Sunday Music: New Ghostface

Supreme Clientele is one of my all-time favorite albums. I really found it in college a couple years after its release. I had a ripped CD copy. I initially knew a couple of the songs but just had never owned the full record (this is in the $15-$20 for a CD days, there were financial reasons!). I played it to death once I had the copy. As other stuff turned over, I played it so much I had to buy a real copy for myself when the cheap CDR started to skip too much.

For Ghostface to put out a Supreme Clientele 2, over 20 years later, I was a little scared.

I want his success. I want him celebrated. I mean, he’s - my favorite. Still. Nobody’s like Ghost.

But why a sequel?

One song pretty much sums it up. I may not play this as many times as the original, but - I will play this way more than once.

“Rap Kingpin” has layers. The samples alone - you’ve got “Mighty Healthy” which was one of his best (and off the first edition), you’ve got “Ice Water” off of his eruption of a career with Raekwon in the mid-90s, and then, the real surprise to me, “My Melody” by Eric. B and Rakim making for the basis of the song.

That last one really caught me.

Rakim was the beginning of calm deliveries and super intricate wordplay. Ghost has always been my overly-excited and extra-eccentric Rakim. If anything, Ghost has always represented the combination of Kane’s lyrical and visual flamboyance, KRS’s booming delivery, and Rakim’s fundamental yet flawless finesse.

The “My Melody” sample is doing extra work here.

It’s foundational. Literally and metaphorically. Probably even spiritually.

And then there’s the video.

Is this the best capture of his energy since the Charli Baltimore video (I always loved him in that one, he feels as crazy as he sounds)?

Let the old things be new again. Let the old gods throw down again. Do it because it’s fun, do it because it feels right.

I’m glad he did a follow-up, I’m thoroughly enjoying this.

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