Before I get into all of this, I have one question: how can Ghostface put out 2 CDs in one year, and guys like Redman have been sitting on the shelf for a bit? Anyways, Ghost is Back! And he decided to bring his Theodore Unit with him, not that we were dying to hear from Wigs or anything, but it's better than Nelly dropping a new album. The question remains: is this a new album, or is it a compilation? I mean, this is no OB4CL, but the "featuring" list is heavy: Trife Da God, Sun God (Ghost's son), Cappadonna, Sheek Louch, Redman, Solomon Childs, Eamon and others. This release having Ghost on the top billing is pretty smart - might have worked wonders for the previous Theodore Unit CD if it was like "Ghost featuring Theodore Unit", but I digress...This disc, simply put, is kind of disjointed. You get the normal Ghost, from his faster flow on "Ghost Is Back", which jacks the classic "Know The Ledge" from Rakim, where he even namechecks a posthumous Gerald Levert. "Josephine" was previously on Hi-Tek's most recent album, in all of it's somber glory. "You Know I'm Good" is a track that Ghost Debo'd from Amy Winehouse (think of his work on Beyonce's "Summertime"), and is one of the highlights of the album. He has been flipping his style over more commercial work since he first dropped (remember that "Freek'n You (Remix)" from back in the day?), and I'm surprised he doesn't get more guest cameos. "Block Rock" is a thick tune, with a thick beat provided by Madlib. The way Ghost doubled his voice, it works so well over this one - his higher octave doubled over a fuzzy mindfuck of a banger. Sheek Louch hops on a slowed down head nodder, "Blue Armor", gelling well with Tony Starks. Who knows what they are talking about aside from just murdering the beat with some razor sharp flows. "Outta Town Shit" has Lewis Parker dropping a crisp drum track with some funky pianos, dropping bi-coastal funk on the masses. Ghost delivers one of his intricate stories about his past days of crime and breakin' niggas off. Gotta love it.
Sounds all good right? Well, the majority of these jams are sans-T.U. heads. Once one of his flunkies jumps on a track, the disc steps down a bit. "Good" has one of the most annoying beats and I guess this Mr. Maygreen singing ass bastard is the one trying to harmonize with a shitty beat. Not a "good" look at all. MF Doom recycles another one of his classic beats for "Guns 'N' Roses", which isn't that bad, but I don't get what happened to Cappadonna. It sounds like he's been smoking cigars - his trademark voice sounds a lot huskier, and his darts weren't hitting like the have in the past. "Street Opera" has father and son locking horns over a female wail over an odd soul romp. The beat is kind of simplistic, and is only saved by the vocal over the beat, which is just a boring drum loop and some random stabs. Lyrically, it's on point, but the beat makes me hit the skip button. "Miguel Sanchez" is another track that is weakened by a poorly chosen track - this one is again a snooze-inducing track that, without Ghostface rhyming, sounds like any other niggas just happened to jump on this disc; the first verse sounds like an AZ-ripoff, and not a good one. "Grew Up Hard" has a lackluster track and does not feature Ghost at all -- just Wigs and Solomon the same ol' street nonsense. No originality, no flavor ("being rich is the poor man's dream" -- yeah, no shit). The same goes for "Gotta Hold On", which has Wigs and Eamon sounding like everyone else wanting to be sentimental over a booty track.
You would think that someone like Ghost, coming from a crew as legendary as Wu-Tang is, would know which members of his Unit should stay and which should bounce. If he kept Trife, his son Sun God and gave Cappadonna some Zoloft, he could rebuild the other spots with some other wild niggas. Cats like Wigs, Childs and the rest just bring the good qualities of this collection down with their redundant lyrics and weak flows. And why did Kanye get up on the "Back Like That (Remix)" (I wonder what Raekwon thinks about the Roc being in the building)? The original was a nice combo of Ghost's love troubles and Ne-Yo's chorus - there's no need for Fendi West's flame-on lines ("I'm so sick like Ne-Yo say/I'm laid back like Neo"?)... and what did Ghost think putting drunk-ass Tracy Morgan on the intro of his disc was going to accomplish? Ghost has done better just going off the dome about banana Snapple and other shit, no need for Tracy and talking about peanut butter on his toes.
When you do the knowledge to this "Fish" situation, this sequel to Fishscale plays just like the Hollywood big budget sequels - instead of giving the people more of what made the first flick work, they come back with some extra ingredients, new characters, and a host of boring/unoriginal premises to waste our money on. This CD seems like a glorified EP as opposed to a complete album, which is essentially not how it wis being marketed at all. Def Jam wants to make a buck off of the fans that have stuck by Ghost ever since Ironman, but they are going about it the wrong way: give us more Ghost, less filler or just keep the quality Ghost tracks on the backburner until his next album.
rock the dub gives More Fish a 7 stars out of 10. While the quality Ghostface tracks shine as bright as ever, the overabundance of Theodore Unit tracks knocks off a few points.
Ghostface's "More Fish" drops in stores on December 12th, 2006. Get more info at Ghost's official website, and on his MySpace page.
1 comment:
Very disappointing - I was hoping he would have had Theodore Unit at boot camp for a while.
Nice review tho
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