Ghostface Killah’s “Twelve Reasons to Die”
With the natural and authentic collaboration between first time rap producer Adrian Younge and the legendary RZA who serves as executive producer, “Twelve Reasons to Die” easily lends itself to the top of your Ghostface collection, though not without its quirks, which take away a little bit from the overall experience.
Ghostface introduces his alias, Tony Starks, in an ode to the psychedelic soul sound that sets the atmosphere for the rest of the album.
Anyone familiar with the stylings of the Wu-Tang Clan will feel pleasantly surprised at the high-art feel of the production job with influences from old samurai movies and cowboy westerns.
Ghostface uses the collective experience of his real life encounters to splice truth and grit into this 1960s Italian crime family story.
“Rise of The Black Suits” echoes the soulful nostalgia of RZA. The soulful organs, guitar and bass lines, meant to be an ode to old Italian flicks, compliment the buildup of Tony Starks.
The release is also released with a comic that follows Tony Starks through his rise and fall and second coming.
The album as a whole is outrageously entertaining and best listened to in one sitting. Coming in at around 40 minutes, this is the perfect album to listen to on your commute home or when you are feeling like waking up your imagination.
Tracks like “Blood on the Cobblestone” and “The Sure Shot (Parts One & Two)” are infused with high octane energy that recreates the 60s psychedelic feel of carnage and chaos somehow conducted by the baton of the drums.
These tracks are contrasted with the low key and conniving tracks “Enemies All around Me” and “Murder Spree.” Younge does an excellent job here in producing the entire album to keep a gritty somber sound throughout the story.
This adds to the intensity and compliments the experimental style Ghostface is known for.
The album has a few weaknesses, like about a third of the lyrical effort coming from collaborations with other big names of the Golden Era and beyond, such as Masta Killa, Inspectah Deck and William Hart.
The album also has an overall rushed feeling that takes away from the otherwise entertaining album. It’s also hard to dismiss the fact that at 40 minutes the album itself seems better suited for an EP release rather than as a full album.
Overall, a well executed, concise album that exudes confidence and originality in itself, “Twelve Reasons to Die,” is short on words but comes twice as strong with content.
The addition of the comic is a novel idea and will appeal to diehards in addition to the smooth flowing and razor sharp wit of Ghostface, but casual listeners of hip hop might not appreciate the approach as much as fans.