Ghostface Killah & Adrian Younge – The Sure Shot Parts 1 & 2
{If you’re gonna pick this up on Record Store Day and you’re in LA, make sure to drop Adrian Younge’s store the Artform Studio. TONS of DJs will be doing there thing, in addition to the legendary RZA of the Wu Tang!!!}
We’ve gotten little bits of this album for the past month or two but this collaboration is finally out and it’s a marvel. Ghostface Killah and Adrian Younge combine for the most cinematic release of 2013. Conceived as a sort of origin story for Ghostface that finds him rising up through the ranks of an Italian crime family until he splits to build his own reputation. The family strikes back after Ghostface starts a romance with the Don’s daughter and they murder him (perhaps the first case of this) by boiling him alive in vinyl acetate. They then press his remains into records as a souvenir but lo and behold his spirit comes back when the needle drops on the records and his revenge begins. Just unbelievably awesome. I’m not sure I could have dreamed up this project any better than it came out in reality. Guaranteed to be in the top 10 of my faves for the year, might even end up at the top of the list.
From the performances in LA at the Mayan, it was clear they were making this an experience and the theatrics of those performances have found their way into the first full video from this album. I don’t know if they’ll film the entire album from start to finish, but boy do I wish they would, especially after the release of the video for “Rise Of The Ghostface Killah,” vintage Giallo + Ghostface + Several LA people as “extras” = Win! I have a feeling every Wu-Tang member will want their own origin story after this.