Straight From The Gray Matter 2009-11-25 09:42:00
Nov25
Last week I reviewed Raekwon's Only Built For Cuban Linx 2, this week is Ghostface's Ghostdini the Wizard of Poetry in Emerald City
Ghost's fans know that dude is one of theee greatest rappers of our times. He's the dinosaur from yesterday who still stomps today. He's this age's Kool G Rap, the emcee from the past era, who nobody today still can't touch (funnily enough, Kool G Rap is still that guy, now 2 or 3 ages displaced.) Soit's a given that everything Ghost does is at least a 7/10. It's also a given that he's a true artist who can change his style to always stay fresh. Case in point: this album.
Son has been doing relationship-songs for his whole career. Since Camay, Ghost has always made songs about the opposite sex that were never sappy and always real. This album took that talent and put it on blast, 12 tracks and 2 bonuses, all about relationships. Now if you're like me, you hear that and get worried that Ghost will run out of things to talk about by limiting himself so much. Or that the album will reek of saccharine because it's all about women. And surely, some people are gonna hate the album for these exact reasons. The same people who skip Camay, Killa Lipstick, and ¼ of The Pretty Toney Album are gonna hate this album. For better or for close-minded worse, the album is truly limited to relationship. This isn't a half-ass theme/concept album where half the songs don't fit the theme. No, no, not Ghostface. Every song about relationship, most featuring soul samples and today's hot R&B singers.
Exposition completed, let's get to the album. It's opens semi-weak IMO with a track ft Shareefa. I didn't know who this broad was, but my girl explained she's that “I-I-I-I-I-I” singer(apparently the song is named Need A Boss.) Anyway the song is about how ill Ghost's girl is. Decent-enough song, but the opening coulda been stronger. The next two joints feature Raheem Devaughn, who in cornball-fashion is calling himself “Radio” nowadays. Decades-late-nicknames aside, the two songs are ill. Do Over pleads for a second chance after effing the relationship up, and you guys already know my love of Baby(couple posts ago). Raheem does his thing on these songs.
Stapleton Sex is a disgusting-in-a-good-way song about...you guessed it...sex! If you liked Wildflower(“yo bitch I fucked ya friend, yeah you stank hoe”) from Ironman, then this might be right up your alley. We're 5 tracks in(I skipped talking about one), and about here is when I realized that there's a lot of different ways to attack the relationship angle. Humans are social beings, therefore it's only right that there'd be many aspects of our relationships to discuss. Luckily Ghost is smart enough to hit a lot of these different topics.
Paragraphs of Love features Estelle, and despite her ugly accent, dvd-sized teeth, and weak voice's combined attempt to ruin the song, it ends up being one of the best on the album. Ghost is a guy at a party who sees a pregnant chick, on some love at first sight shit. So he has to approach her. Sound retarded? It is. Irregardless, it's dope as hell, from the beat to Ghost describing why she's beautiful, right past Estelle's rap/talk verse, and onto Estelle singing with the help of some guy named Vaughn Anthony.
Other highlights are Guest House with Ghost finding out that his girl Shareefa boning Fabolous, and Ghost and Lloyd pledging to do whatever's necessary, including blasting cats, for their girl on Goner. The whole is at least decent, most of it is great. The wackest songs are Let's Stop Playin with John Legend, and I'll Be That, ft Adrienne Bailon (who???). Both songs sound weak as a chemo-patient. But they're still not terrible, just skippable.
Overall, this album is like a 9/10 or something, just a fucking awesome display of lyrical dexterity. A whole album relationships that rarely disappoints. Ghost takes the rapper-with-a-R&B-hook-and-bridge formula that's so commonplace today, and does it better than EVERYONE. The album isn't selling very well for some reason, I blame the choice of singles. Baby is the only choice I agree with. So go buy it, like me:
(notice the much calmer face lol)
PS. Back Like That Remix ft Neyo and Kanye is one of the bonus tracks. The song is like 3 years old, Ghost gets the gas face for including it. Thank God for the next track button!
~Knowledge the Ghost-Junky
