Consumer Guide Album

Ghostface Killah: Supreme Clientele [Epic/Razor Sharp, 2000]
Last one was the great Ghostface album, which Wu fans didn't notice because they were up to their necks in mystical shit. Now that obscurantism is out of style again, his vocal clarity, verbal dexterity, and narrative facility push the collective pleasure button. They earn it, too--"One" is hookier and "Deck's Beat" funkier than anything on Ironman. Still, only "Child's Play"--kiddie nostalgia whose corny shtick Ghostface defeats with details that could come from a notebook--approaches the documentary coherence of "260," "Camay," or "All That I Got Is You." In effect, it's another Wu mood record. But this time the mood is all vocal clarity, verbal dexterity, and narrative facility. Plus perhaps the long hard look RZA took at Wu Wear's profit profile. A-