Source: Johnny Nunez / Getty
One of the greatest MCs ever is making sure the newbies do the math. Ghostface Killah is challenging the new generation to do right by the culture.
As spotted on Vulture, the Staten Island legend recently conducted an interview with New York Magazine-run pop culture website. In it, he discusses his lengthy career from his favorite verse (“Impossible” off Wu-Tang Forever) to his favorite pair of Wallabees (“When it comes to Clarks, you got to have a crispy pair, an all-suede crispy pair. You can’t really, really, really go wrong, just as long as the sole is gummy. A gummy sole.”).
He also discusses his approach to the unique lyricism on the seminal Supreme Clientele.
“When I was rhyming on “Nutmeg” and “One” on Supreme Clientele, I made a style that I couldn’t even tell what it was. I just wanted to use some words that sounded good with each other and everybody’s trying to decipher what I mean when, really, I don’t even know what it means because I had no beat,” Toney Starks explained.
“But something said, ‘Make a record. Write a verse real quick just putting words together, whether they mean something or not. Just put them together.’ That’s what I did with “Nutmeg” and “One.” But it was “Nutmeg” that set it off.”
He also revealed that he appreciates some of the newer rappers but he definitely made it clear that some have to do their research.
“I’m all for these young Black kids getting money and doing what they do, but musically, I think that becoming a rapper now, you should know the history, know now who the Spoonie Gees and Sugarhill Gangs was, the Wu-Tangs and the Biggies, all that,” he said. “Grand Puba, all these guys. You need to know these people. You got to add to that. We got bodies of work. Mobb Deep, Nas, Wu-Tang, Jay-Z, we got bodies of work.”
You can read the interview in full here.
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Photo: Getty
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