Ghostface Killah is a rapper who needs no introduction… apart from the one Ol’ Dirty Bastard gave him on Wu-Tang Clan track ‘Da Mystery of Chessboxin’. ‘No one could get iller,’ was the claim then, and it holds true now as Ghostface enters a new collaboration with Adrian Younge – a LA producer whose super-slick backing tracks hark back to hip hop’s mellower roots.
He’s joined by masked rapper Doom (formerly MF Doom), a Stones Throw alumnus, and Thom Yorke’s favourite MC, whose heavyweight raps over skittering-yet-soulful beats reference hip hop’s past at the same time as they point the way for its future. The US-born star will pick up extra points for dropping the Cockney rhyming slang he’s picked up since his recent move to London (FYI ‘Claire Rayners’ equals ‘trainers’).