Search Salon

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Recently in Salon Arts & Entertainment

Movie Review
"3 Strikes"
The loosey-goosey South Central romp could use a translator for Clueless White People, but it's packed with physical comedy yuks.
By Andrew O'Hehir
[03/03/00]

Movie Review
"Drowning Mona"
Bette Midler, Casey Affleck and Danny DeVito star in a backwoods slapstick that lacks the anarchy needed for true farce.
By Charles Taylor
[03/03/00]

Movie Review
"What Planet Are You From?"
It's a sad day for cinema when a vibrating penis upstages a perfectly good actress.
By Stephanie Zacharek
[03/03/00]

Movie Review
"The Next Best Thing"
Madonna and Rupert Everett star in a gay-themed family comedy that goes seriously awry.
By Stephanie Zacharek
[03/03/00]

Music Review
Sharps & Flats
Reggae legend and Massive Attack collaborator Horace Andy returns to the rootsy style and socially conscious work of his early Studio One career.
By Michelle Goldberg
[03/02/00]

Complete archives for Arts & Entertainment

- - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Of course, anonymity is antithetical to fame, and soon enough the mask came off. By the time of his first solo album, Ghost's face was upfront -- as were his heartaches. "Ironman" (1996) was an astounding document of syllabic dexterity and personal revelation. Amid the above-standard braggadocio and Mafioso apocrypha were fragments of a tormented soul: a paean to his mother, a vicious skewering of an unfaithful ex. These were more profound than typical thug tears; the language captured an emotional complexity uncommon in hip-hop and rendered his heart in full color.

Listen to Ghostface Killah at Virginmega.com Ghostface Killah "Supreme Clientele" Razor Sharp/Epic

There are snatches of that pulse on "Supreme Clientele," Ghost's second LP. On "Child's Play," he reminisces about a teenage love, managing to combine innocence with an upstart hard-rock sensibility. One minute it's "She had a ... waist like a Coke bottle's scoring ... Mole like Marilyn Monroe/Threw a rose in her mouth." By the end, though, it's good morning, heartache: "Got jealous when she kissed Rob/I broke her chico sticks." What's new?

When Ghost roams, his gift appears in the proper light. Check the flashback: "Those were the days, made faces in school plays/Paper trays, citywide test made half-a-days/Shooting puppy water, might hump the pillow, dick a inch taller." In three lines, from the lunchroom to the bedroom, he encapsulates the expectation of youth and the way it devolves into adult contradiction. Ghost gives those shattered dreams even more play on "Wu Banga 101," where he spins a liturgical drama, weaving seemingly pithy details into a compelling narrative:

Slapped the pastor, didn't know Pop had asthma
He pulled out his blue bible, change fell out his coat
Three condoms, two dice, one bag of dope
Oooh! Rev. ain't right, his church ain't right
Deacon is a pimp, tell by his eyes ...
Two ushers slipped 80 dollars right out the pot.

Unfortunately, Ghost uses his skills for evil more than good, but that's not a sin. His criminology lectures are among the most compelling in the game, ribald with a delivery and language that lend them an aura of almost extrahuman possibility. On "Ghost Deini" he effectively cops to sticking up two rival rappers. (The story is likely a swipe at rapper 50 Cent, whose "How to Rob an Industry Nigga" was the subject of much consternation in the hip-hop world last summer.)

Then, when he drops the crime, his tales can turn seemingly nonsensical. As he did on earlier projects, Ghost displays his unusual lyrical relationship with food, lacing "One" with a classic gastronomic non sequitur:

Rhymes is made of garlic, never in the target
When the narcs hit, rumor is you might start to spit ...
Dug behind monument cakes, we never half-baked Alaskan, cess-capade, pushing new court dates.

Though superficially odd, Ghost's worldview certainly sounds luxurious and entrancing. On "Stay True," he describes "orals like Smokey's voice, little moist, but choice/We guzzle Dom, smoke the scratchy throats/Live on the edge, bracelets, shades and classy coats." Even when embracing the visceral over the intellectual, his proclamations perk. After preparing to "season the broth" of some select enemies, Ghost bursts forth: "Bung, bung, bung! Your bell got rung, rung, rung!" It's not celebration so much as excitement. Underneath all the decorous language and dark, masked imagery resides a man still capable of joy, even if it's only to celebrate another's downfall.
salon.com | March 3, 2000

- - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - -

  Get a printer-friendly version

  E-mail a friend about this article

  Backflip this article to find it again

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Search Salon