Ghostface Killah: Sensitive Genius Poet, Also Backwards-Thinking Sexist
Here is video of an interview Wu-Tang Clan MC Ghostface Killah did last week on Angela Yee's radio show on the Shade 45 satellite station. It is a good example of how a hugely talented artist can be engaging and enjoyable to watch, even as he espouses horribly repellent views on matters of ethics or politics.
Here is a guy who can render the tenderness and intimacy of maternal love in twenty exquisitely chosen words: "But I remember this/Moms would lick her fingertips/to wipe the cold out my eye before school with her spit." (From 1997's "All That I Got Is You.") And here is a guy who can say: "That's what's wrong with our people and shit, they put our women equal to men. We're not equal… Don't put me equal. I was here first!"
That's a bummer, no way around it. It's like my favorite rapper is a member of the Promise Keepers. Still, I love his music. I play his records all the time, I play his records for my kid. And I could listen to him talk all day. What does this mean? I don't know for sure. Something about art being apolitical, I guess. Anyway, the clip is nothing if not interesting. (Note: it is full of curse words. Ghost is a renowned vulgarian. He once told me, at the end of an interview I did with him in the 90s, "Don't take the curse words out and shit, those are my favorite shits.")
Can a brotha get a wha! Wha! for MC Glenn Beck.
Ooof why can't GFK be more like his a forward-thinking-thespian co-worker RZA?!
This is what i keep tellin em – I ain't never gonna wife me no super-head!
Oh, he's only saying what a lot of men actually think even if they don't say it out loud.
shhhhh!
Only Ghostface would rap about loving his girl's "stretchmark fat." It's just feelings.
http://www.cocaineblunts.com/mp309/nrm0602/ghost.mp3
My wife is so lucky I wifed her up.
nice laughing-to-cover-discomfort from yee.
I love GFK and feel exactly the same way about him as Dave Bry without even having watched this clip. In fact, I don't think I can stand to watch it. I already know.
Yeeeah, you know who comes off as engaging and enjoyable to watch here? Angela Yee.
How old is your kid?
I love Angela Yee for getting in his face, and you know what I mean.
Yeah, I like his records, too, enough to admit it and ask myself, What the fuck. But this shit is shit.
This is more boring than the Anne Sexton interviews.