Words By Patrick M.

It’s Ghostface week here at TSS, yet to this point, we haven’t really dealt with what I consider to be Ghost’s best album, and one of the best albums in hip-hop’s history, 1996′s Ironman.

Why? Because Ironman, like all of the mid-90s Wu projects, feels more like a group collaborative and less like a true solo joint. Wu members are guesting all over the place, RZA is fully locked in like Mozart on the production, Raekwon drops as many hot verses on the album as Ghost, and the album, specifically “Winter Warz,” also serves as Cappadonna’s coming out party.

Yet all the solo joints from this era have that one song where the featured artist took the reins by himself and made a track that still defines them to this day. Meth has “Bring the Pain”. ODB has “Brooklyn Zoo.” Rae has “Incarcerated Scarfaces.”

And Ghost?

Ghost has “All that I Got Is You.”

He only raps one verse that takes up less than half of the song, but in two minutes of rhyming, he puts onto wax a heart-wrenching description of the conditions of urban poverty. What makes it so poignant is the personalization, he’s not just talking about poverty, he’s talking about his childhood. It’s not just anyone’s Mom that struggled in this situation, it’s his mom. The verse has all the traits of great storytelling. The little details, from “roaches in the cereal box,” to “two at the foot, two at the head, I didn’t like to sleep with Jon-Jon he peed the bed.” And the emotions, specifically the shame he felt having to go to his neighbors to ask for food. No one wants to be poor, but poverty happens.

But in the end, Mom wipes his tears away and sends him off into the cold world. And when Mary J comes in to sing Ghost’s message of thanks over Rza’s violin strings…I may go call my Mom right now just to tell her I love her.

Ghostface Killah – All I Got Is You

Ghost Shots

J_Love-Ghostface_Killah-Hidden_Darts_2-2003

Ghostface_Killah-Hidden_Darts_3_(Hosted_By_J-Love)-(Bootleg)-2006

J-Love_And_Ghostface_Killah-Hidden_Darts_4-Bootleg-2007

DJ_Green_Lantern_And_Ghostface-Internet_Invasion-(Bootleg)-2006

Ghostface_Killah-Pretty_Toney_(The_Lost_Tracks)-2004

Mick_Boogie_and_Ghostface-The_Wallabee_Championship_Volume_1-2004

VA-Mick_Boogie_Tapemasters_Inc._Ghostface-The_Broiled_Salmon_Mixtape-(Bootleg)-2006

VA-Mick_Boogie-Fish_N_Chips_(Hosted_By_Ghostface_And_Trife_Da_God)-(Bootleg)-2006

Ghostface_Killah-The_Wally_Champ_Vol.2-(Bootleg)-2003

VA-DJ_Ayres_And_DJ_Soul-Ghostface_Chamber_Music-(Bootleg)-2006

Raekwon_and_Ghostface-Live_Unreleased_Classics-2005

Raekwon_And_Ghostface-R.A.G.U._(Rae_And_Ghost_United)-(Bootleg)-2006

Ghostface Ironman Instrumental Lp

Ghostface_Killah-Best_of_Presented_by_Streetsweepers-2003

Ghostface_Killah-Feat_The_Theodore_Unit-Exclusives-2006

Ghostface_Killah-Fried_Fish-(Promo)-2006

Ghostface_Killah-The_Pretty_Tony_Collection-2CD-2004

Ghostface_Killah – Supreme Clientele Instrumentals

Ghost Shots