Fishscale — Ghostface Killah
Def Jam
2006
Rating:


Ghostface Killah's "Fishscale" unfolds like a collection of short stories from "Drama City" author George Pelecanos, David Simon, Ed Burns and the rest of the writers from "The Wire." Young Jeezy's cold, mythic version of the drug-dealing superhero Snowman has its allure, but held up against the mighty crime and punishment of "Fishscale," Jeezy melts away.

When Ghostface says, "Fasten your seatbelts, I'm a take y'all on some real shit," he means it. He's less internally soulful than he was on "The Pretty Toney Album." A rebel with a cause, Ghostface is out for blood this time, demythologizing the increasingly popular drug rap subgenre.

"Kilos" initially seems to indulge in the kind of drug culture the album otherwise seeks to demolish. Raekwon, who was sorely missed on "The Pretty Toney Album," is back for the Schoolhouse Rock lecture about cocaine dealing. "All around the world today, the kilo is the measure / A kilo is one thousand grams, it's easy to remember" goes the children's chorus, taking the song into "The Forest" territory. The bass goes bu-duh-dum and wah-wahs as Ghostface declares himself to be a Pyrex professor of Peruvian white: "Strictly powder, no cut / Your coke is balanced, what's up?" Elsewhere he makes the kiddies hip to the lingo: "some call it bricks, some call it birds." Unlike Jeezy, Ghostface is more than willing to point out the perils of being a dealer: "Coke buyers / Them be liars / Therefore you check for wires." It's the anti-"Supafly," the anthem "Paid In Full" was missing.

"Shakey Dog" is a masterpiece of Tarantino-esque narrative. Horns blast as Ghostface relates the details of a drug robbery that turns into some "Curly, Moe, Larry shit" as a gunman with the DTs is attacked by a pitbull "foamin' out the mouth" with "little shark's teeth." The density of storytelling on display here coupled with British hip-hop producer Lewis Parker's blaxploitation sampling are the epitome of intelligent rap. Yet Ghostface never gets radioplay and "Fishscale" has only sold 300,000 copies. Ghostface reasonably asks on the boxing metaphor "The Champ," "My arts is crafty darts, why y'all stuck with 'Laffy Taffy?'"

As Ghostface deftly chips away at the drug game with dexterity and complexity — the Stylistics-sampling "Big Girls" is a lament for women blowing their potential on blow that Ghostface himself is selling — he makes his way to "Underwater." Here Ghostface is able to indulge in his most surreal tendencies, twisting language like "A Clockwork Orange's" Anthony Burgess with James Joyce's stream-of-consciousness. The MF Doom-produced track of flutes, "oos" and splashes features Ghostface being helped through a symbolically "pink door" with the help of butterflies, past Shakespeare-referencing "mermaids with Halle Berry haircuts" and "SpongeBob in the Bentley Coupe / Bangin' the Isleys" to find peace in an Eden where Muslims and Jews pray in harmony. Ghostface's serenity is well-earned and a fitting afterlife to the troubled users and dealers who populate the picaresque of "Fishscale."

Posted Thursday, December 14, 2006

Link to this review:
http://filmzeus.pressbin.com/music/ghostface.killah/fishscale