Ghostface-Fishscale

[Advocate]

can't afford to buy any albums this month.

 

[Fataldawg]

yea everysong from a mixtape/OG/unreleased/remix is supposed to be up there'

yea its pretty good.. Couple live songs and a few i never heard before on it.. and its free too, so you cant beat that!

 

[7 Syns]

Im gonna go to my local record store soon and see if they have it in, I was going to download it but want to be surprised. Which im sure judging by the replies I will be.

Should be good, someone post a quick review please. :thumb:.

peace.

 

[Cyence]

can't afford to buy any albums this month.

It's only 7 bucks at Best Buy son....but i see you're only 16. I remember how broke I stayed during those days:laugh:

reviews:
from www.allhiphop.com


The evolution of Dennis Coles has been colorful, to say the least. It began with the mask and shortly progressed to the silky fly sh*t. From there he freaked it with robes, championship belts and a gold Versace dinner plate piece, propelling him to cult icon status. As Wu-Tang’s most thorough member, Ghostface Killah has held down New York during the Clan’s untimely slump. Pretty Tone steps it up once again with Fishscale (Def Jam), giving its title justice by delivering a raw and uncut fifth album.

On the opener “Shakey Dog” you get Starks at his best. He vividly paints a story about setting up a coke connect with a push in robbery during a routine visit. No detail is left untouched, as he covers everything from the cab ride over to the spot (“Got the whip smelling like fish from 125th”) to the actual drama popping off with his accomplice getting busy during the break in (“Frank’s scheming blowing shots in the air”). Ghost connects with Just Blaze to cook up the album’s strongest track on “The Champ”, though. Blaze takes inspiration from the Rocky series as he implements interpolations of the films classic dialogue throughout song. The blaring horns compliment the track’s competitive theme. Ghost goes for the belt with lines like, “My wallos I did ‘em up/the bricks I split ‘em up/my raps ya’ll bit ‘em up/for that now stick ‘em up,” to make it all the way official.

In regards to subject matter, Starks doesn’t disappoint. Ghost Deini switches the mood up on “Whip You With A Strap.” The late great J-Dilla (R.I.P.) loops up a sullen soul sample with finesse to compliment the song’s sincerity as Ghost reflects on his childhood and the old school discipline that came along with it, thanks to a heavy-handed mother. As a pleasant surprise comes “9 Milli Brothers.” All nine original Wu members once again form like Voltron over MF DOOM’s sweeping production. The metal fingers don’t fail as the masked wonder comes through with some dusty piano keys.

Beat wise Ghost sticks to his usual sample heavy script. Even though RZA didn’t put any work in, the album still maintains a strong Shoalin feel to it. Soul brother number one Pete Rock uses bouncy guitar licks and light conga drums on “Dogs Of War.” With “Jellyfish,” DOOM lays down some playful synthesized bass notes as Starks and Theodore Unit address the ladies on some “Camay” ish.

While Tone goes hard for eleven rounds, the questionable closer hinders him from dropping an undeniable classic. On “Three Bricks” Raekwon and Ghost bring back B.I.G. via borrowed vocals from “Ni**as Bleed.” The uninspired Cool & Dre production behind this awkward collaboration (remember: “Ni**as bit off of Nas sh*t!”?) does nothing but make posthumous appearances look bad.

Overall Fishscale doesn’t disappoint. It picks up right where The Pretty Toney album left off. Point blank Ghost is one of the best doing it. The ziti is still banging.

from www.allhiphop.com
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4.5/5 stars

Whenever a veteran artist professes disinterest in modern music, a safe retreat into the past — a tired attempt at recapturing the magic of classic material — tends to follow. Since Ghostface Killah towed that line after the two least-thrilling albums of his career, Fishscale seemed destined to be just another part of his discography; if his fans were lucky, they'd get a couple flashes of his mad maverick genius and nothing as clumsily foul as "Tush." Fishscale is much more generous than that. It's evident that Ghost knows where he's at in his career, and it's directly acknowledged by the Mickey Goldmill-like boxing coach during "The Champ": "You ain't been hungry...since Supreme Clientele!" Ghost responds by pouring all that he has, both lyrically and vocally, into every track on the album. The scenarios he recounts are as detailed and off-the-wall as ever, elaborate screenplays laid out with a vocal style that's ceaselessly fluid and never abrasive. This is especially remarkable since each one of Ghost's lines, when transcribed, require one-to-five exclamation points, and every frantic scene's details — from the onions on the steak, to the show on the television, to the socks sticking out of the "big Frankenstein hole" in a shoe worn by an accomplice — are itemized without derailing the events. Since no active MC sounds better over obscure-'70s soul samples, Ghost was wise to select productions that are best-suited for him, no matter how bizarre or un-pop. Just Blaze, Lewis Parker, MoSS, Crack Val, Pete Rock, Doom, the late J Dilla, and several others supply Ghost with a tremendous round of productions. "Underwater" is the loopiest of all, even by Doom standards; its balmy Bobby Humphrey flute and slippery beat, aided by burbling water effects, backs a hallucinatory journey in which Ghost swims with butterflies, casts his gaze on numerous riches (rubies, the Heart of the Ocean, "Gucci belts that they rocked for no reason from A Different World") and bumps into a Bentley-driving, Isley Brothers-listening, girlfriend-smacking SpongeBob Squarepants before hitting spiritual paydirt. "Back Like That," featuring Ne-Yo, is the lone apparent crossover attempt, and it hardly compromises Ghost's character the way "Tush" did in 2004 ("In the summertime, I broke his jaw — had to do it to him quick, old fashion, in the back of the mall"). Another completely unique track is "Whip You with a Strap," where Ghost recalls the pain of being whipped by his mom with more than a hint of misty-eyed wistfulness. How many other MCs are capable of making you feel nostalgic about leaking welts you never had? More importantly, how many MCs entering their late-thirties have made an album as vital as any other in his or her career?

from www.allmusic.com
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[Dante]

cappa sounded like crap on this album, that's for sure. he even calls himself the cabby a couple times, and if you know his story that's pretty hilarious.

btw, the odb album is absolutely trash (the one dame dash is behind). it's not only short, but it just has no substance and minimal true old school odb. the macey gray track made me want to kill myself.

 

[Fataldawg]

cappa sounded like crap on this album, that's for sure. he even calls himself the cabby a couple times, and if you know his story that's pretty hilarious.

btw, the odb album is absolutely trash (the one dame dash is behind). it's not only short, but it just has no substance and minimal true old school odb. the macey gray track made me want to kill myself.

Cappa was always one of my least fav. wu members... "The Pillage" was a good cd though... Damn its been like 9 years since it came out... Had a lot of good memories when it dropped!

Your talking bout "Son Unique"? I think I dl'd it a few weeks ago, listened to it thru and erased it.. didnt really impress me...cant remember if that was it though..

 

[GhettoStar]

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/g/ghostface-killah/fishscale.shtml

Rating: 9.0


More than 12 years after he emoted all over the first verse on the first track on the first Wu-Tang Clan album, the now 35-year-old Ghostface Killah is still starving for respect, understanding, and acceptance. Hypnotically restless, the East Coast purist has homed in on a rap palette full of vivid hurt and strafing alarm-- and bursting forth with some of the most potent yarns, barbs, and production of his remarkably consistent career, Fishscale is the choice outcome of a creative mind using experience as a compass en route to triumph.

Though Ghostface's veteran status informs much of his fifth solo album, his father-knows-best pose is led by breathless rhymes, not nostalgia. To wit, "Whip You With a Strap" rails against the lack of consequences brought upon today's youth with a smooth cleverness, while "Big Girl" moans about three fast-living women wasting their potential on cocaine mounds. Tellingly, it's Ghost's own coke the girls can't stop sniffing. Such ambiguities eschew didacticism for a lived-in wisdom that's as wicked as it is worthwhile.

Ghost's godfather-cause is most noticeably directed at ostentatious modern-day rap hustlers who largely cook up tales with broad lines and no consequences, as he devotes several of Fishscale's 18 songs to the booming drug-rap subgenre he helped launch in 1995 with Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx.... On both "R.A.G.U." and "Kilo", Rae turns up to assist his close friend, describing the perils of the drug trade. Hardly akin to the dealer-as-infallible-ghetto-champion guise currently purported by the likes of Young Jeezy, Fishscale's dope peddlers are harried and frayed. Between broken wrists, familial strife, and self-inflicted gunshots to the groin, "R.A.G.U." is anything but glorifying toward its stressed-out, drug-running protagonists.

But the album's most vivid illicit spectacle belongs to Ghost alone; "Shakey Dog" takes the rapper's penchant for eye-popping lyrical imagery to its extreme, offering a twisty Mamet-style narrative about a botched two-man robbery attempt. "Fasten your seatbelts," warns the Staten Island son before unraveling a scene so perfectly lucid that an accompanying video would be redundant. Whether describing the alluring smells coming from his victim's apartment or the ruthless history of an ancillary old lady ("She paid her dues when she smoked her brother-in-law at her boss' wedding") he passes on his way up to the place, Ghost touches on myriad senses and memories-- it's the kind of song that requires several close listens to understand at all. It also strongly suggests that, if Ghost ever loses his appetite for rap, he might find success as a screenwriter.

As the album's other specific tragedies-- shitty haircuts, bus stop infatuation gone awry-- fly by with deft everyman flourishes, it's the surreal "Underwater", with its strange spirituality, that proves most trenchant. The dreamy account finds our hero playing out a possible afterlife allegory while swimming at the bottom of the ocean. "I'm not on my turf," he confesses as mermaids "with Halle Berry haircuts" offer guidance along the way. In the tourist role, Ghost is as compelling as when he's recounting pavement-bred stories of his familiar youth. Sometimes on "Underwater", the two come together brilliantly like when he notices "SpongeBob in a Bentely coup, bangin' the Isleys." Eventually arriving at the "world's banginest mosque," Ghost finds comfort in Muslim chants; the rapper's rare moment of peace is well-deserved amidst Fishscale's enthralling agony. Aiding in the track's calming vibes is a mysterious, flute-laden beat courtesy of MF Doom, who's responsible for four beats on the record. The masked supervillain is in the company of a reputable bevy of soul-stacked sample-masters on Fishscale and their musical backdrops match Ghost's focus and vision.

In an interview with RZA last year, he told me, "Listen to how Ghost sounds rappin' over one of my beats and then over another beat... he sounds like a grown man [on my beat] and he sound younger on [other] producers' beats because they don't know the frequency." But, as the first solo Ghost disc without a RZA production, Fishscale attests he was wrong. Whether it's the late Dilla providing his off-kilter vinyl-hiss haze for "Strap", Pete Rock cutting up Sly Stone's "Family Affair" on the hollow funk of posse cut "Dogs of War", or Just Blaze doing his Banger 101 thing on "The Champ" (which, stripped of its bootleg Rocky samples at the last minute thanks to copyright issues, still packs heat), each producer takes his opportunity to envelop today's most soulful rapper with deep swaths of vintage samples and deep drums. The RZA's sonic influence remains strong-- and he even shows up briefly on the excellent Wu reunion cut "9 Milli Bros"-- but his absence behind the Fishscale boards is largely inconsequential.

Considering Ghost's continued status as one of hip-hop's most revered, relevant elder statesmen, it seems odd that his name was seldom bandied about in most of the last decade's King of New York debates. Fishscale reiterates with cinematic verve that the most vital current Wu Tang Clan member's storytelling can match Biggie's in both excitement and humor. Yet Ghost's songs are unrelenting in their slavishness to density and credibility, and that can turn off casual listeners even as it intoxicates hip-hop purists. "My arts is crafty darts, why y'all stuck with 'Laffy Taffy'?" he asks with utter sincerity on "The Champ". As long as inevitable questions like that continually re-up this heavyweight's unswerving drive, they're probably better left unanswered.

-Ryan Dombal, March 28, 2006

 

[Bobby Sands]

Cant wait for all this Wu-Tang shit this year.

Originally Posted by Dante
cappa sounded like crap on this album, that's for sure. he even calls himself the cabby a couple times, and if you know his story that's pretty hilarious.

Yea,he was back driving a cab for a living up until recently wasnt he.?How did he end up like this.Surely he was earning big money from the Wu-Tang albums anyway.

 

[HiGhTillDeaTH]

^not according to him $$$$ wasnt coming from Rza like it was suppose to.


But this album has been constantly playing every where i go. I am not over exaggerating either. I listen to it everywhere i drive, when ever i get out of my car and go to a friends house, i pop that shit out of the deck and take it in to everywhere i go, like this shit is where its at yall. I listen to it everynight before i go to sleep, i cant get enough of this shit. I havent been this satisfied with a Wu solo album in a long long long time. Its a lot better than put it on the line.

 

[Bobby Sands]

I havent seen it here in Ireland yet.Im listenin to the advance alot though.

 

[GhettoStar]

It's better then what I expected thats for damn sure, can't wait to peep that MFDoom/Ghsot collb this Fishscale really has raised expections on it (least to me).

 

[HiGhTillDeaTH]

^ yeah me too man. Is there an Official webpage to get info on that album out there somewhere?

 

[Bobby Sands]

It's better then what I expected thats for damn sure, can't wait to peep that MFDoom/Ghsot collb this Fishscale really has raised expections on it (least to me).

Do u mean: Ghostface meets MF-Operation Ironman?

 

[HiGhTillDeaTH]

^no. Im not sure what it was but its def not that. U get that on limewire or something? I seen it all over there and wondered the same thing, but after listening to it its just basically all the ironman songs. Kinda didint understand the point of it.