Review:

on 2011-06-29 RutherfordMarsh Said:

From the opening seconds of "Nutmeg" onward Ghostface Killah ignites the mike with shockingly personal, half-insane, mind-boggling flow unmatched by anything in hip-hop before or since. His stream of consciousness approach has been called Joycean- under that comparison Supreme Clientele is the Ulysses of rap music. This is far less of an overstatement than it seems: Ghostface provides listeners with disorienting perspectives on everything from the Five-Percent Nation to the New York cocaine market, all under a shady noir-like atmosphere partly provided by the RZA's wonderful beats. Everyone knows that Ghostface is the spitfire of the Wu-Tang Clan, but on this 2000 release, recorded just after his release from prison, he redirects his free-associative aggression to an examination of the every-day aspects of underground crime- even his characteristic boasting sounds hearfelt and honest. When he raps "to my nigga Donny up there, can you please tell God that we fucked up here?" just after describing himself as "extraordinarily pro-black" on "Ghost Deini," we wintess an emotional complexity not seen in hip-hop since Nas' Illmatic. Of course the album features verses from most of the other members of the Clan, but Ghost dominates every track because of his honsesty. He is not afraid to expose his own abusrdity and hypocrisy, and he is not afriad to look uncool, a unique feature in gangster rap. By the time "Malcom" rolls around late in the album we are uncomfortably familiar with a sentimental, angry, paranoid and sometimes violent mind and the song brings the most gripping lyrical journey on the album. It's shocking that Ghostface maintains such energy throughout, and it may explain why he has never and probably will never top this masterpiece. 10/10
Rating: 10/10

Review:

on 2007-08-01 SunglassesAtNight Said:

Supreme Clientele is an 8
Rating: 8/10