ramping up his storytelling, he drops a pusher’s odyssey as developed and cinematic as any Scorsese joint. Each track depicts a different mise-en-scène in the life of a kilo kingpin who “bags your boo,” busts up an apartment, witnesses an OD, gets a haircut, and goes bazonkers. Ghost mandates soul samples, and his producers (Pete Rock, Cool n Dre, MF Doom) are generally up to the task, especially on Doom’s “Underwater,” a Super Mario Bros.–sounding dream sequence about deep-sea diving and spiritual exploration.
Peppered with declarations of Ghost’s own fallibility, the album is a cautionary tale, an argument against the Life as certainly as it paints it. On “Big Girl,” Ghost karaoke-style raps over the Stylistics’ effervescent “You’re a Big Girl Now,” offering advice to an ensemble of young lady cokeheads. Even while pushing them snow, he drops soliloquies on what their futures could be. Most touchingly, on a crack-pipe track evoking ODB’s OD, he pleads, “Goodness, gracious, Tony, gosh/ Put away the frosted flakes / You’re killing us / The residue from the last batch / We all went straight.” Where there is coke, there is conscience, and now more than ever, Ghost is for the kids.
See also: Clipse, We Got It 4 Cheap, Vol. 2 (mixunit.com, 2005)
Cocaine has become a very popular thing to rap about these days, and the rappers go after whatever makes the money. It's a odd form of a tribute to be rapping about coke for someone who just died from cocaine, but whatever, he wants to sell albums and pay tribute in his own way so that works for me. I'd like to see these rap albums go in a different direction but if it sells, well keep running with it. Just don't forget about the kids. Narconon
I'm surprised that so many rapper believe that it's a good idea to put drugs in a "good light." I know a lot of them are rapping about the lifestyle they used to be a part of but they should put some more positive spin, forgive the pun, on things. Then again a lot of rock stars aren't singing about positive things either so I guess that makes up for it. They write about what they know and that's what they know. drug and alcohol rehab centers
What I feel is important is the fact that young people listen to this music. Youngsters are so susceptible to influence that I am afraid that they can hear songs like these and automatically think that it is OK to go and smoke crack. now as adults we might look at that and think why would they do something like that but the fact is that they do not know any better and yes they most likely should but who is at home teaching them what is right and wrong? We do not spend enough time with these youngsters to have taught them the difference. When they get older they will have to go to rehabs like Narconon Vista Bay so that we can rehabilitate them and get them aware of responsibility and how they are responsible for their own actions.
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