New Ghostface! Sequels to classic albums almost always fall short of their predecessor, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when Ghost announced that he was planning on revisiting Supreme Clientele, the best album in his extensive catalog and one of the best rap albums in the history of the genre. And while part two doesn’t reach the heights that the first one did, Supreme Clientele 2 exceeded my expectations and serves as a solid spiritual companion to a project that I personally hold in high regard. The production is the star of the show for me. Each beat sounds crisp and they knock on proper speakers, especially after listening to the private link the label sent me last week. I don’t want to downplay how good Starks is rapping on this, though. The 55-year-old MC’s darts, storytelling and humor are still as sharp as ever. Explore See latest videos, charts and news There’s “4th Disciple,” a return the chamber he entered in his memorable verse at the end of Wu-Tang Forever’s “Impossible,” where he raps about watching a close friend fighting for his life after being shot. Then, on a lighter note you have a track like “Georgy Porgy,” where he’s rapping over a sample of Toto’s similarly named hit — reminiscent of The Pretty Toney Album’s “Holla,” where he goes in over “La-La Means I Love You” by The Delfonics. And I can’t forget the skits, which have become a lost art, where Ghost makes fun of the “pause” game, has Dave Chappelle playing a gameshow host, and has the legendary host of WBLS’ The Quiet Storm with Lenny Green introducing “The Zoom,” where Tone enters his Wizard of Poetry chamber. Ghost pulled up to New York’s Billboard office earlier this week to sit down for a conversation on his decision to put this project together, the current state of the game, and having no qualms about still rapping and performing when he’s old and gray. Check out our interview below. So, for Supreme Clientele 2, what made you want to tap back into that chamber? Because you’ve explained this a bunch — that you wanted to rap some fly s—t, didn’t matter if it made sense. See, people get it twisted. That was like on two songs, “Nutmeg” and “One.” That’s true. They opened the album. Yeah, that was the different styles. I was in Africa one day, I didn’t have no music, and I’m in the village where all the poor people is at. No hotel, no nothing. You gotta s—t and piss outside, do everything, bathe outside, all that s—t like that. So, you know, I’m just out there, just just walking around, and it’s just grass and dirt and looking up at the sky and s—t like, you know, let me make up a style real quick. I had a beat playing in my head and I just [went], “Scientific, my hand kiss it” — all that started coming, because I was like, “Yo, let me just write a rhyme where I just play with words.” That’s really what it was, and people just took it serious. My raps is like ziti. Hip-hop is everything, yo, you can do whatever you want to do with with rap. It don’t just got to be the way you just say it is. Like I told those people, this s—t is like paint, man. It’s like art. I was gonna ask you about that quote because it’s always getting shared, especially when Tumblr was poppin.’ You said, “I don’t give a f—k if you don’t know what I’m talking about – this is art. When you go see a painting on the wall and it looks bugged out because you don’t know what the f—k he thinking, because he ain’t got no benches, no trees there, it’s just a splash. The n—a that did it know what the f—k it is.” You describe it like a Jackson Pollock painting where it’s just splashes on the canvas. That’s it. Like, a Martian could’ve came down here talking s—t or rapping over a beat. You don’t understand what the hell he’s saying, but the s—t sounds crazy. You like, “Oh s—t, but you don’t understand what the hell the n—a said. It’s like listening to French jazz. I don’t know what the f—k they’re saying, but it sounds great. That s—t sounds crazy. That’s where I was at with it at that time like that. That’s why I did I laid it down on some abstract s—t. Did you always plan on making a Supreme Clientele sequel? Because you’ve said that you were stashing songs away for a while. People were calling for it, so if I had something around that felt like it, I would save it. So, when that time presented itself, you start looking in the computer to see what you got. You pick certain sounds and verses that might feel right. You’re just trying to figure it out and catch that vibe, put a theme behind it. What were some of the tracks that you recorded recently? The first song on the album, “Iron Man,” The M.O.P. joint, the one with Styles P and Conway, the break beat joints are like three or four years old, and “Windows” is the probably the newest one. I recorded that real quick in the the fourth quarter. We needed something that was a little more up-tempo. Did you feel any pressure at all? Because you’ve talked about how Ironman isn’t necessarily one of your favorites, even though it’s considered a classic. It’s a classic, but it was a it was a classic at one of my lowest points. My head wasn’t right. You see how Supreme came back after that. I was young and in high school when it came out, so correct me if I’m wrong, but I remember the first Supreme Clientele being under the radar when it first dropped. Is that fair to say?
