Ghostface Killah - Twelve Reasons To Die II

ADRIAN YOUNGE PRESENTS TWELVE REASONS TO DIE II STARRING GHOSTFACE KILLAH
I kept seeing this cover everywhere on the interweb. It's obviously a homage to 70s Italian Giallo film posters and it got me intrigued so much so that I coughed up the dough to see what Ghostface Killah is up to now, plus I heard it was pretty good. The last Wu Tang Clan related release I bought was his very own Ironman from 1996 (can you believe that's 19 years ago?). I did have taped copies of Wu Tang Clan's The W and Iron Flag and those tapes were ok but they were nowhere near the magnificence of Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) from 93 and the classic run of solo LPs from 94 to 96: Method Man's Tical, Ol' Dirty Bastard's Return To The 36 Chambers, Chef Raekwon's Only Built For Cuban Lynx, Genius/GZA's Liquid Swords & the aforementioned Ghostface classic Ironman. Apparently Ghostface Killah recorded several other post-Ironman classics (during my rap blackspot era) such as Supreme Clientele (2000), Fishscale (2006) and the first volume of Twelve Reasons To Die (2013) amongst others.

I'm used to listening to modern hip-hop with its crisp drum machines, synth keys, electronic bass and general digital textures so it's weird to hear an album like this. When I first heard 12 Reasons To Die II I thought it was deep crate digging at its finest (Ala Paul's Boutique or Entroducing) with samples of Turkish psych bass lines, Allessandroni fuzz, old funk beats from obscure 45s, strange Euro easy listening, divas from Morricone/Nicolai soundtracks, scratchy dub singles, trippy Moog sounds from library records etc. So I thought it was a sampladelic record, but on about the 3rd listen when I started listening closely, it all seemed a bit too smooth and cohesive. Upon further investigation it was revealed that the backing tracks are actually all live instrumentation (I think) from retro arranger extraordinaire Adrian Younge. So Younge has replicated a sample laden hip hop album by playing all the instruments instead of sampling them. I'm not sure if there's a point to this strategy apart from the reactions 'Wow that's quite an effort!', 'Gee These are Strange days indeed!' or 'Is he following the kind of manifesto put forth by Daft Punk on Random Access Memories, whatever that was?' Anyway Adrain Younge seems to have swallowed a cool 70s pill. Several layers of retromania are at play here. Firstly we are put it in a mid 90s Wu zone with the propulsive and intense rapping of Ghostface Killah and his chums Raekwon & RZA and the return of the Tony Starks pseudonym who originally appeared on the brilliant Only Built For Cuban Linx LP. Secondly Younge's backing trax have a Finders Keepers/Lo Recordings/Now Again etc. vibe which is both 70s and post-millennial as most of us never heard this sort of shit until it got extensively reissued in the last 20 years by the likes of these and many other record labels. Thirdly it's a live instrument recording produced by a one man producer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist harking back to the days when Stevie Wonder did this kind of thing. I'm not really sure what to make of these observations. It is what it is I suppose.

Anyway when Ghostface Killah's voice appears it's like an old friend showing up like nothing's changed since the mid 90s. Raekwon is a welcome feature on five of these tunes and RZA pops up on a handful of trax too. Twelve Reasons To Die II runs at half the time of Ironman and this leaves you wanting more. Which is better than wishing a quality control editor had been employed to get rid of the filler to keep the LP more concise. I'm not really into comic books and I'm not a 100% sure what he's on about on every track but it sounds so good, what does it matter? It all adds to the Wu mystique and there are no bad tunes here. Who'd have thought Ghostface Killah would be making one of the best hip hop albums of 2015? Dunno, but he has.

Rap Mixtapes - Influx Inertia

They were counting down the days by the second at Datpiff for the release of Luca Brasi 2 by Kevin Gates and I got caught up in the anticipation too. I think I ended up downloading it in the middle of the night. I mean I didn't set the alarm or anything, it just so happened I couldn't sleep. I was looking forward to it though. I still don't get why such quality releases are free. I guess it's hard to stop the pirates so why not? Some of these free mixtapes are for sale as well. In my list of best LPs/Mixtapes of 2014 sixteen of the thirty six were given away free via Datpiff, Live Mixtapes etc. They have become such quality documents I decided to put them along side the proper album releases. I think it was Lil Wayne who started the trend of making mixtapes of such high standard. He even used to say the accompanying mixtapes released around the same time as his proper LPs were better than the official releases.

I've still got around 20 mixtapes in my 'inbox of new mixtapes' playlist that I haven't had enough time to give proper listens to. They're just the recent 2014 ones I've downloaded. A stack more await downloading but it's starting to get ridiculous. Then there are the recommended classic mixtapes as well from like the past 15 years or so. I only got into this scene in the last few years so I've got a bit of catching up to do. I went off hip-hop post Ironman for some reason. I love Ironman so it was probably Wu Tang Forever that stopped me in my rap tracks.

It's starting to get a bit like DJs who I used to see in the specialist dance record shops in the 90s who'd play 20 seconds of a track and have to decide yay or nay, right then and there. I used to think they must miss heaps of good shit especially in the hardcore/jungle scene where the best bits might not happen until 2 or 3 minutes in. Anyway I've had to say nay to Salva, Blanco Huslah Kokane and Og Maco recently so they've been deleted. They may have grown on me but I feel I have to be ruthless. I've said Yay to Kevin Gates Luca Brasi 2, Travi$ Scott's Days Before Rodeo, Zuse's Illegal Immigrant, King Louie's Soprano and YP Spoelstra's Heat Vol 3. Those five artists have good track records though. So once they get the yay they have to await proper evaluation at a later date. Then we've got "the I dunno?" category which is kind of a purgatory for mixtapes. Starlito's Theories, WhoKid Woody's R.E.A.L, Archive Nation a compilation hosted by Lil Silk, AD's Comptonfornia 2 and Dej Loaf's Sell Sole all sound alright but they have to wait until their time comes after the Yays have had their proper listening time. By the time I get around to "the I dunnos" though a whole new batch of mixtapes will be vying for my attention as well as proper rap releases (like Starlito's Black Sheep Don't Grin which sounds pretty good!) and non rap zone releases (The Moon Wiring Club parcel finally arrived). So they may not get a second chance. Hey they are just the ones I've given a go! Still waiting in the wings we've got Archibald Slim, Cheif Keef, Boogie, Future, Sauce Twinz, The Guys, Goldlink, YG, Lil Herb, A$AP Ferg and the list goes on and on some more.

As good as Bullet?

So I can't even give proper reviews to Kevin Gates (sounds good so far, a bit of a cleaner sound but I dunno if it's up there with his past 3 classics: The Luca Brasi Story, Stranger Than Fiction or By Any Means. I mean that's a pretty hard task right there innit?) or Zuse (I don't know if it's as good as Bullet yet). I have finally given King Louie's Soprano a good listen and can say it's the goods. More like a trad rap companion to the more futuristic Tony. That's as deep as I can go at this point.

More good shit from King Louie.

It all reminds me a bit of that story (Sartre maybe?) of the guy who decided to read an entire library but by the time he died he was only up to the authors beginning with the letter E or something like that. This is just a microcosm of the information overload age. I have other interests too (er..well other types of music obviously, footy, wildlife documentaries, philosophy &....well that's about it really) but....

Swamped, inundated, overwhelmed!