Since Ghostface Killah’s Supreme
Clientele dropped in 2000 and essentially closed the book on the Wu-Tang
Clan’s near-unimpeachable nineties run, there have been only a handful of
serious landmarks in the Wu-Tang catalog: Masta Killa’s No Said Date in 2004, Ghostface’s Fishscale in 2006, Raekwon’s Only
Built 4 Cuban Linx… Pt. II in 2009.[1]
With the latter, Raekwon knocked Ghostface out of the top spot in the Wu-Tang
pantheon, and since then Ghostface has been spinning his wheels a bit,
releasing the ill-advised but amazingly titled R&B project Ghostdini: Wizard of Poetry in Emerald City,
the good but undercooked Apollo Kids,
the tossed off Ghost/Rae/Meth collaboration Wu-Massacre,
and the painfully generic Wu-Block with
the LOX’s Sheek Louch. On Twelve Reasons
to Die, Ghostface is reenergized and focused, and he sounds hungry again
for the first time since Fishscale.
Ghost has given the Clan their fourth landmark album of their second decade.
This is due in no small part to Adrian Younge, who fancied
himself a visionary a few years ago and is finally growing into that role.
Younge toes the line between music and film so effortlessly that his
seventies-indebted video projects drive his cinematic musical projects. By
hooking up with Ghostface, Younge has managed to fully merge his two great
interests as the two have essentially created an epic b-movie in album form. If
Twelve Reasons to Die was actually a
movie, first song “Beware of the Stare” would be the perfect opening credits
song, establishing the album’s mood with an operatic chorus and spooky
evocative instrumentation while Ghostface lays out the album’s themes of
revenge. The scene then cuts to Italy, with Tony Starks becoming a force in the
DeLuca criminal organization. Just before he was to be made a don, Starks
breaks out and forms his own gang, the Black Shirts, since the DeLucas “tried
to front on [his] skin tone.” Wishing to increase his riches and eliminate his
competition, Starks declares war on the DeLucas. At the same time, a beautiful
woman comes into his life and entrances him despite the protestations of his
advisors that she’s a rat. She unsurprisingly betrays him and he gets killed by
the leader of the DeLucas, who has Starks’ remains melted down into twelve
vinyl records. His desire for revenge is so great that his spirit, the
Ghostface Killah, returns every time one of those twelve records is played, and
he rounds up his gang and massacres the entirety of the DeLuca gang and most of
their friends and family members as well. The album ends with a brief RZA
narration and the instrumental “12 Reasons to Die,” which essentially serves as
the closing credits.
Focusing on one album-length story with Younge and executive
producer RZA overseeing things allows Ghostface to hone in on one of his
greatest skills as a rapper: evocative and detailed storytelling. He does not
disappoint, whether he’s arguing with Cappadonna over his lover’s loyalties,
describing her betrayal and his own death, or taking the listener through the
insane amount of murders that follow his resurrection. The guests, all of whom
come from the Wu family (with the exception of Delfonics lead singer William
Hart), all step up their storytelling as well. U-God hasn’t sounded as good as
he does on “Blood on the Cobblestones” since the nineties. Inspectah Deck
reminds everyone that he could have been counted among the best rappers ever if
he had had more direction and better beat selection on his solo records. Out of
all of the people rapping about killing dozens of people throughout the record,
Killa Sin manages to rise above the rest in terms of intimidation, laughing his
way through a four year prison sentence and counting the days until he gets out
so he can kill again. The violence is so intense and so constant that it reaches
almost cartoonish levels. A lot of rappers have threatened to kill people on
record, but no one has ever rapped “take my life and I’ll take everyone you
love,” and then spent three songs listing all of the ways he killed every
single one of those loved ones. Outside of the context of the album, “Murder
Spree,” which is one of those killing method list songs, doesn’t fully land,
but after listening to Tony Starks’ rise, death, and rebirth as the Ghostface
Killah on the nine tracks that precede it, it’s immensely satisfying.
Musically, Younge out-RZA’s the RZA. By taking equal cues
from RZA and Ennio Morricone and translating those sounds through his own band,
he’s created a more cohesive and cinematic musical statement than the RZA has
since the first round of Wu-Tang solo albums. On “Revenge is Sweet,” pianos
stab as Ghostface does the same. The dread is palpable throughout “Enemies All
Around Me,” and Younge goes full-on horror soundtrack when Ghostface returns
from the dead on “The Rise of the Ghostface Killah” Elsewhere, bass pummels, drums
crack, horns blast, strings and harpsichord slice. Death, doom, and the glory
of criminal success all echo throughout the band’s playing. Younge understands
the sound that Ghostface’s story requires and translates it on record so
effectively that the two evoke a film that doesn’t exist. If ever there’s been
a rap record that sounds like a movie, it’s this one.
There are a few criticisms that can be made of this record.
Masta Killa’s verse and flow could have been better on “I Declare War.” The
last third of the record after Ghostface’s rise could be a bit more plot
specific instead of just a nonstop massacre, although this would be difficult
since there are only two well-defined DeLuca character. The album only runs for
thirty-nine minutes, and a longer runtime could have helped Younge and
Ghostface flesh out the plot a bit. These are minor criticisms though, and as
you get sucked into the world of Twelve
Reasons to Die it’s easy to let these few flaws slide.
There have been a few album-length stories in hip-hop, most
notably Prince Paul’s A Prince Among
Thieves, but none have ever been this filmic or this able to carry the plot
without heavily relying on skits. Until now, Fishscale, which runs
through nearly every facet of Ghostface’s personality and musical style, was
Ghostface’s third best record with a bullet, after Ironman and Supreme Clientele
of course. By focusing in on one thing, instead of trying to do everything,
Ghost has achieved a cohesiveness that he hasn’t had on any album since his first.
Fishscale has been knocked out of
position, and he has forcibly taken the crown back from Raekwon. This is the
record to beat for hip-hop when it comes to best-of lists this year.
On a side note, Younge is as talented a filmmaker as he is a
composer and musician, and his video for “The Rise of the Ghostface Killah”
captures the spirit of the song perfectly. If they can find the budget then the
whole album is begging to get the full video treatment.
"The Rise of the Ghostface Killah"
"Blood on the Cobblestones"
[1]
This is not to say that there haven’t been other great Wu-Tang records since Supreme Clientele. An incomplete list
would include Bulletproof Wallets, The Legend of the Liquid Sword, Grandmasters, Wu-Tang Chamber Music, 8
Diagrams, Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang, Dopium, Pro Tools, and others, and that’s not even counting the Killa Bees.
But the three records mentioned above are the serious benchmarks for the Wu in
their second decade.
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