Ghostface Killah

Why he matters

Dennis Coles grew up in the Stapleton Houses in Staten Island, went to junior high with Raekwon, and was RZA’s roommate and first partner when the Wu-Tang Clan was taking shape. His name comes from a character in the 1979 kung fu film The Mystery of Chess Boxing.

Before his own album he was close to a co-lead on Raekwon’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… in 1995, on almost every song. Ironman followed in October 1996 on Razor Sharp and Epic, produced by RZA and soaked in ’70s soul and blaxploitation. Raekwon appears on twelve of its seventeen tracks; it’s as much a duo record as a solo one, and it debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200.

Supreme Clientele in 2000 is where the style fully arrived. Fewer RZA beats, but RZA oversaw the mix and reworked other producers’ tracks so the album hangs together. On top, Ghostface raps fast and loud in a stream-of-consciousness style full of slang and non sequiturs that somehow still tell stories. Q magazine called him rap’s finest storyteller, and this is the record that makes the case.

Fishscale in 2006, on Def Jam, brought in MF DOOM, Pete Rock, J Dilla and Just Blaze, got every Clan member on it, and debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200.

What a working rapper can take from it

Detail is the glue. Ghostface’s verses don’t follow a straight line, but they never go vague. Every turn lands on an object, a color, a brand, a sound. If your free-association verse feels like noise, it’s missing the concrete nouns. The verse-writing guide has a section on the edit; that’s where the vague lines get caught.

Emotion is a delivery choice. He raps loud and fast, and the strain in his voice is part of the meaning. Don’t flatten every take into the same level; let the hard parts sound hard.

Soul samples aren’t wallpaper. Ironman and Supreme Clientele use ’70s soul as a second voice, not a backdrop. If you produce, pick samples that argue with or answer the verse. The sample-chopping guide starts with digging, because the source sets the ceiling.