GHOSTFACE KILLAH - Fishscale | Review By: Shaun


Release Date : March 29th 2006

Label : Island Records

Rating: 4.5/5

Dub Quotable: Fortunately, this [fishscale] isn’t the type of fishscale that will make your teeth and throat numb, but it will have you up for nights on end buggin’ out about the overall quality while you take it through the ears instead of up the nose.

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“This guy’s a bulldozer, wit a wreckin’ ball attached. He’ll leave a ring around ya eye, and tread marks on ya back. He’s an animal. He’s hungry. You ain’t been hungry since Supreme Clientele. Remember what you first told me when I took ya in? You wanted to be a fight’a. You wanted to be a killa. You wanted to be the champ.”

This intro to the album’s fourth track, “The Champ,” is a play off the Rocky series and this Mick sound-alike is speaking the truth about Ghost’s lack of fire on his last few albums. Not that Bulletproof Wallets and The Pretty Toney Album were bad, but they definitely weren’t on par with Ironman or Supreme Clientele. A certain train wreck of a song called “Tush” comes to mind and I cringe, certainly not one of his finer mic moments.

Ghost unleashes lyrical fury on nearly every track of this album. Hungry? He sounds like a caged tiger that hasn’t been fed in a long time that’s ready to rip your heart out and eat it in front of you. Without a doubt, Fishscale is (so far) the best hip-hop album of 2006. Ghost doesn’t waste any time re-establishing himself as one of the Wu’s top rhyme slangers with this 24-track raw, uncut kilo (“All around the world today, the kilo is the measure. A kilo is 1000 grams, easy to remember.”).

You can feel Ghost’s heavy old-school soul and funk influence on every track (Pete Rock and MF Doom did the production). This album is a testament to the evolution of Ghost as an artist and you won’t find any filler tracks (except the skits) on here. EVERY single one is dope. It’s like he took it back to some of the older stuff while still keeping it fresh and new at the same time.

One thing that definitely hasn’t changed is Ghost’s hustle-fueled lyrical style. For those of you who don’t know, fishscale is a street term for high-quality cocaine, aptly named because of the shiny look that it has before it gets cut – and weakened – to add more weight. Fortunately, this isn’t the type of fishscale that will make your teeth and throat numb, but it will have you up for nights on end buggin’ out about the overall quality while you take it through the ears instead of up the nose.

Normally, I like to talk about specific songs that really stand out but this time, they all do. The usual suspects appear to help Ghost move this weight. His number one partner-in-rhyme, Raekwon, appears on several tracks, as well as the full Clan (including ODB) on one song, and even Biggie on the bonus track to name a few.

It’s hard for me to give any album 5 dubs because I can count on both hands how many are worthy of classic status. But, this album is as close as you can get and it’s definitely on par with other classic Wu bangers.







 

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