Ghostface Killah - Ghostdini: The Wizard Of Poetry In Emerald City Review

Posted by Patrick Robinson on 09.29.2009

Usually hip-hop and love songs don't go together but Ghostface Killah is an artist who has made it work in the past. Can he make it work for an entire R&B themed album though?

In hip-hop, we often criticize artists for doing tracks featuring R&B artists in a blatant attempt to market to the female audience, the clubs or the radio. Ja Rule would be one such example and 50 Cent in the more recent times in his career have fallen victim to the temptation and as such, people start saying they have lost their credibility or ‘hard’ factor regardless as to whether the artist deserves it or not.

For an artist like Ghostface Killah whose career has featured a number of love-themed tracks, he has never made an entire album openly embracing the R&B sound and always kept things strictly hip-hop for the most part.

When Ghost announced he was releasing Ghostdini: The Wizard Of Poetry In Emerald City, people were wary thinking Ghost would be singing the entire album. A subsequent interview revealed that Ghost wouldn’t be singing, but instead bringing along a number of R&B artists to sing the hooks while he stuck to what he does best; rap.

So will the album be filled with sugary pop-rap type tracks aimed at the charts, or is Ghost going to take a grown-man approach to the R&B/hip-hop blend?



Tracks

1. Not Your Average Girl Ft. Shareefa
2. Do Over Ft. Raheem DeVaughn
3. Baby Ft. Raheem DeVaughn
4. Lonely Ft. Jack Knight
5. Stapleton Sex
6. Stay
7. Paragraphs Of Love Ft. Vaughn Anthony & Estelle
8. Guest House Ft. Fabolous & Shareefa
9. Let’s Stop Playin’ Ft. John Legend
10. Forever
11. I’ll Be That Ft. Adrienne Bailon
12. Goner Ft. Lloyd
13. She’s A Killah Ft. Ron Browz (Bonus Track)
14. Back Like That [Remix] Ft. Kanye West & Ne-Yo (Bonus Track)

The album kicks off with “Not Your Average Girl” and should allay most fears for the album. Ghost kicks off the album by making an appeal for a girl who’s something more than the average, someone who will go for their own and be there for him when things go bad. Scram Jones provides a catchy beat which is strictly hip-hop, no sugarcoated pop tracks here.

For the most part, Ghost does an excellent job of handling themes such as relationships, love and dedication to your lady without the need to change his style to make it more accessible. All the songs have a very grown feel to them; rather than resorting to immature attempts to win a girl back, he addresses the theme of losing a loved one after cheating on her with a sense of maturity on “Do Over” and “Lonely” follows on as a lament of knowing a girl won’t come back.

“Paragraphs Of Love” features Ghost and Estelle trading verses as he recounts a meeting with a girl for the first time. Descriptive as ever, Ghost hasn’t lost a step when it comes to the lyrics and “Guest House” is an excellent example of this. Easily the best song on the album, Ghost describes searching for his wife after she’d been missing for hours. Ghost does an excellent job of building to the track’s climax and you can really feel the anticipation of what’s going to happen next. Fabolous does a good job playing counterpart to Ghost and it’s definitely a standout track.

The production on the album is outstanding as Ghost once again proves he has an excellent ear for beats without a dud in sight. Most of the beats feature lush piano loops or an old-school slow jam feel to them, a nice contrast to the synth heavy beats we get in contemporary R&B today. There are a couple of exceptions, the aforementioned “Not Your Average Girl” and “Guest House” feature much more typical hip-hop beats and “She’s A Killah”, a collaboration with Ron Browz that was surprisingly good. The beat is definitely club-friendly, as are the lyrics so it makes for a good change of pace.

The guests work well for the most part too. Ghost resisted the temptation of including artists such as Akon or T-Pain and has stuck with genuine singers for the most part. Raheem DeVaughn does a wonderful job on “Do Over” and “Baby” as do Jack Knight on “Lonely” and John Legend on “Let’s Stop Playin’”. Vaughn Anthony rounds out “Paragraphs Of Love” with a nice verse and even Lloyd does a decent hook on “Goner”.

There are a couple of problems with the album though. “Stapleton Sex” may be Ghost at his descriptive best, but when it’s about describing him having sex, it’s not exactly the kind of mental picture you want to develop in your head. The inclusion of “Back Like That” is also confusing. The original on Fishscale was fine. The remix featuring Kanye West is good, but it was on More Fish, then later GhostDeini The Great and now here. The concept of ‘third time’s a charm’ doesn’t apply to including the same song three different times on three different albums.

The 411: Ghostdini: The Wizard Of Poetry In Emerald City was a chance that has paid off for Ghost. It’s not your average Ghostface Killah album as the tracks are more in line with ones such as “Love” and “Back Like That” from recent times however, for someone looking for an album that blends R&B themes and production with genuine hip-hop rapping, this is certainly an album for you. Definitely recommended, give it a listen if you’re looking for a change of pace.

Final Score:  8.0   [ Very Good ]