As well as being a solo artist, Ghostface is a key member of the hip hop collective, the Wu-Tang Clan. He found his fame and started his career in the successful hip hop group, which consisted of seven members. The members all went solo following the success of the group, although Ghostface continued to collaborate with a lot of his former group. Ghostface’s first solo EP did not come about until 1996, four years after he found fame in the Wu-Tang clan. The EP was entitled ‘Ironman’ and debuted at the number two spot on the Billboard 200 chart, a brilliant achievement. The album possessed a distinctive soul style that would continue to feature on many of Ghostface’s songs.
Ghostface Killah’s most critically acclaimed albums are his 2000 venture ‘Supreme Clientele’ and his 2006 album ‘Fishscale’. He is particularly well known for his distinctive musical style: he is praised for his loud, fast paced flow and his emotional free style rapping which often contains cryptic slang. He was honoured in 2006 by MTV when they placed him on their list of The Greatest MCs of All Time and again by the editors of About.com when he was placed on their list of the Top 50 MCs of Our Time.
Of all the members of the Wu-Tang Clan, Ghostface Killah has one of the most consistent records in terms of his solo output. Sure, you probably can’t quite put Ironman up there with GZA’s Liquid Swords or Raekwon’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx..., but then again, Ghost has yet to make anything quite as bad as, say, Immobilarity either. Instead, he’s turned out fine record after fine record, including recent efforts like Apollo Kids and the thematically-complex Twelve Reasons to Die. As usual, he’s found himself spending this summer on the road in Europe, having just played a slew of UK club shows. He passed up the opportunity to preview new cuts from the forthcoming Supreme Clientele 2: Blue & Cream LP - or indeed anything from Wu-Block 2, the second instalment in his collaboration with Sheek Louch, who was in attendance - but did run through the classics, including ‘Daytona 500’ and ‘Winter Warz’ from his own back catalogue as well as Wu classics ‘Protect Ya Neck’ and ‘Can It Be All So Simple’. He threw a few of his bandmates’ choice cuts in, too - GZA’s ‘4th Chamber’ included - and invited audience members to join him onstage to fill in for Method Man and ODB. He probably doesn’t deliver the slickest stage show in hip hop, but whether that’s necessary when a true legend is playing intimate venues is highly questionable anyway.