In a genre full of rappers embracing their inner comic book character, Ghostface, AKA Ironman, is a one-of-one.
One of the many acronyms for Wu-Tang Clan is “Witty Unpredictable Talent And Natural Game.” Ghostface Killah, who turns 50 today, personifies that mantra. Even as one-ninth of a group full of indelible personalities, the man born Dennis Coles is an outlier.
He wore a mask during the crew’s initial run (while on the run from “doin’ dirt”), and fulfilled fan intrigue as the first verse we heard on the Clan’s iconic 36 Chambers album:
Ghostface catch the blast of a hype verse
My Glock burst, leave in a hearse, I did worse
From that gripping couplet, he was off to the races on crafting a catalog full of cinematic stories, trials of love and loss, and bafflingly brilliant nonsequiturs like “elbows unique now meet the new me” from Supreme Clientele’s “Buck 50.” In a genre full of rappers embracing their inner comic book character, Ghostface Killah, AKA Tony Starks, is a one-of-one. From RZA’s Wu-Tang Manual recollection of him warding off four men wrapped around his arms during a ‘90’s concert fight to his wardrobe of flowing robes, two-tone wallabees and iconic jewelry pieces, he’s inimitable — even to a genre of underground MCs baring his sonic DNA.
The Wu-Tang Clan’s unlikely conception is underscored by the Wu-Tang: An American Saga’s revelation that he and his partner-in-rhyme Raekwon (of Park Hill projects) were once enemies at opposite sides of a drug beef during the tumultuous ‘80s and early ‘90s. Wu-Tang founder RZA has said that the two initially met to make music with guns drawn, but tensions cooled as Rae and Ghost realized how much they had in common.
Hip-hop heads every day should rejoice that they did, as they’re undoubtedly a top-tier duo in hip-hop history. Ghost showed out all over 36 Chambers, but it was as the “guest star” on the iconic Only Built 4 Cuban Linx where he began to find his voice. The album is revered as a soulful suite of Shaolin Scarface narratives cloaked in cryptic slang and five-percenter ideology that’s intentionally exclusive (hence the title).
