WAX TAILOR Ft. GHOSTFACE KILLAH - "Worldwide"

Damn this is a smooth track right here, really feeling this one - from Ghostface's vintage verses to the laid back beat, the Cuts and overall smooth hip hop vibe of it all. I don't know too much about Wax Tailor but i gather that he's a relatively new DJ / producer working on a long player called "By Any Means Necessary". I believe this is the first single from the project, and it certainly shows potential for the album (which drops October 14). Ghost comes through as always, so be sure to pump up that volume.

Ghostface / M.O.P. / Pharoahe Monch - "Black Out"

Another smash hit from RZA's "The Man With The Iron Fists" soundtrack is here. Four of my overall favorite emcee's on one track can hardly go wrong, and it's just about as hardcore as you'd expect. The O.S.T. is out on Soul Temple Records on October 23, and looks like a must have; but be informed that two completely different versions will be available, the actual movie score and the original soundtrack.

GHOSTFACE / M.O.P. / PHAROAHE MONCH - "BLACK OUT"

Wu-Block - "Stick Up Kids"

The hardest joint yet from the Wu-Block album is here! An unmastered demo version of "Stick Up Kids" (labeled as "Stick 'Em Up") was released about a week ago, which is proof of what an amazing difference proper mixing and studio tweaking will do. Sheek Louch, Ghostface and Jadakiss gets busy over a pounding 808 drum beat, old school style. The full album drops on October 9, which is something of a mystery considering that neither iTunes, Amazon or any of the other usual sites got it up for pre-order yet. You can purchase "Stick Up Kids" and the previous official single "Union Square" via iTunes though!

Now I'm off to see Cormega and Large Professor rip it with my man Big Rob! Have a great Friday y'all!

GFK / RAEKWON - "Bulletproof Wallets" [c7 Revisit]

Real Wu-Tang heads know that the final retail version of Ghostface Killah's final album for Epic Records, "Bulletproof Wallets", had little to do with how the project originally was conceived. Label policts, sample clearance problems and even lost sample sources transformed what could have been GFK's third classic LP into a rather mediocre affair; even prompting the emcee to leave the label before his contract was even fullfiled. When it was first released in November 2001, I bought the album but the tracklist on the back cover was a far cry from what was actual on the disc. In fact, this "bogus" tracklist is much more representative of what GFK originally intended. A while ago, I got more or less obsessed with the way Ghost had intened his ill-fated third LP, going over singles, rare promo vinyls, the "original" tracklist on the retail cover, interviews and other sources. I eventually think I came very close to what Ghost originally had in mind, and since then I have never played the retail album again. The original link I posted a while back, has been deleted, and due to heavy demand on a re-up; once again, I present to y'all one of my favorite The Lost Tapes compilations/alt. versions.

Maybe Ghostface nr. #1 masterpiece; the preceeding "Supreme Clientele", was hailed everywhere as a true return to form for the Wu-Tang Clan and their solo releases. It was not fully produced by The RZA, but instead RZA and GFK, who received beats from the likes of Allah Mathematics, Carlos Broady and JuJu to name a few, but the two arranged, co-produced and executive produced all songs on the project to give it a cohessive sound. The same formula was used for "B.P.W.", RZA produced about five beats but he and Ghost picked out and arranged beats by Allah Mathematics, Davel 'Bo' McKenzie, Alchemist, Carlos Broady, and Digga. Some interesting trivia is that the recording sessions fully took place in Miami, featured Chef Raekwon heavily and was even conceived as a sequel to "Cuban Linx...". Maybe due to the warm Miami surroundings, the music recorded ended up a bit warmer and toned down than its original predecessor; needless to say the title was changed to "Bulletproof Wallets". On the original version that I preseent here, Raekwon was however still featured heavily, sometimes spitting full 16:s, i some cases a few short bars and sometimes only a hook or intro. 

The album Ghost handed in to Epic in the beginning of 2001 was the perfect follow-up to "Ironman" and "Supreme Clientele". Ghost proved once again that he was one of the absolute top emcees in the game; RZA's production and arrangements were straight up incredible, and it was great to hear Raekwon and GFK back together. Unfortunately, Epic Records managed to fuck up the album quite heavily, switching the track sequencing, and completely deleting some of the highlights like "The Sun" (which Coles recently revealed had to be deleted since RZA couldn't find the original record he had sampled), the memorable concept joint "The Watch", Digga's TV-show theme sampling "Good Times" and replaced the RZA's feel-good track "Flowers" with an almost unlistenable watered down version. The result was that the cohessiveness and album flow was completely destroyed.

So, if you are one of the people that were strongly dissapointed in GFK's third opus, make sure to listen to this from front-to-back. Even if you heard many of the songs before, the sequencing here really adds to the overall experience. One more thing; the outro "Street Chemistry" I believe was a last minute addition, so it's a big possibility that this would not have appeared on the intended version; all tracklists and promos I've seen end with "Strawberry". But it's such a dope jam, and is a great album closer but if you want to keep it 100% let the album end after track #16. Oh well, enough talk, so enjoy, turn it up and WU-TANG for life!

EDIT: Some have suggested that the version of "Flowers" included here shows up as corrupted when unpacking the .RAR file, if that's the case, grab it here.

01. "The Sun" (Ft. Raekwon, Slick Rick & RZA)

02. "Never Be The Same Again" (Ft. Raekwon & Carl Thomas)

03. "The Forrest"

04. "Theodore" (Ft. Trife & Twiz)

05. "Interlude #1" (Ft. Raekwon)

06. "Flowers" (Ft. Raekwon, Method Man & Superb)

07. "Ghost Showers"

08. "Maxine" (Ft. Raekwon)

      "The Watch" (Ft. Raekwon)

09. "Walking Through The Darkness" (Ft. Tekitha)

10. "Interlude #2: ICE"

11. "Teddy Skit"

12. "Jealousy"

13. "The Juks" (Ft. Trife & Superb)

14. "The Hilton" (Ft. Raekwon)

15. "Good Times" (Ft. Raekwon & Superb)

16. "Strawberry" (Ft. Killa Sin)

17. "Street Chemistry" (Ft. Prodigal Sunn & Trife)  [*]

GFK Ft. Raekwon - "BULLETPROOF WALLETS"

Sheek & Ghost - "Shrooms" (Ft. Styles P)

Sheek Louch and Ghostface continues dropping gem after gem from the "Wu Block" sessions; this is no less than the seventh leak since the collaborative project was first announced. "Shrooms" is another heavy hitter that I certainly wouldn't mind appearing on the retail release and besides a super sharp Ghost verse it also features a cameo by Styles P. I strongly doubt that all these loose leaks are actual songs from the album; neither Sheek or Ghost have been known to be lazy when it comes to recording material. My guess is that certain tracks will be included on the album, like The RZA produced title track from the LP that was also the first song released. I'm certain many of the other songs are loosies from the sessions that they rather put out as promotional material to give heads a taste rather than leaving them on the cutting room floor. We'll just have to wait and see but one thing is for sure, "Wu Block" is looking and sounding damn good right now.

SHEEK / GHOSTFACE / STYLES P - "SHROOMS"

Sheek Louch & Ghostface - "Batman"

The Sheek & Ghost leaks keeps coming, always with very little information on the actual project that is "Wu-Block". Can't complain though, most of the tracks have been fucking FIRE and this is no exception; I'm feeling the chemistry these two street dudes display in the booth. We'll see if these are songs that will appear on the album or if they are just letting loose of some recorded material for strictly promotional purposes.

SHEEK x GHOSTFACE - "BATMAN"

Ghost & Sheek - "Barry"

The leaks keeps coming from Ghostface Killah and Sheek Louch's upcoming "Wu Block" collaboration. These two got a crazy chemistry, pure street music! For this one GFK revisits the same Barry White sample ("I'm Gonna Love You Just A Little Bit More") previously used for his classic "The Watch" from the "BPW" sessions. Sick!

 SHEEK / GHOST - "BARRY"

Sheek Louch / Ghostface Killah - "Trading Places"

The "Wu-Block" project promised by Ghostface Killah and Sheek Louch seems to come closer to reality each and every day as we're only a couple of days past the last leak ("Hands Up") and we're already getting introduced to another winner from it. "Trading Places" succeeds because of it's ill concept and hearing Ghost tear up DJ Premier's classic LOX production "Recognize". Both these gentleman have been fairly consistant in getting quality music out there so I'm not worried about us getting this soon enough, Since they are also both signed to Def Jam it will be interesting to see if we will be treated to any involvement from No I.D., a "Metal Lungies Part 2" perhaps? Spotted @ 2DopeBoyz.

SHEEK LOUCH / GHOSTFACE - "TRADING PLACES" 

GHOSTFACE - "Supreme Clientele" [Canadian]

In the early '90s Wu-Tang Clan was already one of the absolute top crews in the modern hip-hop landscape but when Raekwon dropped his "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx Niggas" in '95, its mafioso infected dreams of the big bucks, fly Shaolin slang and references to future embraced brands like Cristal truly changed the game. To me, it's still the top album ever released, and besides Raekwon's name the cover also bore the under title "guest starring Tony Starks A/K/A Ghost Face Killer". In fact Ghost appeared on no less than fourteen of the album 17 or 18 cuts (depending on which version you bought) and it was his chemistry with The Chef and RZA's futuristic production that made the LP the instant masterpiece it was and still is. The following year, Ghostface once again hooked up with Rae and RZA and released his own debut, "Ironman", an equally impressive project. Despite the three main characters being the same, RZA's samples were now instead steeped in the '60s and '70s soul and funk that the young Dennis Coles had grown up on (including Al Green, Bob James, Jackson 5 and Sam Cooke). If you never heard Coles before, after listening to his debut front-to-back you'd be left with the feeling that you know Ghost and his persona, ideals and history. Classics like "All That I Got is You" was a heartfelt dedication to his mother while also dealing with the hardships of his youth, "Camay" told a taseful love tale while the super misogynistic "Wildflower" saw a furious Ghost spew hate over a cheating ex-girlfriend with no spare on the profanity. Together with Rae, both their two albums was additionally filled with fantastic storytelling raps that would make Slick Rick and KRS-One proud and helped cement the pair as one of the finest rap duos of all time.

After RZA completed his five year plan for the Clan with the release of 1997's superior multi-platinum "Wu-Tang Forever" he took a step back from producing the 9 generals solo music to focus on what he called his "c-artists"; peeps like Killarmy, Cappadonna and Sunz Of Man. Instead he assigned Divine or Power as the main executive producers for Clan members various projects. This allowed the Wu members to release more music rapidly and with more personal input. This resulted in releases between '98 and '99 from RZA, Method Man, GZA, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Inspectah Deck, Red N Meth, U-God and Raekwon. While the majority of these projects were far from bad, even die hard Wu fans were agreeing that something was missing from them all and that they didn't live up to the high standards set by the Wu-Tang releases between 1992 and 1997. What was missing was clearly RZA's input, guidance and vision; on an average he produced one to three beats per project (save for RZA as Bobby Digital's "In Stereo" which could  arguably be considered a part of the first round of RZA laced solo albums; although  it was way ahead of its time when it first hit stores and caught a lot of flack).

By early 2000, the only Wu member to not have dropped a solo over the last couple of years (save for Masta Killa) was Ghostface Killah, much due to a six month bid on Riker's Island. Once he was released, he hit the studio to record "Supreme Clientele", an album that both Ghost, RZA, Divine and Power collaborated on and understood the extreme importance of. I remember hearing the Raekwon featured single "Apollo Kids" and feeling it was one of the best Wu songs in years and when I picked up my copy of Ghost's sophomore LP on the day of its release, I, like many others, knew that The Wu was back in full throttle. The album was totally cohesivem perfectly sequenced, had clever skits and followed a theme of a super hero on a mission to save the world; a metaphor for Ghost's importance in bringing back the Wu legacy with a classic worthy of the early '90s Clan solos. While RZA didn't prouce the majority of the beats, he and Ghost had a hand in the mix and final outcome of every track which gave the project it's unique sound. Instead of having the beatmakers produce their record in the studio, RZA and Ghost picked out beats from the likes of Beatnuts' JujJu, Carlos Broady, Allah Mathematics and Phantom Of The Beats and produced and arranged everything on the LP much the same way a rock producer would've done it. This is a very important part to the LP's success. Another equally impressive feature of "Supreme Clientele" was Ghostface's own lyrical performance, displaying a totally unique style of emceeing that hasn't been duplicated neither before or since. I even heard of an English teacher at an American university using some of the verses on the album as poetic art material for analysis. The stream-of-consciousness style Coles used here could be interpreted as jibberish by someone, as high art by another while a third party would chalk it up to twisted ghetto slang. What put the icing on the cake and truly made it one of the best rap performances of all time was the way Ghost spat his lines though, his flow on every verse delivered to perfection.

Epic, Ghost's label for his three first albums were masters at screwing up tracklists and denying sample clearances. This was especially evident on 2001's "Bulletproof Wallets" which could and should have been GFK's third classic in a row if it wasn't for the label. It's hard to believe that an LP as close to perfection as "Supreme Clientele" originally faced some similiar problems, resulting in the released version being slightly different than how it was first intendended. Luckily for fans, the original version was available for a limited time period on first pressings over in Canada. Which of the two versions is the better can be debated but it's unquestionably very interesting to hear this slightly different take on such a familiar classic. This version features 14 tracks rather than the retail's 21 as the skits appears after a track's song; the Ironman cartoon intro and outro is however entirely dismissed here and the sequence is slightly altered. The main differences though is that rather than the atmospheric RZA remix of "G-Dini" appearing on all other editions, here we get Ghost and Superb ripping the much more sinister and hard hitting Blaquesmiths beat previously used for "Bastards" (The Ruthless Bastards joint on "The Swarm Vol. 1"). Further, "Child's Play" features an extended vocal outro but RZA alters his beat by keeping the George Jackson organ sample on a steady loop while leaving out all the breakdowns and alternations which to me always helped elevate the song to the next level. The biggest and most important difference between the two editions however is that all but the Canadian's missed out on the absoultely brilliant "Wise", a vintage Ghost song with raw emotions on full display that works as a heartfelt tribute to his fallen friend and comrade Wise (Killarmy's original manager). The track is built on the classic Dramatic's song "In the Rain" but not only does it use a sample of the beat but it actually features production work and guest vocals by the original artist. This joint is to me a pivotal moment on "S.C." that every Ghost fan owes it to themeselves to hear, its long honoring verse can be likened to that on "Impossible" (which is thrown in here as a skit for good measure). So, which version is the better? Check it out below, TURN IT UP and decide for yourself!

01. "Nutmeg" (Ft. RZA as Bobby Digital)
02. "One"
03. "Saturday Nite" / "Impossible" / "Ghost's Theme"
04. "Wise" (Ft. The Dramatics)
05. "Mighty Healthy"
06. "Apollo Kids" / "Clyde Smith" (Skit)
07. "Buck 50" (Ft. Method Man & Redman) / "Stroke Of Death"
08. "Deck's Beat" (Ft. 60 Second Assassin)
09. "G-Dini" (Ft. Superb)
10. "Malcolm"
11. "We Made It" (Ft. Superb, Chip Banks & Hell Razah)
12. "Child's Play" [Original Mix]
13. "CherChez LaGhost" (Ft. U-God)
14. "Wu Banga 101" (Ft. GZA, Cappadonna, Raekwon & Masta Killa)

GHOSTFACE KILLAH - "SUPREME CLIENTELE" [Canadian]

Josh Osho & Ghostface Killah

Josh Osho is a new artist from South London about to break through on the soul/R&B scene with his debut album "L.I.F.E.". The first single is called "Redemption Days" and features Ghostface Killah on vocals and can be seen above. The album will have The RZA as executive producer and he will most likely contribute a few beats as well. Matter of fact the single includes a RZA remix of the song which I uploaded for y'all below. The remix takes a takes a totally different approach on the track as The Abbot puts the soulful vocals under a brand new, dark instrumental with a low accoustic guitar, keys, strings, scratches and most outstanding - "36 Chambers"-esque drums and bassline.

Almost all of the new R&B music, or what's passing for soul these days, are absolutely horrendous but this kid do pack a welcome soulful punch and with such backing it will be interesting to hear where he ends up. "L.I.F.E." is planned for release on October 24 and the single, where the RZA remix comes from, will be out digitally on September 5 and in physical form five days later. Thanks to DJ Swarm and Art Vanderlay for info and links. You can check out more about Josh Osho @ his official website.

JOSH OSHO - "REDEMPTION DAYS" [RZA REMIX]

NYGz - "Last Night..."

If there is one album I've been absolutely fiending to get my hands on for no less than four years now is NYGz fully produced DJ Premier album on Year Round Records. It's quite amazing that "Hustlaz Union: Local NYGz" (which was originally announced as "Pros & Cons" and given a release date of summer 2008) still hasn't even been given a proper release date; it's not long now until it's getting "Detox" status. Whenever it do drop, I will pick it up in an instance; the duo of Shabeeno and Panchi proved to be extremely capable emcees on their 2007 release "Get Used to Us" which hit stores five years after their first 12" single on YRR, "Giantz ta This / Strength". To me they are reminiscent of more calmed out M.O.P. in a way, real New York hardcore rap at it's finest; I only hope that Preemo don't end up waiting too long with releasing this full-length which could result in much of the hype going to waste.

Every song that has been released so far is absolutely fantastic, the singles "Policy" and "Ready" stands among some of the best recent DJ Premier productions I've heard in years. Another impressive track that I've had the benefit of hearing via Live From HQ is a snippet of a funky story titled "Give it to Ya Raw". Guest features on the album will include Lil' Fame, Ice Cube, Young Maylay, G. Dep, K-Rino as well as label mate Khaleel and NYGz affilliate Rave Roulette. Production will be exclusively handled by DJ Premier, making it the first 100% Preem laced LP since 2003's "The Owner" although he of course produced 13 out of 15 songs on Blaq Poet's ultra-banging "Tha Blaqprint".

One song that will not be featured on "Hustlaz Union..."  is this track presented below called "Last Night", a freestylish track sampling the breakbeat classic "Last Night Changed it All (I Really Had A Ball)" from Esther Williams 1976 album "Let Me Show You". The New York Giantz song was premiered by DJ Premier a couple of weeks ago on Live From HQ but now a full/CD quality version has been uploaded to SoundCloud for streaming. I'm feeling this joint alot, and although countless artists has sampled the original (including De La Soul, Boogie Down Productions, Public Enemey and Prince Paul to name a few) the one this take really reminds me of is the K-Def produced Ghostface joint by the same name. I'm throwing in that as well for good measure and maybe y'all can drop a comment letting me know which version you prefer.

NYGz - "LAST NIGHT" [prod. by DJ Premier]

GHOSTFACE - "LAST NIGHT" [prod. by K-Def] [*]

First leak from The Wu Block album [prod. RZA]

The "Wu/Block" album was a announced a while back in several interviews, and I can't remember 100% when the tentative release is to expect but I think it's early 2012 if I'm not mistaken. Possibly even sooner if we're lucky, but at the same time I hope they take their time to assure the fans of pure quality. As I understand it the album will mostly be a Sheek Louch and Ghostface collaboration with plenty features from The LOX and the Wu members, espceially alot of verses from Meth and Rae. 

No matter how this ends up as far as that goes, just an album between GFK and Sheek should be crazy, I love all of their previous collaborations. The first single, which is the title track of the LP, has leaked and features the two main members only, but features production work by none other than The RZA himself. The joint is a radio rip from Flex just dropping this bomb so it's still tagged, but a CDQ should be available real soon I would imagine. So whatcha think about this one, hit or miss? 

EDIT: Def Jam already let the full CDQ version loose. And even better it features banging new verses from Raekwon The Chef, Jadakiss and Styles P. I'm feeling this joint even more now, certified heat. Link spotted @ 2 Dope Boyz so mas props to Shake, Meka and Justice, keep it moving fellas!

THE LOX / GHOSTFACE / RAEKWON - "WU-BLOCK"

DOOMSTARKS - World Premier!

The extremely long awaited full-length collaboration album between hip-hop's two masked villains, DOOM and Tony Starks, is finally being prepared for release on Nature Sounds since being pushed back since 2005. Two weeks ago, Peter Rosenberg premiered the Madvillian remix of "Victory Laps", the B-side of the first single from the DOOMSTARKS project. Today XXL Magazine has obtained the exclusive rights to the worldwide premiere of the A-side, the original DOOM produced version. 

The limited edition picture disc 12" single is now available for pre-order, though it runs at a rather pricey 25$. The single features both mixes and instrumental versions of both and will definitely become a collectors item over time. Pre-order the 12" @ Fat Beats now, although the packages won't start shipping until August 30. In further news on the project, the album will be fully produced by DOOM who's also the executive producer of the LP and Ghost will appear on all songs except maybe one or two songs. I've been waiting five years for this project and I'm still hyped as hell for this - how fucking crazy is that?

EDIT: Nature Sounds seems to have given the thumbs up for sites to post downloadable links to this song already, so go ahead and grab the file below. This shit BANGS!!

DOOMSTARKS - "VICTORY LAPS"

Doom & Starks on a "Victory Lap"

Few promised collaborations between rapping heavyweights has held the hip-hop community in such a tight grip as the long awaited MF DOOM / Ghostface Killah project. The album was supposed to be released through Nature Sounds already back in 2006-2007 as the masked microphone villains even got a cover story in Mass Appeal magazine describing several key tracks from the LP. Around the same time, DOOM produced eight songs for Ghostface's "Fishscale" and "More Fish" albums, respectively, and the chemistry was potent and obvious..

Maybe even more interesting was the single one leaked song from the announced album. "Angelz" was a beautiful sring-driven cinematic MF DOOM beat that had Ghost doing what Ghost does best - vivid storytelling. The song originally appeared on a Nature Sounds sampler in early 2006 but was remixed and revisited for DOOM's 2009 album "Born Like This".

Despite the devoted and loyal fans constant questioning about the infamous project (which by now has become the underground equivallent to Dre's "Detox") and it's current status, the only answer has been silence. Until today that is... Out of nowhere Pete Rosenberg of Hot 97 played this amazing new joint by the masked duo called "Victory Laps". It's also worth noting that the two emcees now seems to have taken on the name of DoomStarks for their work together. The track Rosenberg played on his show today is actually The Madvillain remix - meaning it's produced by DOOM and Madlib in conjunction. And it's absolutely flames too! 

The single will be released in three formats; first out is the strictly limited red cassette tape seen above (an homage to the original purple tape maybe?) which is shipping now. Order it from Nature Sounds Webstore. The second is the serato 12", the one I will be picking up, which is a limited picture disc vinyl that includes the original DOOM version, the Madvillian remix heard below plus full instrumentals to both. All this will be on the A-side while the B-side will have something called a Serato tone but since I don't fuck with Serato and that type of stuff that I really couldn't give a fuck. The vinyl will be available for purchase on August 30, you can pre-order it here. Last, and also least if you ask me, the song will be available in full CDQ to buy from iTunes on July 26. Below you can download the radiorip of "Victory Laps (Madvillianz Remix)" and I also added the original 2006 version of "Angelz" for anyone who might have missed out on it. A good day for hip-hop indeed!

DoomStarks - "Victory Laps" [Madvillian Remix]
DoomStarks - "Angelz" [2006]

Ghostface's "2Getha Baby" video

The first single/video from Ghostface Killah's latest album, "Apollo Kids", which I actually received in the mail today. Definitely worth the money if you ask me, short but sweet and luckily lacks much filler material. He should work on his promotion though, the album dropped a month ago and the first video is out today?! Oh well, as long as the music knocks i'm happy (although I must say he should picked another one for the single, say "Starkology", "How You Like Me Baby" or "Purified Thoughts", etc.).

Ghostface Killah - "Bulletproof Wallets" (revisited)

I remember picking up "Bulletproof Wallets" around the time it dropped in 2001 and feeling generally dissapointed in the otherwise so consistent Ghostface's latest offering. Besides being one of my favorite MC's of all time and hailing from my favorite crew of rappers of all time Mr. Coles always had a great ear for beats and a knack for putting together cohessive albums that flowed from start to finnish. If you look at the good 'ol Wu-Tang classics ("Tical", "36 Chambers", "Return to 36 Chambers", "Liquid Swords", "Wu-Tang Forever", "The Pillage", etc.) you'll see that Ghost was always enlisted as an executive producer for the project together with RZA. That's the main reason his third album catched me a little off guard; it had a lot of the right elements, excellent guest features, nice production and somewhere in there you could almost sense a nice summer type of vibe to the tracks, but it just wasn't stirred and mixed right in my opinion. The thing is that "B.P.W." should have been a much tighter album if it wasn't for Epic Records who according to Ghost wasn't willing to pay for many of the sample clearances on the album, making bangers like "The Sun", "The Watch" and "Good Times" being dropped while joints like "Flowers" were remixed to almost unlistenable result. An original tracklisting has never been properly confirmed but the songs has been made available and this was something I felt I needed to put together to make me able to see Ghostface's true intentions with the album he recorded in 2001. The tracklisting on the back of the retail CD originally had a different tracklist than the actual CD (including songs like "The Sun") and clean vinyl promos for radio was also sent out by Epic. These sources, together with my common sense, is what I have based the compilation below on and I think it's pretty safe to say that this is much closer to how GFK had intended his listeners to experience the LP. Personally I think it's so much better I was actually pretty damn suprised the first times I listened to it. Hopefully you'll get the same experience and start viewing it a little differently (The Source gave the advance promo 4.5 mics from what I've heard).

Last but not least a little background info on the recordings that became "Bulletproof Wallets"; As the follow-up to the critically acclaimed "Supreme Clientele" it was done in a similair fashion. Ghostface Killah and RZA got beats from various producers they felt would fit the vibe of the project and produced and arranged the album together (RZA also has 6 beats on here). It was mostly recorded out in Miami and had a lot of guest apperances by Raekwon, this album was for a while supposed to be the original sequel to "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...". My guess is that the vibe of the songs started straying too far into a new direction,  Other producers on here include Alchemist, Allah Mathematics and Carlos Broady amongst others. By the way, I think "Street Chemistry" was an late addition since none of the tracklistings I followed it had it listed, they both ends with "Strawberry".

01. "The Sun" (Ft. Raekwon, Slick Rick & RZA)

02. "Never Be The Same Again" (Ft. Raekwon & Carl Thomas)

03. "The Forrest"

04. "Theodore" (Ft. Trife & Twiz)

05. "Interlude #1" (Ft. Raekwon)

06. "Flowers" (Ft. Raekwon, Method Man & Superb)

07. "Ghost Showers"

08. "Maxine" (Ft. Raekwon)

      "The Watch" (Ft. Raekwon)

09. "Walking Through The Darkness" (Ft. Tekitha)

10. "Interlude #2: ICE"

11. "Teddy Skit"

12. "Jealousy"

13. "The Juks" (Ft. Trife & Superb)

14. "The Hilton" (Ft. Raekwon)

15. "Good Times" (Ft. Raekwon & Superb)

16. "Strawberry" (Ft. Killa Sin)

17. "Street Chemistry" (Ft. Prodigal Sunn & Trife)  [*]'

GFK - "BULLETPROOF WALLETS" [c7 revisit]