Clan connoisseurs will find comfort in “9 Milli Bros.,” a colossal posse cut featuring all of the Clansmen—including ODB and the return of Ghost’s longtime partner in rhyme Raekwon, who appears four times here as opposed to not at all last time around. The duo rekindles that classic Cuban Linx chemistry on the cocaine instructional “Kilo” and “R.A.G.U.,” an intense crime saga heightened by chilling strings and bells. Bullet-ridden narratives continue on the captivating “Shakey Dog,” where Ghost stages a botched heist over Lewis Parker’s horn-heavy Blaxploitation soundtrack with scene-setting detail: “Three fuckin’ maricones on the couch, watching Sanford & Son/Passing they rum, fried plantains and rice/Big rounds of onions on the T-bone steak/My stomach growling, Yo, I want some!”
Surprisingly, Ghost’s return to a darker sound doesn’t include the RZA. In his place is a crop of subterranean track masters. The most prominent being underground poster boy MF Doom, whose avant-garde replacement of Bobby Digital’s sonic grit is triumphant. Collaborating on five cuts, Ghost and Doom mesh like dust brothers from another. Metal Face’s hypnotic flutes and wave sound effects anchor “Underwater,” Tony’s bugged-out aquatic fantasy, complete with “mermaids with Halle Berry haircuts” and “SpongeBob in the Bentley coupé, banging the Isleys.” Their combined excellence continues on the acid-trip symphony “Charlie Brown” and the body-dropping “Clips of Doom,” a murder-gram ripe with piercing electric guitars and Ghost’s vivid violence: “Put two cutter mirrors replacing the eyes/So when the cops come they’ll see themselves, they all gonna die.”
Lightening up for a moment, Toney
turns his attention toward estrogen
for “Big Girl,” where the Pretty One
sweet-talks shorties with his
signature peculiarity. Later he
waxes parental atop J Dilla’s
subdued guitar lift on “Strap,” a
candid reflection about today’s
wayward parental discipline.
“Nowadays kids don’t get beat/They
get big treats, fresh pair of
sneaks/Punishments is like, Here,
have a seat.”
Unfortunately, Ghost Deini succumbs
to commercial pressure. Amid the
shadowy production scope of the
album, the love-gone-bad R&B number
“Back Like That” featuring Ne-Yo
feels out of place. Equally
confusing is the head-scratching “3
Bricks,” which awkwardly combines
Ghost and Rae with Notorious
B.I.G.’s “Somebody’s Gotta Die”
vocals. Produced by Cool & Dre, the
track seems better suited for
Biggie’s slapdash Duets.
With a few forced collaborations
being its only flaw, Fishscale
is Ghost’s most addictive dosage
post Supreme Clientele.
Packed with vivid street tales,
comic relief and straight spittin’,
the album continues his standard of
excellence. Now if only consistency
equaled power. If it did, Ghostface
would be king.
