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Interview: Q&A

Ghostface Killah talks More Fish album, working with Dilla, faith & more

Ghostface Killah talks More Fish album, working with Dilla, faith and more

Just when you thought the pots, pans and all the dishes were cleaned-up and put away, Ghostface Killah has been cooking up seconds for everybody. Since you didn’t have enough, here’s More Fish, the follow-up to the already classic Fishscale.

Ghost delivers another strong reminder to what hip-hop music is really all about. By pushing the envelope of creativity, along with a masterful flow and hooking up some of the culture’s best producers, it is not hard to understand why Ghost consistently keeps putting out bombs.

While releasing two albums in one year is somewhat of an anomaly for Ghost, I can assure you this is not one of those weak, rush-jobs that are common to so many artists.

Features from Theodore Unit’s: Trife, Wigs and Ghostface’s son: Sun God, teamed up with production from Pete Rock, Madlib, MF Doom and Hi-Tek creates a true formula to remedy the “blahs” of whack hip-hop. Add Redman and Sheek Louch in there and you’re good to go.

Look for the track “GOOD,” featuring Trife, an up beat soul and street mix that has become somewhat of a signature of Ghost. When the cook asks you what you want? Tell ’em, MORE FISH.


Q&A: Ghostface Killah

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HipHopCanada: Who are some of the new artists that you are developing?

Ghostface Killah: I have to get people to know about what’s going on with the Theodore Unit. This is what I’m putting my energy and my time into and I feel everything is precious right now. I’ve got to talk about Trife, my son, Sun God, who’s on MORE FISH and Wigs.

HipHopCanada: Is there confusion between artists and the industry as to what hip-hop really is?

Ghostface Killah: Of course! A lot of these cats don’t know who started what and where it came from, so once you don’t know that, you are being blinded and lead down a road that’s false. The hip-hop that we know as far as brothers on the East coast, is dead! But to other brothers that are holding it down in other places, it’s fresh to them. I’ve been telling people, you got brothers that’s leaning with it and rocking with it and having fun with it. So is hip-hop fun? For us, we took hip-hop somewhere else; it was too angry. We ran ourselves out of it. Along with the bullshit DJ’s that were getting paid to spin shit. People have got to definitely understand what hip-hop is really about. It’s about true talent, creativity, and having fun. This is our culture, how we walk, dress, everything. For the moment it’s kind of twisted and hopefully we can unloose that knot.

HipHopCanada: A lot of artists that are out today are not challenging each other lyrically, would you agree?

Ghostface Killah: That’s because brothers don’t really know how to write lyrics. Anybody can write about guns and cars and drugs and women and all that stuff. Lyrically you really, really got to get into it. You got to study the old catalogs of the greats, Kool G Rap, Kane, Rakim, all the greats, and see how it was.

HipHopCanada: What are some of the elements these new emcees are lacking?

Ghostface Killah: The shit is creativity, niggas don’t know how to use their mind.

HipHopCanada: How did you hook-up with Dilla?

Ghostface Killah: I just heard his tracks and I liked them. I never hooked up with him, I just heard his tracks… Fell in love with a couple of them. I had my people get in touch with him and I just recorded his tracks and sent it to him and that was it. Me and him never really got to talk.

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HipHopCanada: How does your faith influence your music?

Ghostface Killah: I don’t really say a lot of stuff I used to say. I’m more cautious now; I got babies now. I’m on a righteous path. I don’t really like to talk about too many drugs, killing and all that stuff. I pray and ask the Father to forgive me because this is what I do to feed my kids right now. My mind is open spiritually. I understand my reason why I’m here on earth and I understand what’s going on. I know this is the last days and it’s only going to get rougher, not any easier. You got to watch out for the devil because the devil is always lurking. I’m not talking about a devil that’s underground with a pitchfork. I’m talking about negative people and things in your life. I just feel like I’ve got to be more cautious.

HipHopCanada: What is it about the 5% Nation that has allowed it to leave a legacy in hip-hop?

Ghostface Killah: It’s the truth, and the truth is like a magnetic field that people become attracted to. When we came in spitting that righteousness over wax, and our righteousness stories like C.R.E.A.M. and all that other stuff like that it was the truth. So people become accustomed to that. They are drawn in. They don’t have to know mathematics or any lessons or all that stuff like that. That’s why Wu-Tang is so big because the people were drawn into the truth. It was like a spark, it was like a light, we just shined over everybody’s heads. We just turned it on and people were just like OH SHIT! That’s just what it is!

HipHopCanada: Was there anyone in Wu-Tang that could have predicted the influence over such a large mass of people?

Ghostface Killah: No! We didn’t know we were going to do that. I knew we were going to come in and tear niggas down. I didn’t know that we were going to go through what we went through and had so many people that loved what we did. I knew that there was going to be people loving what we did but I didn’t know that it was going to be as big as it is. From here to Germany and all through Europe to China… it has been crazy. I knew we were going to come in and FUCK these rappers up. That’s what I thought we were going to do.

HipHopCanada: What were the factors that brought Wu-Tang and Ghostface together? Were you chosen, did you choose Wu-Tang, how did it all work?

Ghostface Killah: No, I came with the name. I kind of created the name, but Rza put it into a music form. We come from two different projects, Rza is originally from Brooklyn and I’m from Staten Island. At that time he was living in another project on Staten Island that was like a few minutes away from me. He used to come down and sell velour suits and all that stuff and he used to rhyme and shit. I met him through one of my cousins. We seen each other and I know what he did and I was hearing his tapes and he had some fly shit. So we connected and we started grinding and hustling together. Back in his own projects, he was making music with other guys up there like Islord, Raekwon, Method Man, U-God, Inspectah Deck, his cousin Genius, and his cousin Dirty; he already had a team of niggas. While he was in the other project doing that, I was with my niggas. Me and Rza watched karate flicks together, so I showed him Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang. He moved to my project after a while and that’s when we really got into some real other shit. He wanted to take the name Wu-Tang and put it into rap form. It took us around four year later for things to pop off like that. We put our money together and got the label Wu Tang Records. We went back to the hood to go get brothers that he was messing with before, and I went to my hood asked a few brothers if they want to come. Some brothers said no because there were too many members already. That’s what it was, and that’s what you got right now.

HipHopCanada: Is there a specific criterion that was necessary to be part of Wu-Tang?

Ghostface Killah: You had to be nice… you had to be real nice on the mic.

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HipHopCanada: Can you tell us about the doll that you have coming out?

Ghostface Killah: I had to send them back because they didn’t look like me at first. The dolls are going to be worth $500, real gold on them, a robe, Wallabee Clarks and some jewelry.

HipHopCanada: Sounds nice. Well thank you for your time.

Ghostface Killah: No problem. Thanks.

Ghostface Killah talks More Fish album, working with Dilla, faith and more


Interview conducted by JJ Campbell for HipHopCanada

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