Supreme Clientele (studio album) by Ghostface Killah

Pure poetry. Tongue in cheek boom bap brilliance. The scenery created here is so manifested, you can chew it.

A brilliantly produced album that has a lyricist at the top of his game but is let down by other factors on the record. Ghostface Killah really demonstrates himself as one of the greatest lyricist of the rap game on this record among several others. His words are just fantastic and every song is enjoyable to explore because of this. The music is extremely smooth as well with one song flowing into the next seamlessly. This makes the record feel very cohesive and keeps us in the atmosphere of the album perfectly. The vocal delivery is strong also and the features give stellar performances throughout. However, the record is just too long in my opinion and it really does drag on for the 1 hour 4 minute run time. While I am not sucked out of the album I do get bored of the filler and unessential tracks that we get as there is quite a lot of them. I do think some of the beats aren't great either and feel quite repetitive especially as you get closer to the close of the release. Overall, a hip hop album full of great moments but it isn't consistent enough and doesn't warrant the length it is.

I hope this is better than the ghost pepper beer I had.

From planetneutral 01/26/2021 01:08

First half might be the best half of any Wu album, but the second half doesn't really work that hard to maintain the momentum.

This album came out at a critical point, since the 1999 albums by GZA and especially Raekwon -maybe ODB could be included, too, but he 's always been in a league of his own- were viewed as a step back in comparison to their previous albums. Then came this. The production -considered the main reason the above mentioned albums failed to make an impression- is for the most part based on the well known and highly successful recipe, as RZA is once again the man in charge, but there are also other producers with meaningful contributions, my favorite being Wu Banga 101 -produced by Mathematics- and Saturday Nite -produced by Carlos "Six July" Broady. 64 minutes is kinda long-ish, but definitely listenable in particular by hip hop standards, the only problem is that it contains 21 tracks. I am not againist skits on general principle, quite the contrary actually, but in the context of this album I fail to see how they fit. They are too long and give you room to breathe and you aren't supposed to have that while listening to this. On the other hand, the intro and outro have to be among the greatest ever, it's one of the first things that comes to mind concerning this album, they do so much with so little, fantastic. Stroke of Death seems to be highly praised because of the whole scratching concept, but in all honesty I found it extremely annoying, one of the very few cases I couldn't make it through a song, I'd rather listen to the skits instead - no offence, I get it's creative and unique, I just can't stand it. Not much needs to be said about rapping, Ghostface Killah is on his typical form here. Many Wu members -sadly no ODB- make a guest appearance, even Masta Killa (yeah, somehow I have a soft spot for this guy), so nothing to complain about in that department. The lyrics deal with their usual themes - though you could argue he follows a more abstract and sophisticated approach ("Ayo, crash through, break the glass, Tony with the goalie mask That's the past, heavy ice Rollie laying on the dash Love the grass, cauliflower hurting when I dumped the trash Sour mash served in every glass up at the Wally Bash Sunsplash, autograph blessing with your name slashed Backdraft, four-pounders screaming with the pearly ash Children fix the contrast as the sound clashes Mrs. Dash, sprinkle with her icicle eyelash Ask Cappa Pendergrass for backstage passes") in comparison to his previous attempts-, plus there are some interesting twists, for example in Child's Play ("Those were the days, made faces in school plays Paper trays, city wide test, made half a days Shooting puppy water, might hump the pillow, dick a inch taller Stapleton bum nigga, I'll pop her cherry for her Fresh Air Fund, nail’s done, alphabets berets Jellies, bubble yum, soda tongue, too young to cum Then engage him with them candy rings a-yo, I hit that shit Got jealous when she kissed Rob I broke her Chick-O-Sticks").
To sum it up, a couple of disagreements, but deservedly rated as one of the greatest Wu related albums, ergo one of the greatest hip hop albums.

From junodog4 07/05/2018 01:51

My only complaint - there are too many skits between tracks. Otherwise, it's a stellar album by a lyricist on top of his game.

From Brad1770 12/16/2017 06:02

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A prime example of how Clan members managed to make fantastic music outside of the Clan. This is one record to get if you wanna have a look into their solo eork

Has me constantly thinking "you da man!", but for the sheer capacity for the absurd, rather than his capacity for bling and hoes. Strut your weird-ass stuff Ghostface! Strut it!

Hugely underrated album. One of the greatest hip-hop records ever made.