It wasn\u2019t until the mid \u201990s where even rap\u2019s most vocal critics began relenting that this \u201crap thing\u201d wasn\u2019t a fad -\u2013 it was here to stay. Like soul, R&B, heavy metal and punk, rap and hip-hop had become full-fledged genres. While it\u2019s elitist to think of one genre as better than others, an argument can be made about judging genres on the standard of how it treats its elders. <\/p>\n
Buddy Guy, Al Green and Bob Dylan, all elder statesmen of their genres, have released some of the best blues, soul and rock albums of the past five years, proving there\u2019s room for young blood and seasoned vets in their respective genres. However, when you take a look at punk, you see its elders move on to different genres or branch out into multimedia and book readings (see Henry Rollins and Patti Smith). As for rap and hip-hop, it\u2019s hard to imagine The Beastie Boys and Public Enemy of today releasing a work that would rank up with Check Your Head<\/i> or Fear Of A Black Planet<\/i>. <\/p>\n
The game\u2019s even harder for hardcore rap. The latest albums from Busta Rhymes and DMX debuted strong, but sank like a brick from horrible word of mouth. The thought of releasing a commercial and artistically-viable work in hardcore rap at the elder age of 35 most likely came across Ghostface Killah\u2019s mind a few times as he made Fishscale<\/i>: one of the running skits is a Burgess Meredith sound-a-like chiding Ghostface \u201cYou ain\u2019t been hungry since Supreme Clientele<\/i>!\u201d like Mickey would chastise Rocky Balboa. <\/p>\n
Without taking anything away from Eminem, it is Ghostface Killah who should be in the running for the title of \u201crap\u2019s greatest storyteller.\u201d With Fishscale<\/i>, Ghostface creates a quasi-concept album about one of the Wu-Tang-Clan\u2019s favorite topics: cocaine. Like Trainspotting, the album gives you the euphoric highs in equal doses with cautionary portraits like \u201cBig Girl\u201d and \u201cKilo.\u201d <\/p>\n
Like a Brian De Palma movie, Fishscale<\/i> is overstuffed. Far too often, the skits hinder the album\u2019s impact. For those that are willing to put up with some of the album\u2019s excesses, or those who will simply press fast-forward are repeatedly rewarded for giving Fishscale<\/i> a full listen. Wu-Tang-Clan fans are especially rewarded with the glorious pass-the-mike reunion of \u201c9 Mill Bros.\u201d <\/p>\n
Fishscale<\/em> is by no means a landmark album in hip-hop. With the exception of the level of lyrical detail that ranks up there with great crime fiction, there\u2019s nothing on Fishscale<\/em> that most listeners of hip-hop haven\u2019t heard before. The album merely is a superb sample of what Ghostface does best. Here\u2019s hoping Ghostface will prove critics wrong again when he unleashes another classic well into his 40s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":28503,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7820],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-39962","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-ghostface-killah","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39962"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39962"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}