When talking about the most consistent MCs of the last five years or so, Ghostface Killah has to be up near the top of the list.  While Wu-Tang’s fortunes fell, Ghostface pushed it along with a series of invigorating releases (The Pretty Toney Album, Fishscale, The Big Doe Rehab).  Whether or not you dig his style, one thing you have to say for Ghostface is that he hasn’t been phoning it in – he’s one of the more creative lyricists in the game.

With Ghostdini: The Wizard of Poetry in Emerald City, he’s made an R&B album with guest singers on almost every track.  That may give some pause, but at the same time it makes a kind of sense.  Much of his earlier work has been steeped in dusty old soul tracks (Supreme Clientele, The Pretty Toney Album) and it’s worked to great effect.  What’s surprising about Ghostdini is how much of it sounds like a typical modern R&B album – a bunch of flaccid love songs – that just happen to have Ghostface rapping on them.  You would have expected something more innovative from someone with Ghostface’s unique talents.

“Not Your Average Girl” featuring Shareefa and “Let’s Stop Playing” featuring John Legend are just generic mid-tempo jams.  Legend, the R&B genre’s foremost purveyor, is wasted here as he predictably croons, “All I’m saying, come here lady, let’s stop playing…I got no patience, I hate waiting…let’s get naked…” Honestly, it’s yawn worthy.  The Marvin Gaye sample only makes it worse – if you’re this uninspired, please don’t kick some more dirt on Marvin’s grave while you’re at it.

Making matters worse, some of this material sounds dated – “I’ll Be That” featuring Adrienne Bailon and “Back Like That (Remix)” featuring Ne-Yo and Kanye West (which was also included on Ghostface’s More Fish) recycle lines we’ve already heard from R. Kelly and Jay-Z.  “Homie-lover-friend” is not a term you would think someone as verbally creative as Ghostface would employ.

There’s a couple auto-tune joints (“Baby” featuring Raheem “Radio” DeVaughn and “She’s a Killah” featuring Ron Browz) on here too that just make you cringe a little, knowing they’ve already gone stale before even being unwrapped.  What makes them somewhat forgivable, though, is that Ghostface knows they suck. If you check out the Wikipedia page for Ghostdini, you’ll find a link to video of a dejected Ghostface talking about how Jay-Z’s “DOA (Death of Auto-Tune)” killed “She’s a Killah.”

“He smashed my shit with that shit,” Ghostface says, as he half-hearted promotes the single.  He’s a good sport about it, and while it’s great to see “DOA” having a much-needed impact, it’s a shame it had to happen to the well-meaning Ghostface.  The admission is really classic Ghostface.  On his song “Love” off Pretty Toney he acknowledges the previously unsuccessful Bulletproof Wallets: “Love my last album, though the joint went wood.”

Ghostface does manage to keep this project afloat.  It’s not awful.  Like a lot of R&B albums, it’s listenable.  Ironically, the highlights on Ghostdini come when he relies on samples rather than guest appearances (“Stay” and “Forever”).  There’s also plenty of the lyrical mischief we’ve come to expect from Ghostface and he doesn’t slack on tales of infidelity (both perpetrated by and on Ghostface) and unwanted pregnancy (“of course, she knows now, I didn’t use no bag”).

It seems reasonable to guess that Ghostface knows Ghostdini isn’t up to par, but maybe this will make him that much more hungry on his next album.  He rarely has two poor outings in a row. - Stefan Schumacher