3/5
Ghostface Killah, a king among proto-emcees, delivers a mishmash of remixes and classics on GhostDeini The Great, a hip-hop head’s timely stocking stuffer.
GhostDeini opens with new track ‘Slept on Tony,’ a lyrical compilation of Ghost’s history, spliced with superhero fantasies: ‘Playboy industrialist/ Face of a ghost/ Mind of a technologist/ Modern-day speech slang therapist/ Specialize in weapons/ I can blow up terrorists.’ The fierce verbal battery is accompanied by a brass tour-de-force ‘mdash;’ fused with old-school percussion and subtle tambourine. It’s a brilliant, albeit fantastically short, introduction. Standing at only 2:31, we’re left drooling for more.
Instead, we get a series of rehashed junk, all but starting with ‘Run’ (now with Lil Wayne, Raekwon and Freeway), which serves as more of an extension than an official remix. The tracks that follow similarly tweak their original version’s eclectic madness, and we have to wonder if the Killah’s really lost his touch for good, or if he’s just plain lazy. Production on every ‘remixed’ track is unchanged ‘mdash; apart from ‘The Champ,’ in which Just Blaze (gasp!) removes spoken dialogue during the chorus.
Such so-called ‘remixes’ only go so far as to slop on lyrical additions by equally over-relaxed emcees. Ice Cube’s evidently rushed and rehashed contribution to Fishscale’s ‘Be Easy’ is a nauseating tribute to his middle-age endeavors (‘I got a movie fo’ yo kids/ A dick fo’ yo bitch/ A .45 slug fo’ yo wiz’).
From legendary Supreme Clientele to Fishscale, you’ve heard it all before. But for reassurance, the album ends on new track ‘Ghostface Xmas,’ a bizarre song that gives ‘Carol of the Bells’ a Wu-facelift as Ghost raps about the holidays with his trademark gangsta-amped delivery: ‘Snowflakes, cinnamon cakes/ Sisters and brothers slide down with garbage can covers/ No more fights/ Eggnog slashed with Hennessey/ But Christmas is Christmas from New York to Tennessee.’ Touching, really.
GhostDeini collects too little of the new and too much of the old ‘mdash; so if you’re craving that Ghostface fix, you’re better off reaching for the stack of classics in your closet. Or better yet, just grab 36 Chambers and get right to the grit of it.