Ghostface Killah

Instead of falling prey to the lure of endless reinvention that many of his Wu cohorts have underwhelmingly continued to explore, Ghostface doesn’t stray too far from the blueprint of his debut, Ironman, outclassing anything bearing the Wu logo in recent memory. Ghost’s enthralling presence remains and his head-scratching rhymes have become increasingly complex and are as confusing as the botched track listing  the most lucid rhyme here is a reprise of Ghostface’s verse from Wu Tang Forever’s “Impossible.” This allusion to classic Wu-Tang material is confirmed by the active involvement of the RZA, and Supreme’s Clientele’s strength, save for a few aimless ramblings, is due to him. Even though Supreme Clientele sports vintage soul-flavoured beats from several producers, RZA had the final say on the arrangements and the tracks have his fingerprints all over them. Shirking the ho-hum linearity of his Bobby Digital project and his recent backseat role, RZA returns to generally screwing things up on the offbeat “Cherchez la Ghost,” the positively warped “Stroke of Death” and the smoking posse cuts making even previously used beats sound fresh. Spurred on, Ghostface delivers bewildering stream-of-consciousness flows that on reflection are probably the only logical fit.