The news about Ghostface Killah being one of the most reliable Wu-Warriors should have made it into every chat-room-protocol by now. That he’s additionally one of the best story tellers in rap music will surely get around quickly, too – thanks to »Twelve Reasons To Die«. Framed by twelve tracks, Ghost sketches out Tony Stark’s personal auditive vendetta against a mafia-clan. The very stringent songs serve as a first-class storyboard for a horror film, which could easily be adapted to the big screen. The concentration of content on his tenth LP show us GhostDeini’s talent as a story teller in an unforeseen cinematic density. Here’s an example: On »Enemies All Around Me«, Pretty Toney stages himself as a fuzzbox-initiated »Lonesome Rider« in hoody-style, framed by the bitter-sweet counter tenor of William Hart. However, the most exciting thing about »Twelve Reasons« is not the Wally Champ himself but Adrian Younge. The producer combines fragments of his psych-soul-works with the tough Bad-Boy-Bap from »36 Chambers« and thereby transmits an almost haptic Exploitation-story covered in dust. The sound that comes out distresses Toney’s lyrics of vengeance, but doesn’t crush them altogether. There are epic female choirs, slapping bass lines, dramatic instrumentation of strings and wind sections – and they all fluctuate on somewhat ironclad drum-breaks. Of course, they’re not applied to a normal beat, but rather used on top of Morriconesque soundscapes, which perfectly fit the sanguinary sequence-of-events-analyses done by Ghost and his Clan-colleagues. All that doesn’t turn »Twelve Reasons To Die« into a classic, but it’s definitely the most mandatory Wu-release in a long time.
Doechii
Alligator Bites Never Heal
Top Dawg Entertainment