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The Pretty Toney Album by Ghostface Killah
Usually viewed as a return to form following the polished Bulletproof Wallets - which, surprise surprise, I actually think is great - this is nonetheless still generally considered to sit at least a rung below his three widely regarded masterpieces, though I'd probably but it on equal footing with Ironman on a good day. It's the album that leans most heavily into his well-documented love of '70s soul, whilst also sounding like a document of a very particular brand of post-9/11 New York shiny street shit, in line with the type of stuff that Dipset and D-Block were doing around the same time. There is some filler, but the highs are irresistible: 'Biscuits' has a heavyweight swing to it, and features Ghost in pure madman gangster-savant mode; 'Save Me Dear' features some of his best storytelling ("every time she said, 'I love you', I said, 'no backsies'") over warm Philly soul; 'Tush' with Missy Elliott is unabashed crossover-attempt vulgarity, but has a playful energy that's impossible to deny; 'Holla' might be my favourite Ghost song, a total dry-run for Fishscale's best moments that remains endlessly quotable ("we don't need no diamond rings, all we need is a drum, like, 'fuck it, he can rhyme, I'll sing'"; "I'mma show y'all crooks, this is legit rap, IRS can suck my books"; "all my boots hang over the telephone wires on Broad"; "Toney got insurance on his mic, smoke mad shit and still got endurance when he fight"; "like a angry crippled man, don't push me"); 'Run' features a great RZA beat, one of Ghost's most vivid, breathless, paranoid performances, and potentially the most memorable hook of his career ("RUN, fuck that, RUN, cops got GUNS", which is obviously still very wise advice) - this thing isn't short of highlights, basically. Even the skits don't outstay their welcome, actually expanding on Ghost's comic universe, and nothing here comes close to being a failure. It's a coherent record that often proves why Ghostface is one of the most respected and dinstinctive rappers to ever touch mic, and it probably deserves to be thought of more fondly than it is. It's weird to think that he was considered mainstream-adjacent at this point, given how wired and oblique much of the rapping is here, but it's sonically welcoming and makes perfect sense for his Def Jam debut. (That Def Jam run is a sorely underrated era in his career - Apollo Kids, despite its flaws, remains the last album where it felt like his heart was truly in it, I'd say - but that's a tale for another time.)
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