For over 20 years, the Wu-Tang Clan has been one of the most dominant lyrical forces that hip hop has ever encountered. As a group and individually. You be hard pressed to find any new young MC that hasn't been influenced by one of the members or the whole group. While my favorite member of the group will always be Method Man, right behind him is my second favorite. Ghostface Killah. I always thought Ghostface was a stand out from the other members because of his unique voice and his lyrical story telling ability. Which is brilliantly displayed here on his 10th album Twelve Reasons To Die. Going into this I wondered how would he match his previous album Apollo Brown which I enjoyed. But man I did not expect this to totally surpass that album. This album is short was fantastic. Ghost brings to us a perfectly done narrative concept album telling a very deep and in depth horror/mafia story. Done like the vintage Italian horror films. Like I mentioned before Ghost has always been known as a great story teller and this album shows the proof. Before I break down everything I liked about this album here's the plot of the story. It takes place in Italy in the 1960's. Ghost plays his alter ego Tony Starks. An enforcer for the DeLuca crime family who after leaving and becoming big on his own, is set up and murdered by that same family. Then gets his revenge after resurrecting from the dead as the Ghostface Killah. Setting out on a killing spree after the girl that set him up and all twelve members of the DeLuca family. Very interesting plot right? Now on to my positives with this. First off the production. I honestly believe the real kudos for this album goes to Adrian Younge for the brilliant production he put together on this album. Though he's not a household name, his style of production was perfect for the story this album tells. A lot of dark, haunting, horror movie sounding beats with the eerie chimes and organs and all of that. Ghost knew what he was doing getting Younge for production as apposed to The RZA or somebody. Nothing against RZA but this album needed Younge. Outstanding production overall. Now as far as the tracks I didn't have any real issues with any of them. Maybe minor ones but I'll address that later. Since these songs are telling a story I'll go in order with the tracks. "Rise Of The Black Suits" is where he talks about his ties with the DeLuca family and why he ventured out on his own to become his own boss. "I Declare War" is where he is now a big time boss that has his own gang and plots war against the DeLuca family. "Blood On The Cobblestones" features U-God and Inspectah Deck and its here where a violent shoot out is being described. I'm assuming between the DeLuca's and Tony's new gang. "The Center Of Attraction" is where Tony meets this girl that he really loves and caters to. The track features Cappadonna who's character warns Tony that the girl shouldn't be trusted and was seen with the DeLuca's. Of course, Tony isn't buying it. Now the plot thickens. "An Unexpected Call (The Set Up)" is where shit starts to get crazy. Here he is lured into a car by the girl where laying in wait is the DeLuca's ready to kill Tony. They do. As it turns out, she was working for the DeLuca's the whole time. Inspectah Deck plays a member of Tony's gang explaining how he knew it all along and plans on putting a price on the girls head. This is where the album's mood changes as Ghostface Killah begins to rap with more anger and vengeance. "Rise Of The Ghostface Killah" is where Tony returns from the dead as Ghostface and has one thing on his mind...payback. "Revenge Is Sweet" and "Murder Spree" is where Ghost has now came after the DeLuca's along with his posse who are all featured on "Murder Spree". He describes killing them in the most brutal and torturous ways. Like mafia/mob style deaths. "The Sure Shot (Parts 1 & 2)" is where the dust has now settled. Ghost finds himself alone in a room thinking about all that has transpired. Losing his friends to shootouts, should he kill the girl that set him up as well as many other thoughts of regret and guilt. The album ends with "12 Reasons To Die" which is an eerie and haunting instrumental that perfectly ends the story. It's like the mafia music you hear during the end credits of a mafia movie. The RZA also gives a short closing narrative along with it (he did a good job of that throughout the whole album). My only negative with this album, which is nothing major is the track lengths. As great of a concept and a story as this was I would have liked to hear longer songs going further in depth with each scene. A lot of the songs are on average two and a half minutes long. I'm fine with it being 12 tracks because that sticks to the story but I wish a lot of these tracks wasn't so short. Overall, this album was nothing short of fantastic. A brilliantly done story telling concept album that made you feel like you were literally watching a movie. I give it a final grade of a A-. I'd have to put this third behind Supreme Clientele and Ironman. With Kendrick Lamar also dropping an album similar to this in concept, I hope this is a push for what may now come in hip hop. More album creativity. But for anyone that follows Ghostface Killah or the Wu-Tang Clan you know this is what he does and it's nothing new. Ghostface at his best. This is why he and the Wu-Tang Clan will forever be on the high tier of lyrical legends in hip hop. Mean time, I'd like to see this album turned into an actual film. Make it happen. End.
Final Grade: A-
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