Ghostface calls it as he sees it
“I was going into a slump during Ironman. I found out I was a diabetic around that time, and I was just stressed out. My mind wasn’t all the way there. Certain joints I couldn’t really catch. Like the one I had Masta Killa and Deck and RZA and them on, ‘Assassination Day.’ I couldn’t catch it. I let it live, but like, ‘Fuck it, I’ll back out of that one,’ and kept it moving.
“To me, Ironman is dark. ‘After The Smoke Is Clear,’ and the last couple songs at the end. Even the Mary joint. It’s down. Even ‘Assassination Day.’ They’re dark. And I was mad as a motherfucker, but I couldn’t do nothing about it after it was wrapped up. They were like, ‘Yo put it out there.’ Then Nas came with I Am… after that, and he had nice, colorful joints. But it was what it was.”
On Supreme Clientele: “I went to jail. But before that, it was just one of those times. I was still Ghost, even though Ironman wasn’t really to where I wanted it to be lyrically. Like I said, to me, Ironman is kinda dark. I had went with RZA to Ohio to work on the album, we had some land over there. There was really nothing on that land. I felt like I fucked up on that one.
“But when you hear Supreme, it’s more colorful. It’s like a box of crayons, or a nice fruit bowl. It just looks colorful. When I did Supreme, I was like, ‘I’m coming back,’ especially with beats first. So I went to Juju [from The Beatnuts], my man Haas from Staten Island, RZA, you know, different motherfuckers. I had ‘Nutmeg’ from my barber. That’s my man. My old barber made ‘Nutmeg.’
“‘Mighty Healthy’ was crazy. ‘We Made It’ was crazy. Even ‘Stay True.’ ‘We in the fields with heat.’ That’s my most colorful album, and it’s up there with my favorites. I don’t listen to my albums no more. I just do it, then I let it go.”
“I was doing that Hip-Hop Squares shit, and Fat Joe and Khaled were up there, and they were telling me how them niggas had used my voice and the beat from ‘Mighty Healthy’ and how Kanye had put it on ‘New God Flow.’ They said the shit was crazy, shit was bangin’. So I’m like, ‘Word?’ And they’re like, ‘You gotta hear this shit.’
“So after a while, I heard the shit, and you know, it was aiight. I didn’t really go crazy for it and stuff like that, though, probably because I heard the beat so many times. But they flipped it, though. Sometimes, when you hear a song the first time, you gotta hear it more and more before you be like, ‘Oh shit.’ Especially on the radio.
“So I fucked around and just took the initiative to do it myself, ‘cause my voice was on it. So I took it and was like, ‘You know what? Let me just get some of that real quick.’ So I tackled that shit, and did it.
“When it came out, I been did that, like two, three months ago. ‘Cause Kanye was busy doing whatever he was doing. I could’ve put it out myself, but something said, ‘Nah, just give it to him.’ Because more than likely, he’d make it like a remix, which he did. And it would be more powerful, instead of me just putting it out myself.
“So yeah, I did it myself, and just sent it to Kanye. And two or three months later, it was out, like, ‘Aiight, cool.’ And that was it, though. I never even spoke to him when I sent it or after it was released. But I appreciate it. He fucked around and made a movie out of it, and got it out there. It was cool”
… “I still ain’t back. I ain’t never go nowhere, but I’m not back to where I’m comfortable and in there like that. A lot of these rappers that niggas look up to, I’ll dart ‘em out. Early. And get the belt back overnight. When you’re not getting that play on radio, and you’re not around, they forget. Until they be like, ‘That was that nigga that brought the eagles out and the robes and the Wallabees and all that other shit.’ Watch what happens in the next couple weeks. It’s on.”
