supreme clientele - c/d

It's maybe the best hip-hop album of the decade, though I prefer it on tape where they cut out the skits.

But a lot of the crazy one-liners ("I freak a lemon pie") go through my head at odd intervals and crack me up. Absolutely deserves its own thread.

Of the side projects, it does seem like Liquid Swords & Cuban Links get more props, but there's at least one Wu Tang album out there for just about everybody to cuddle up to. For me it's Bobby Digital. Really!

seriously - do you think that it's my understanding of the lyrics that's preventing me from loving this? or is there something else i need to grok?

it's not very wu-sounding - at least not compared to ironman

RZA produced nearly all of Ironman, but only a few tracks on SC.

-- Ronan (ronan.fitzgerald6NOSPA...) (webmail), August 18th, 2004 3:18 PM. (Ronan) (link)

YES.

the song is seriously sentimental but is made amazing by the extemely inventive and weird production and the wealth of bizarre/touching detail ("i broke her chico sticks"). but the greatest part of this album almost precedes meaning...whoever wrote about its impossible forward momentum had it right.

a few tracks have really busy production, a lot of shifts.

but mostly it's ghosts rhymes that make the whole thing exciting and a bit overwelming.

wtf I can't believe I never noticed that the second half of "Buck 50" is a straight cop of the beat from Biz's "The Dragon" before

There is not better Hip-Hop solo album.

no*

did anyone see the Spin interview with 50 Cent, where Tony Yayo claims that Superb ghostwrote this album? is this a rumor that's been around for a while that I've just never heard before?

considering that Ghost disses 50 on this record, I'd say that claim is highly suspect

here it is: http://imhiphop.blogspot.com/2007/07/tony-yayo-claims-ghostface-didnt-write.html

50 Cent is a goddamned moron

I dunno, I thought it was an entertaining interview, with 50 being pretty candid at times. I figured the beef with Ghostface might be part of the reason why 50 was so quick to dismiss his records, but Yayo's comments seemed to come out of nowhere, and I was just wondering if they had any sort of precedent.

ethan or deej probably know - me, I just get quickly irritated with 50's smug and ignorant "market value is the only value" schtick.

I mean he seems totally unaware that his time in the spotlight is likewise just about up, and that he has nothing to look forward to but declining market value from here on out.

actually Supreme has been claiming this himself for years but I think he's locked up or at least was for a time. I read an interview with him where he claimed he was responsible for the whole "rap is like zitti strawberry kiwi" style change Ghost had on SC...

supreme like 'preme the old QB gangster crack kingpin dude?

totally meant Superb....my bad

as in "I wrote this on on Donny's roof, after his funeral on one knee, thinkin his killer's followin me" Superb

more: http://metallungies.com/2007/07/as-if-metal-lungies-wasnt-going-to-comment-on-this/

Supreme - that's me

yes. that is the interview I'm talkin about.

that all sounds like sour-grapes bullshit to me, with Yayo chiming in just cuz he's an asshole and there's longstanding beef between 50 and Ghost .

I mean think about why he would wanna interject that into the interview at that moment, the writer is not-so-subtly insinuating that Ghost is a better/deeper/more creative rapper than 50, so Yayo (like a good little sideman) chimes in with some bullshit just to take Ghost down a notch.

i would be interested to know the inspiration for his sudden change circa SC tho ... it was a pretty big jump in style. And I do still think its the height of his recording career, tho I will stand up for the pre-gutting Bulletproof Wallets and Pretty Toney as being great records as well

Supreme Clientele was not a change in style at all. Only in production and quality. (Don't get me wrong; Ironman was CLASSIC, but SC is bananas.)

On a side note, I listened to BPW today, and HOLY FUCK. Ghost's verse on The Juks is totally Superb's style. I'm shocked. Listen to it again. I'm surprised I never noticed this...

ironman is still my favorite, but all his albums are pretty much good.

Supreme Clientele was not a change in style at all.

While I can't cosign this 100%, I definitely agree with the sentiment that if Ghost didn't write the record then whoever did was REAL good at imitating him.

HOOS what pre-SC ghostface have you heard that sounds like SC

he was not doing the same surreal wacky shit prior

Deej, do you not rate Ironman? It's just as good, imo.

he was not doing the same surreal wacky shit prior

-- deej, Thursday, July 26, 2007 11:34 PM

It was definitely a stylistic quantum leap, he wasn't using chains of signifiers to make (what were effectively) imagist verses before. But he was doing a sorta micro-imagist thing, using a couple lines to set up images vs. using the power of a whole verse to suggest one.

Obviously the flows from previous work are comprable, though they wouldn't be affected by ghostwriting or anything.

If you think he wasn't abstract before Supreme Clientele, check his verse from "Daytona 500".

Mercury raps is roughed then God just shown like taps
Red and white Wally's that match, bend my baseball hat
Doin forever shit, like pissin out the window on turnpikes
Robbin niggaz for leathers, like swipin on dirt bikes
Voice be metal like Von Harper, radio barber
Murder sleep away camp, the fly lady champ
The arsonist, who burn with his pen regardless
Slaying all these earthlings and fake foreigners
In the Phillipines, pick herbal beans, bubbling strings
Body chemical CREAM, we burn kerosene
The conviction of my tape is rape, wicked like Nixon
Long-heads inscriptions with three sixes in
Kiss the pyramid, experiment with high explosive
I slapbox with Jesus, lick shots at Joseph
Zoomin' like binoculars, the rap blacksmith
Money's Rolex was rockless, Chef ragtop is spotless
I'm Ironman, no cheap cash metal, I'm steel alloy
True identity hidden inside secret tabloids
Breathe oxygen, both sides of my jaw carry oxes
The track hit like kabangers, in hundred watt boxes
Yo jostling these cats while Little J be dallying
Sip Irish Moss, had a weed dalliance

We eat fish, tossed salads and make rap ballads
The biochemical slang, lord I throw the arrows
In the dope fiend, vocal chords switch laser beams
My triple sevens broke the slot machines out in Queens
Grey Poupon is rebel on rap, smack on
Swing like batons, most want niggas smoked like Hillshire Farms
Check the gun we sew, underneath my shoe lies the tap
That attract bow-legged bitches with wide horse gaps
In steel mills, Iron he'll smoke the blow on dunns
You run errands, Primatene mist is afraid of my lungs
Turn my channel, it'll blow your whole bench off the panel
Like 80 roman candles that backfired then slammed you
Every day is like a video shoot, check this shit
I take you back to Playboy, stash guns and whips
Picture afro picks, shish kabobs and dashikis
1000 civil marched raised their fists in early sixties

Picture afro picks, shish kabobs and dashikis
1000 civil marched raised their fists in early sixties

One of my favorite lines anywhere ever

Sho 'nuff, hit the bank and thrust
Wu-Nauticas, Jamie Summer got trained on the tour bus
We upgrade, swallow raw eggs, read the label
Hittin' white-label, left the Winnebago unstable
Smooth sailin', walked in, my earth started kneelin'
Start distillin', I'm too ill, see we're buildin'
At the bar, leg kicked up, mack, max motion
Michael Bolton magazine quote, I'm too potent
Louisville mix pain kill rap, fuck benadryl
The violin in 'Knowledge God' sounded ill
Tremendously obnoxious, no blotches
My telephone watch'll leave bartenders topless
Dead on the prosecutor, smack the juror
Me and my girl'll run like Luke and Laura
We sit back on Malayan isles
Sippin' mix drinks out of boat coconut bowls, we whylin'

You could do this like all day and I would be a happy hoos.

Naw, I think I've established my point.

I'm with The Reverend. Ghostface has always been abstract and free-form. He just took it up a notch on SC.

I don't see Superb writing any of those verses. I haven't heard anything from him on the level of SC. The Juks, on the other hand...

i'm not claiming superb wrote sc, i'm saying that lyrically, conceptually there was a huge leap from ironman's verses to SC's, and i wonder what caused it. He was nowhere near as animated on ironman or any of the early wu tracks as he would be on clientele, and his lyrics were abstract but not nearly as bizarre.

did he spend time in prison?

I'm not sure about prison, but he did spend time in Africa.

his lyrics were abstract but not nearly as bizarre.

I'll buy this.

Not my favorite Ghost -- for all Shakey's well-articulated defenses -- cuz its density rarely coheres for more than a couple songs at the time. I'm willing to admit that I'm the problem.

More and more Fishscale looks like the classic, although I listened to More Fish a few days ago and its best songs rip the shit out of Fishscale's.

We eat fish, tossed salads and make rap ballads

this is my favorite song of all time

Alfred WTF. I love Fishscale, but are you really going to claim it's better than Supreme Clientele AND Ironman AND The Pretty Toney Album?

these days, honestly, "Put It On the Line" is the one I listen to the most.

"daytona 500" >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> fishscale

Alfred WTF. I love Fishscale, but are you really going to claim it's better than Supreme Clientele AND Ironman AND The Pretty Toney Album?

Yes.

maybe you should rescreen those before you say that

Pretty Toney doesn't even come close to his first two albums. I like it but never understood why it's so exalted in some circles. There's a lot of filler. Ironman and SC are hip hop classics, front to back masterpeices.

I like that Pretty Toney is a deeply sentimental record. There is very much a "hard man having a breakdown cryin in the street" vibe to the whole thing. The tracks where he's just rapping over the entirety of old soul songs are great because they're so basic, its like listening to an old guy rhyme over whatever's on the radio. And a stunt like that has a funny combination of both laziness and bravado (as if he's saying "I don't even need a beat or a producer, I can make a great verse work over ANYTHING"), but they also fit his voice and the tenor of the verses in a great way, they feel personal, bare. Then there's the fantastic beat switch-up that opens the record, the unfuckwithable "Run", a great party/sex-rhymes jam ("Tush"), great back-n-forth on "Tooken Back", even the shout-out throwaway that closes the album is super-lush and, dare I say it, genuinely moving (his love for his "grouchy ass grandfather" always gets a smile from me).

Yo, you know I always love you, I never meant to hurt you
Even the stress'll work you, I miss your old perfume
Promise never curse you, I want you in my circle
Honey right by my side where I keep my herbals
We both agree on no more fighting, we'll just have a verbal
The man'll treat you like a queen, I will bird you
Mother and father birthed you, if I have to hit you
Then damn, I might as well leave, cuz I don't deserve you
Watch from you face, when you sleep, let the heat disturb you
Fiendin' from the magic wand, when she 'nique and serve you
Take me please, take me with ease
Take me back, God damn, and scrape marks on my knees
'Member the first time you made my key
You was drunk, you went behind a tree and pee'd
I miss shit like that, and all of the times
We played cops, I'll arrest you in bed
Police brutality, I'll leave the side of your ass red
God damn it, is sex for real girl? Girl, we in special ed
Uh-huh... fuck that, take me back, pretty please, with you on top

Pretty Toney is the Ghostface album with the most funny singsong hooks per square inch. This is key.

I think the sequencing on PT kind of ruins it for me. And "Push."

why do you hate fun

conceptually PT is consistent and interesting. Conceptually fishscale is all the fuck over the place

You could probably attribute Ghost's stylistic/conceptual shifts to his dust intake.

shakey dog is a fucking awesome song & up there with Ghost's best no doubt but there is no universe in which "Fishscale" can touch "Supreme Clientele"

Look at the Sun, so pretty today it's so bright and so smashin'
Blastin', helps out the grass and
Smile when its mornin' time, last night I wrote 3 rhymes
I woke up to the see the Sun shine and
God is my witness in scriptures and pictures
The Sunkist scrumptous, son its nutritious
It makes me wanna climb, take a bite out of shine
"This little light of mine, of mine, of mine"
Yo, the Sun could never be pussy, he always come out
He'll stand right there, even if you pull ya gun out
He can never run out, when the lights go out
It's Japan's turn now, the Earth had spun around
I see yellow and green, its a beautiful thing,
The sky is blue cuz the Sun hit the water like bling
A reflection (uh-huh), and thats all it is (word)
You can't stare at him long cuz your face will do like this

HHDX: While we’re clearing up old quotes, is there any truth to the old rumor made new again via Tony Yayo’s recent comments in Spin claiming Superb, of your pre-Icewater crew American Cream Team, wrote all of Supreme Clientele for Ghostface?

Raekwon: He know damn well he ain’t write that fuckin’ album. I don’t even wanna get into shit like that, because it just makes me upset that muthafuckas be running they mouth all kinda ways. But at the end of the day, I think Ghost gonna have to really say what he gotta say.

HHDX: Yeah, the only reason I asked you about this is ‘cause Superb came out of your crew.

Raekwon: Yeah, that’s my son. That’s my son, and trust me he ain’t write nobody’s fuckin’ album.
******************************************************

Good interview.

http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/features/id.822/title.raekwon-hells-kitchen/p.1

Thanks for that homie.

and trust i say homie in my daily speech muhfuckas, don't be scare quotin my homie and shit.

I see yellow and green, its a beautiful thing,
The sky is blue cuz the Sun hit the water like bling

My turn to go "THIZ IZ MY FAVOITRE LINE EVAZ!!!11"

conceptually PT is consistent and interesting. Conceptually fishscale is all the fuck over the place

This is true. You never did answer how you rate Ironman, Deej.

REV OTM LIKE BLING

Am I the only one who prefers the more coherent style Ghost has developed of late?
I mean, Supreme is fucking great, but I get overwhelemed by the never-ending-ness of it sometimes and just wanna hear something slightly more linear.
whadaya think?

dickin down oprah jumprope david dinkins
watch the black mayor of dc hit em open
tangerine sofa, two super soakers in the rover
hit the sports bar, tell a young lady to bend over

she agreed that i'm loony
but proceeded to moon me

no wait—