Ghostface Killah is so charismatic, he can brag about being an old coot and make it sound badass. "New rappers need to skip town/This is East Coast music, Grandpa Ghost is around!" Ghost, now 40, raps. His ninth album is a return to gritty form after an uneven 2009 R&B experiment, Ghostdini: On track after track, he blows dust off some dirty-soul loop, with boasts as inspired as ever ("Catch me in a little hut in Benin, village-style, feeding the children") and street-crime storytelling as vivid as ever ("It was the night before he got popped/Big jars of haze, Cheech and Chong bong in the spot/Tropicana, strawberries, diced bananas . . ."). Get the guy a "Hip-Hop's #1 Grandpa" T-shirt.

Gallery: Ghostface Killah's Guide to Life

“All Along the Watchtower”

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."