Artist: Ghostface Killah
Album: More Fish
Producers: Fantom of the Beat, DOOM, Anthony Acid, etc.
Release Date: October 12, 2006
Review: Releasing just seven months apart and bearing similar titles and album artwork, it's a safe bet that Fishscale and More Fish were recorded in the same sessions. The biggest notable difference between the two is in the personnel - it's a bit confusing, so let's knock it out first. None of the songs here feature Wu-Tang generals except "Guns N Razors," where Cappadonna guests. In fact the only other arguably Wu-Tang-related collaborations on More Fish are a guest spot from Killarmy's Killa Sin (also on "Guns N Razors"), one verse by longtime Meth affiliate Redman and several tracks produced by Fantom of the Beats, who have worked on other Wu-related albums in the past. Killa Sin you may remember from Inspectah Deck's Uncontrolled Substance and The Resident Patient, Method Man's Tical 2000 or RZA's Bobby Digital albums.
Basically, Fishscale seems like "a new solo record by Ghostface Killah from Wu-Tang," whereas More Fish is refocused and showcased as "a new album by Ghostface Killah with his new group, The Theodore Unit." Fortunately, The Theodore Unit slays tracks from start to finish so they never feel like a commercial or a weight on Ghost's efforts.
After a New Year's skit, More Fish kicks off with the high-energy "Ghost is Back." The music belongs in a Guy Ritchie heist movie; it's what "Gravel Pit" should've been. Not to mention there's a good bit of skratching throughout, which brings some fun nostalgia to this heater. Ghost steps back and lets Trife da God and Sun God take "Miguel Sanchez," and they annihilate it. Trife is as upbeat as Inspectah Deck while Sun God takes a more laid-back approach, but they don't disappoint.
"Guns N Razors" is clearly a DOOM-produced track, and everyone - Cappadonna included - turn in competent uptempo verses for it, but "Good" is my first standout track on the album (besides "Ghost is Back"). The music is so heavily steeped in '70s blaxploitation it's almost a marvel on its own. Bright horns blow, falsetto-sung hooks and splashy vocal harmonies abound. If you can't hear it for yourself, you can judge by the words on the hook: "GOOD I look so GOOD the car look GOOD, I'm in the hood and I'm okaaaay / GOOD the jewels look GOOD the cars look GOOD, they all from around the way." Listening to "Good" I half-expected a 30-year-old Pam Grier to kick in my door holding a pistol in two hands. The sound is nearly everything that we've come to love from Wu-Tang and it's fun to boot.
The modern Wu sound I've been talking about - a bit less chunky/grimy but with soul samples and other great sounds - returns on "Street Opera," and on my last listen of More Fish, had the sucker-punch real-life lyrics that catch you off guard and don't let go. Ghost's verse carries these lyrics: "Your projects' steps is Ajax down, dried blood / Maintenance men with the scrub brush scraping the ground / Diapers, baby bottles and broken lighters / I led many horses to water just to see if they like it." It's a bold image that juxtaposes some of the everyday things one sees in high-crime neighborhoods: violence (dried blood being washed off of a tenement's front steps with Ajax) and drug use (broken lighters, more likely used for drugs than cigarettes since the hook on this song is "Jeans, hoods, guns, crack"). The sad part is that the violence and drugs are so close to babies (diapers and baby bottles). It may only be a few lines, but it's stuff like this that makes Ghostface and the other Wu generals stand out among their peers.
My only problem with "Street Opera" is that at the end there's the sound of Ghostface eating something, and I hate - I mean I hate - the sound of people eating. It's a pet peeve, but just the sound of chewing, slurping and sucking in someone's mouth? I've had to leave dinner tables because of it. I actually skip that bit every time I put More Fish on. If I weren't so lazy, I'd rip the whole album, edit that last 5 or 10 seconds out then burn it to a new CD. Sorry Ghost! You're still the man.
Shawn Wigs makes his debut on "Pokerface," performing the entire song (besides the hook) by himself. He carries himself well over a beat that would be at home on Think Differently, with vocals pitch-raised to Alvin and the Chipmunks heights, but the coolest and best surprise of the album comes on "Greedy Bitches." On "Greedy Bitches," producer Anthony Acid reworks the beginning of Van Morrison's "TB Sheets" for this track that features Redman and Shawn Wigs. I don't know that I've heard anything as enjoyable as Ghost and Red rapping over Van Morrison. Also, having Redman rap over such an unexpected track reminds me of his verse over Gorillaz' "19-2000" for the Blade II soundtrack, "Gorillaz on my Mind."
"Josephine" is a lament of a girl who became an addict and a prostitute. Willie Cottrell sings lamenting vocals while Ghost and Trife bring sad verses about addiction. Ghost raps, "Putting dope in the cook, searching for her vein / Tracks all over her arms, she never felt the pain / The monkey on her back is now a gorilla / Fiending for a hit knowing one day it's gonna kill her." Trife responds with the hard-hitting "Two months pregnant, carrying around her fetus / But the found her on Broad, in the dumpster, behind the cleaners."
"Blue Armor" is nearly as energetic as "The Champ" from Fishscale, which is to say it is fantastic. Big ups to Fantom of the Beats for bringing a high-energy jam for Ghost and Sheek Louch to slam heavy rhymes over. It's chaotic and dope, and especially noteworthy as a prelude to the Ghostface/Sheek Louch album Wu Block (which Map of Shaolin will cover in turn) and its recently announced follow-up Hidden Gems.
The rest of the album settles down a bit, featuring Ghostface's collaboration/remix version of Amy Winehouse's "You Know I'm No Good" and a Kanye remix of "Back Like That." It's a good way to simmer and finish the record, especially if you listen to both Fish records back-to-back, but at the same time it's hard not to feel like you're listening to Winehouse's Back to Black and Ghost's Fishscale for a couple minutes.
Legacy: Two full-length records in under a year. Ghost was either working his ass off in 2005 and 2006 or writing comes so easily to him that he's able to pump out verse after verse. He has as many solo records as of this writing as Inspectah Deck, ODB and Masta Killa combined, and we're already aware of Hidden Gems, Soul Sour and DOOMStarks, possibly within a year of his appearances on Wu's A Better Tomorrow and releasing his own 36 Seasons. The album was well-received, too; in their review of More Fish, Rolling Stone called Ghostface "the most irrepressible rapper of his generation." After the cleaner sound of Pretty Toney and Bulletproof Wallets, it's good to hear Ghost going for this grittier tone, working with indie hip-hop producers like DOOM and Madlib. Ghost's career is fascinating to follow, too - after this he put out The Big Doe Rehab, the retro-inspired Apollo Kids, the R&B-heavy Ghostdini then two comic book concept records, 12 Reasons to Die and 36 Seasons. He seems to be an unstoppable force, and most of his albums are top-notch. But if he proved one thing with the Fish albums, it's that Ghost is back.
Recommended Tracks: Good, Street Opera, Greedy Bitches, Blue Armor.
Next Week: Ol' Dirty Bastard's real third album, A Son Unique, which was only (and accidentally) released for one day on iTunes.
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