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RZA returns to the 'Chamber'

Hollywood Reporter - Found Jun. 25, 2009
... said the hip-hop impresario, who executive produced the June 30 set that features Clan members Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck and U-God...
RZA Returns To The 'Chamber' - Billboard
RZA Returns To The 'Chamber' - Billboard
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Hollywood Reporter

Posted on June 25, 2009, 11:51 am

Ghostface Killah Australian Tour

Faster Louder - Found Jun. 21, 2009
When you get a new Ghostface Killah album, the only reasonable reaction is to get lost in it, said the New York Times of Ghosts last full studio

Posted on June 21, 2009, 8:09 am

Photos: Ghostface Killah mows us down at WTF Club

Shanghaiist - Found Jun. 15, 2009
Ghostface Killah rocked out Wu-Tang style in Shanghai last Sunday night, June 14 at the WTF Club in Red Town (which some of you may have known as ...

Posted on June 15, 2009, 4:30 am

Ghostface Killah aka Dennis Rides Into Town

Moscow Times - Found Jun. 9, 2009
Especially if our new identities were anything like Ghostface Killah.

Posted on June 9, 2009, 3:02 am

Ghostface Killah Live at Metros!

Inthemix.com.au - Found Jun. 22, 2009
Live from Staten Island, New York comes Ghostface Killah? As well as been a successful solo rapper he is also a member of the smash hit hip...

Posted on June 22, 2009, 11:41 am

BMI Sues Ludlow Venue Pianos

Village Voice - Found 4 hours ago
... term 'punk' Gary Indiana Gary Shteyngart Gavin McInnes gay panic Gay Talese genre get well Ghostface Killah Ghostland Observatory Gil Scott...

Posted on July 4, 2009, 6:58 am

And The Bands Played On!

Vineyard Gazette - Found Jul. 3, 2009
The summer lineup includes national headliners like Barrington Levy, Average White Band and Method Man, Redman and Ghostface Killah.

Posted on July 3, 2009, 9:27 am

"Not Like Other Guys": Rob Sheffield Remembers Michael Jackson

Rolling Stone - Found Jun. 26, 2009
... the J5 hits, from Naughty By Nature's 'OPP' and Kris Kross's 'Jump' to Jay-Z's 'Izzo (H.O.V.A.)' and Ghostface Killah's 'All That I Got Is You...

Posted on June 26, 2009, 4:11 am

To Infinity and Beyond! N.A.S.A. & Fatlip's Bizarre Adventure 2 ...

Filter - Found Jun. 27, 2009
Frusciante, Fatlip, Karen O, George Clinton, Ol? Dirty Bastard, Tom Waits, Kanye West, M.I.A. and Ghostface Killah (and believe me, I could...

Posted on June 27, 2009, 3:35 am

Wu-Tang Battle E Street Band in Ultimate Fantasy Baseball Game

Rolling Stone - Found Jun. 25, 2009
A few questions, though: who decided to put Ghostface Killah so late in the batting order? He has the potential to be a power hitter.

Posted on June 25, 2009, 2:03 am

Ghostface Killah Biography

Ghostface Killah
extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

Ghostface Killah

Background information
Birth name Dennis Coles
Born May 9, 1970 (1970-05-09) (age 39)
Origin Staten Island, New York, United States
Genre(s) Hip hop
Years active 1991–present
Label(s) Razor Sharp, Epic, Starks Enterprises, Def Jam
Associated acts Wu-Tang Clan, Theodore Unit
Website Ghostface's official site

Dennis Coles (born May 9, 1970),1 better known by his stage name Ghostface Killah, is an American rapper and member of the Wu-Tang Clan. After the group achieved breakthrough success in the aftermath of Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) , the members went on to pursue solo careers to varying levels of success. Ghostface Killah debuted his solo-career with Ironman, which was well received by music critics. He would continue his career, creating additional award-winning albums over the following years such as Supreme Clientele, Fishscale, and The Big Doe Rehab. Ghostface is currently working on his next solo album, along with a new Wu-Tang Clan album.

Ghostface Killah is known for his unique, dynamic stylecitation needed. He has a high-pitched, edgy flow, that manages to blend in, but still "stick out". Along with Raekwon, Ghostface is famous for telling stories in his songs. He rarely pauses, rapping in a quick, excited stream-of-conciousness style unique to him.

Ghostface Killah took his name from one of the characters in the 1979 kung fu film Mystery of Chessboxing. Ghostface Killah is known for wearing oversized chains, bracelets, and other forms of jewelry.

Contents

Early years

Ghostface Killah was raised in the Stapleton housing projects in Staten Island, New York. In his autobiographical song "All That I Got Is You", Ghost tells the story of his childhood. He raps about how he grew up in a three bedroom apartment without his father, who left him at the age of six.

Career

He debuted with the rest of the Wu-Tang Clan on their critically acclaimed debut, 1993's Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). A roommate of Wu-Tang founder The RZA, Ghostface helped bring together the other seven members, and would function as executive producer on all the Wu-Tang Clan releases.

In 1995, Ghostface guest-starred extensively on fellow Clan member Raekwon's debut album, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx..., appearing on almost every song. He also contributed songs to the Sunset Park and Don't Be A Menace To South Central While Drinking Your Juice In The Hood soundtracks, which would be included on his first solo LP, Ironman, in 1996. The album, which debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200, had a more pronounced soul influence (particularly 1970s soul) than previous Wu-Tang releases, and Ghostface's future albums would continue to feature this stylistic trait.

Ghostface became well-known for both his up-tempo, stream-of-consciousness rap and, later in his career, for his emotionally charged raps and his smooth constant flow. In 1996, he discovered that he was diabetic, a condition that would weaken his health. According to "Trials of Life", a 2007 song with fellow New York rapper Prodigy (himself a sickle-cell anemic), Ghostface assumed he had been stricken by a sexually transmitted disease until he received the diabetes diagnosis. This assumption was brought on by his rapid weight loss and that he had "hit it raw aplenty."2

He would return in 2000 with his follow-up to Ironman, Supreme Clientele. It was very well-received by critics. It was placed #2 on Hip Hop Connection's list of "The 100 Greatest Rap Albums 1995-2005". It had "Apollo Kids", a popular single which featured Raekwon and had a sample of "Cool Breeze" by Solomon Burke; "Cherchez LaGhost", another single off the album, became a minor club-style hit. It also notably had the sentimental "Child's Play" brought numerous comparisons to Slick Rick. Supreme Clientele would be a turning point in RZA's influence on his sound, as only four songs are produced by the RZA, compared to Iron Man, its predecessor where every song but one is produced by him.

Ghostface wasted little time in recording his next album, the heavily R&B-influenced Bulletproof Wallets, released a year after Supreme Clientele. He had another minor club hit with "Flowers", which featured guest vocals from fellow Wu-Tang members Method Man and Raekwon, and a popular single "Ghost Showers" which featured Madame Majestic, who also sung on the popular Wu-Tang track "Gravel Pit". It was well received, but never really matched its predecessor in popularity or reknown.

Def Jam

In 2003, Ghostface signed with Def Jam Records. After temporarily dropping "Killah" from his stage name, Ghostface released The Pretty Toney Album in April 2004. The album, while containing two RZA productions, featured none of the Clan; instead, it featured collaborations with Missy Elliott, D-Block and Jacki-O. The singles "Tush" and "Run", the collaborations with Missy and Jadakiss respectively, achieved moderate success in the clubs and charts, and the album was featured on numerous "best of the year" lists, including number nine on Pitchfork Media's.3 Ghostface also appeared on the track "On My Knees" by UK R&B group The 411, which became a hit in the UK and Australia, and released an album titled 718 (after the Staten Island area code) with a group of his protégés, the Theodore Unit. In November 2005, Ghostface and Theodore Unit's breakout star Trife Da God released a joint project, Put It On The Line.

Ghost at the Virgin Festival in 2007.

In 2006, Ghostface teamed up with underground artist MF Doom for a still unreleased album entitled Swift & Changeable. MF Doom also produced several songs for Ghostface's 2006 album Fishscale, which was once again attributed to "Ghostface Killah". The album debuted strongly, in the #4 position on the U.S. Billboard 200 and at #2 on the R&B charts,4 the rapper's most auspicious chart showing since the heyday of the Wu-Tang Clan and the release of his solo debut. The album also nearly unanimously received positive reviews. Ghostface embarked on a limited-date tour of US venues in support of the album, performing several of his concerts together with most members of the Wu-Tang Clan.

He has worked with 4Cast to produce his own action figure.5 In December 2007 Ghostface appeared on Spinner.com's comedy show The DL [1] to do a holiday commercial for his action figure.[2]

On December 4, 2007, Ghostface released his seventh solo studio album, The Big Doe Rehab.

In a May 2008 interview, Ghostface Killah said that his next project is going to be an R&B-inspired album. It is going to be in the vein of the tracks he has done before with such artists as Ne-Yo and Jodeci. 67 In March 2009, Ghostface recorded a song called "Message from Ghostface" dedicated to women who were abused in relationships, especially to Rihanna who, a month earlier, was allegedly abused by Chris Brown.

Raekwon, in a May 2009 interview with Rolling Stone indicated that Ghostface Killah is preparing to release a new album. In response to a question asking if the Wu Tang Clan are going to release a follow up to 8 Diagrams, Raekwon stated "Everybody's doing different things right now — you got Meth [Method Man] coming out with an album, you got Ghostface coming out with an album, some guys working on their projects, some guys getting into the film world, everybody is multi-tasking right now."8

Aliases

Ghostface Killah, like most members of the Wu-Tang clan, rapped under several personae, each with their own name, mythology and influences. Some recurring aliases:

  • Ghostface Killah (occasionally spelled Ghostface Killer, Ghost Face Killah, or abbreviated GFK)
  • Ghostface
His shortened stage name during the The Pretty Toney Album era. 910
  • Ghost Deini 11
  • Ironman, Tony Starks, or just Starks
Ghostface has frequently assumed the persona of both Ironman and Tony Stark, a reference to the Marvel Comics character Iron Man and his true identity, millionaire industrialist Tony Stark (note the variant spellings). He released a 1996 album titled Ironman and has drawn deeply on the Iron Man mythology. His song, "Slept On Tony With Dirt," appears in the 2008 film, and he even appears in a deleted scene on the DVD. 12
  • Starky Love 13
  • Pretty Toney, P Tone14

Controversy

RZA

In talking about 8 Diagrams, Ghost went on the record to say that RZA's music "wasn't sounding like how it was when we first came in." 15 He joined Raekwon in saying that the RZA wasn't producing the type of music that he wanted. 8 Diagrams was also set to release on the same day as The Big Doe Rehab which prompted RZA to push back the release date of the Wu-Tang Clan album. Raekwon also expressed an idea that he and the other Clan members would release an album with another producer. However, it is not certain which, if any, of the Clan members have agreed to this.

Discography

Solo albums

Compilations

Filmography

Movie appearances

TV series appearances

Video game appearances

References

  1. ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Ghostface Killah - Biography". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&searchlink=&sql=11:djfqxqegldfe~T1. Retrieved on 2009-01-03. 
  2. ^ Ghostface & Prodigy "Trials Of Life", accessed on March 21, 2007.
  3. ^ "MMTV 2004: The 50 Best Albums", Pitchfork Media, accessed on April 30, 2006.
  4. ^ Ghostface Killah Billboard chart history
  5. ^ GFK Doll
  6. ^ http://nahright.com/news/2008/08/05/angela-yee-speaks-to-ghostface-raekwon/#more-6652
  7. ^ http://www.zshare.net/audio/16564278512b2daf/
  8. ^ http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2009/05/14/raekwon-talks-cuban-linx-ii-return-of-the-wu-tang-clan/
  9. ^ Allmusic review of The Pretty Toney Album: "The Pretty Toney Album [is] the rapper's first under the just-Ghostface moniker"
  10. ^ Onion AV Club interview: "The Pretty Toney Album was credited to Ghostface, and Fishscale is credited to Ghostface Killah. What's the difference?"
  11. ^ "How the f--- was y'all n--- thinkin'? You think I fell off the ledge? / The legendary Ghost Deini might be dead?"
  12. ^ Introduction of Tony Starks in the song "Wu-Gambinos": the fifth verse is performed by Ghostface Killer, a.k.a. Tony Starks
  13. ^ Lyrics from "Ice Cream": "They call me Starky Love"
  14. ^ Ghostface Killah's TV.com page: "Alias Names: Ghostface, GFK, Pretty Toney, Tony Starks"
  15. ^ http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/47534-8-diagrams

External links