Ghostface Killah Drops Mixtape, Talks R&B LP "Wizard of Poetry"

Ghostface Killah dropped a new mixtape on Imeem yesterday, collaborating with DJ Essence on RNB N Fish. The mixtape is a blend of newer, R&B-infused cuts that fans can expect to hear on Ghostdeini's upcoming album Wizard of Poetry alongside newer versions of past hits like "Back Like That" and 30-second snippets of Ghostfaced-renditions of Beyoncé's "Irreplaceable." Also streaming at the Imeem site is "Baby" featuring Raheem Devaughn, the first single off Wizard of Poetry, due out September 29th according to the Island Def Jam site.

The ever-verbose Ghostface also recently sat down for an interview with New York magazine, once again providing readers with some incredible quotes that could only come from the mouth of the man they calls Tony Starks. Discussing how doing an R&B album changes the content of his rhymes, Ghostface says "I still will do that on other tracks, but this album right here is an R&B album. You can't talk about slinging crack on an R&B album. Unless you get caught — it depends on how you say it — and your girl is gonna leave you, and she never came back, cause you were doing whatever you were doing."

Just because Ghostface is hitting 40 next year, that doesn't mean he's gonna stop rapping. "You can write music till you 70. This is a hobby. B., muthafuckas always act like they retiring and don't go nowhere. You know what it is, man. You can't get away from it, B," Ghostface tells New York. "You don't think Michael Jordan wants to pick up the ball sometimes? But that's what it is. That's why a boxer always keep coming back, like Muhammad Ali, until he just kept getting his ass beat. Until you realize, I just ain't got it no more." Ghostface will also feature prominently on Raekwon's new album Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II, so we'll be hearing plenty more from the Wallabee Champ by year's end.

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Song Stories

“Push It”

Salt-N-Pepa | 1987

Originating as a B side to their cover of the Stax classic “Tramp,” Cheryl “Salt” James, Sandi “Pepa” Denton and Dee Dee “DJ Spinderella” Roper came up with the goods on this career-making, Grammy-nominated platinum single about working it on the dancefloor. “Push It” has been sampled and spliced to death since it debuted in 1987, yet the original track is as fresh and fly as when SNP — among the few original women of hip-hop — debuted it. “Most men will never believe ‘Push It’ was never about sex,” said James. “And that’s why the record went to Number One,” said Denton. “Everybody thought it was about sex.”

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