Album: Sour Soul
Producer: Frank Dukes
Release Date: Feb. 24, 2015
Review: Continuing his "live band" sound, Ghostface Killah collaborated with Canadian trio Badbadnotgood to release the short album Sour Soul this past February. Here, however, Badbadnotgood trades in Adrian Younge's and The Revelations' funk and old R&B stylings for a stripped-down tone with complex bass lines, slower plucked guitars and clean jazz drums to back up Ghost's flow.
With only one song clocking in over three and a half minutes ("Six Degrees"), Sour Soul absolutely flies by. Quick note: I bemoaned the length of some of Ghost's albums when I took my first look at Twelve Reasons to Die II a few weeks ago, and the music and lyrics are so tight that it really doesn't need me bitching about it twice, so today I'm only pointing it out to emphasize that its brevity makes it a little harder to get hypnotized and taken on an epic adventure than others. But hey, I was also a bit mistaken when, on my first listen to this record, I said it sounded more like the traditional blaxploitation Wu-Tang stuff than I believe it is now, but we all make mistakes right? Right. If you've stuck with me this far on the Map of Shaolin (17 months and counting), I'll hope you'll cut me some slack for my quibble with run times and I'll admit my error on analyzing Sour Soul's sound initially.
Fortunately for Sour Soul, it spends its 33 minutes as wisely as Solomon. Badbadnotgood develops lovely sounds from front to back, from the spy film vibe of the title track and "Raygun"'s epilogue to the ether-huffing Lynchian surrealism of "Tone's Rap." The gentle guitar tremolo and dreamy keys on "Street Knowledge" are a perfect complement to guest star Tree's gorgeous voice, and on the rare occasions when it leans towards the funk-/soul-on-film Wu sound ("Nuggets of Wisdom," "Stark's Reality") it confidently brings its own bravado to the ever-expanding Shaolin catalog.
As much as I love Ghostface's comic book-esque concept records - the Twelve Reasons to Die series and 36 Seasons - I'm glad he took a break between them so he could put together an album full of raps that don't need to tie together and tell one story. This gives him more room to focus on imagery and rhyming rather than adding plot into the mix - not that those records lacked either of those. So with one fewer job to fill on lyrics, GFK delivers some really powerful couplets and verses, occasionally with the explosive power we're used to hearing from Inspectah Deck. Check out this line from the title track: "I don't feel, I'm comfortably numb, Stapleton's son / Insomniac charged off the rays of the sun." Of course there's plenty of Ghost's own angry and distinctive street style throughout the album with lines like ""Tupac's back, my glock's fat / After the gun smoke, you screamin' 'where my block at?'" ("Six Degrees").
In February's preview, I called out "Gunshowers" as an early favorite and that would still stand except that it's hard for me to pick out highlights on an album that's so consistent. Ghost and his guest Elzhi absolutely kill it, though, with lyrics so nice I'm citing them twice:
"Simple minds get blown, shattered into pieces
My thesis is thick like the Book of Eli
We live, we die, we put 'em in the sky
Free your mind that's a slave like the Fourth of July."
(Ghostface)
"I flirt with building your empire
Gotta shake the snake in the grass and spark sharks to swim by us
'Cuz every meek head that speak street cred ain't banging heat lead
And probably cut like sweet bread wetting the sheet beds."
There's a great one-two combo of "Street Knowledge" and "Ray Gun" about 2/3 of the way into the album. Their sounds are so opposing they make a yin-yang of fantastic modern hip-hop - "Street Knowledge" has some of the most relaxing and pulsating music on the record and Tree's voice is like a chanting lullaby over it; then Ghost and DOOM set it off with the lively indie-rap sound of "Ray Gun." While their verses aren't the best on the record, it's clear that these are two guys comfortable in their own skin, having as much fun with the music as with each other. Not to mention the dangerous big band sound that cuts in at the end, straight out of a classic James Bond movie.
Ghost seems to reach some kind of epiphany near the end of the album, transitioning from more standard street life lyrics to a couple tracks about Islam ("Nuggets of Wisdom") and trying to reach personal enlightenment and do good in this life ("Food"). Oddly, this third act ends up with the same problem as Eminem's Recovery - the nobler the lyrics seem to get, the smoother they ain't. I really applauded Em's album for its themes of trying to improve his own life, but I often thought his flow was its most untouchable when he devolved into his usual rhymes about women, drugs and booze. Ghost - amazing as he is - sometimes has the same problem. I'm blown away by that four-bar rhyme I quoted from "Gunshowers," which definitely has some braggadocio involved, but when he goes for enlightenment, the flow can suffer a bit. In "Nuggets of Wisdom" he says "Make sure it's halal, no pork on the fork / No swine in the cupcake filling, we knew it's pork." It's not my favorite, nor is "Food"'s line "Yoga, deep meditational tactics / You no good, then just practice / 'Cuz practice makes perfect." However, the sound saves it overall, with Badbadnotgood steadily providing wonderful music even when Ghost stumbles a bit.
So Ghostface Killah makes it a hat trick: three great albums with live band sounds in a row, each with major claims to fame. Yeah, there are a couple minor hiccups on Sour Soul, but it's really an album to hear. Since it was only out six months ago, I think this is where I'll put an end to the Map's Legacy section - in which we analyze how each release affected the artist's career in the long run. However, I will say again this is proof positive that Ghost is evolving as an artist. First, he defies genre tropes - and even more specifically some gimmicks made famous by his own legendary group - to expand aurally. He's really branching out from studio-produced loops and samples into an exciting place. Second, this leads to him cementing another trademark sound for himself. He had his Wu-esque debut and sophomore albums, his street albums and now his full band albums. Ghost is a real chameleon, and whether he sticks with this style or moves on, we're in for a hell of a ride.
I'm also skipping the Recommended Tracks section this week, mostly because it's such a solid listen from start to finish and also due to that length. There are three instrumentals on the album and I griped a bit about the lyrics on the last two tracks with Ghost, so if I picked four or five songs out of the remaining six that would be a bit of a waste. Cop this record and witness the testament of Ghostface Killah's enduring career - his second out of three in eight months.
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