Ghostface Killah - Supreme Clientele

Even when I'm reading the lyrics, half the time I don't know what Ghostface is talking about. But that's okay, because he's almost completely in his own world with his unique and intricate rhyme schemes. Other rappers make heavy use of punchlines to mask holes in their verses, but Ghostface pretty much gives you 100% the entire time. There aren't a lot of very memorable hooks or standout beats on the album. It's just Killah rapping for about an hour minus skits which are really just recordings of people he knows talking and sound clips from old Iron Man cartoons, along with several guest appearances by other artists, mostly members of Wu-Tang Clan. GZA and Raekwon are the only ones that I think really stand up to Ghostface's flow and creativity, the rest are welcome but either have unexceptional lyrics or just aren't that good at rapping.

There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of point in calling out specific tracks. It's definitely not a situation where there are a few obvious singles and then some other songs to fill out the run time. Despite a bunch of different producers the sound is very consistent, and the goal was definitely to make a very good rap album instead of a few good rap songs. I guess a few of my favorites would have to be "Nutmeg", "One", "Apollo Kids", "Malcolm", and "Wu Banga 101". There's an interesting thing in a few tracks that don't last two minutes, but they're not little joke songs or anything, they're just regular raps that cut short faster than usual. It makes you wonder if they were unfinished and Ghostface liked them enough to keep them on the record but not enough to flesh them out. In any case, I liked Supreme Clientele well enough and I'm definitely interested in seeing what else Wu-Tang has to offer.