Fishscale - Ghostface Killah (2006)

Ideated from: a favorite album that starts with ‘F’. I was gonna go with Tom Petty’s Full Moon Fever but it just made this thread seem too skewed in the white-boys-with-guitars direction.

The Wu Tang Clan revolutionized what was possible, both in the music and the business of hip hop. But after a string of classic releases in the 90s, it was starting to seem a decade on like the various members were endlessly rehashing themselves. I had stopped listening to a lot of hip hop at the time, because it just seemed like there weren’t many interesting new ideas. I don’t know if rapping hard over driving soul-record-sampled grooves counts as a new idea, but Fishscale hits hard and was a great breath of fresh air.

Fishscale benefits from being produced by a roster of people not named RZA. J Dilla and MF DOOM, in particular, lend different sounds to the tracks than RZA offered on the classic Wu Tang records, even if they have a similar set of samples to work with.

Ghostface’s flow is relentless and inspired here, and there are some great features. It’s really a breakout from the Wu Tang sound and it succeeds on its own without all that.

Tracks I Liked

The Champ - a jump-around-and-break-stuff anthem

Big Girl - Even when the track itself is pleasant and laid-back, Ghostface sounds like he’s cranked to 11