The Temple of Ghostface Killah

I believe in GFK. Who knew? He is possibly the most lucid thinker I have heard in a while. Many try to mimic him, but they just sound uneducated and high. Ghostface is the real deal.





First of all, he's totally honest. Yeah sure he's robbed some stuff, but he wears a mask because he wants to dress up like the rest of us.

From an interview with Prefixmag.com
I’ve heard you first started to wear your mask because you were wanted by the police and needed to hide your identity. Once all that blew over, you decided to reveal your face. Is that true?

Ghostface Killah: Nah, fuck that. I started to wear the mask because my name is Ghostface Killah, man. I got that name from Mystery of the Chessboxing, a karate flick. Yeah, I was getting my hands dirty back then. Nigga do what he do. But, you know, Ghostface Killah sounds like a man who should have a mask on.

Here he transcends the bullshit of regionally based rap wars to explain that there is no war, New York prefered to go after profits, not the art; and he does it with pussy metaphor.

Lately you and many other East Coast artists have been criticizing Southern hip-hop, in particular songs such as “Laffy Taffy.”

Ghostface Killah: Man, that’s all y’all be talking about lately.


Playing devil’s advocate, do you think it’s because New York is jealous it lost the hip-hop crown?

Ghostface Killah: New York lost the crown because the New York deejays gave the crown away for some fucking money. New York be bullshitting. Right now, I say fuck New York. Yeah, I’m from New York, but fuck New York. Because niggas is pussy. They is so quick to jump on the next man’s dick and can’t even deal with what they got in front of they face.

That’s why I respect other states, man. New York, I don’t know -- for some reason we started to get really soft. And now we act like we want that real hip-hop back, when our fucking deejays is only programmed to play what they playing. They playing more other people’s shit than our own shit. Niggas is screaming that real hip-hop -- we trying to bring it back but we can’t even play that real hip-hop on the radio.

You know what's so cool about GFK? He delivers a sound argument in Ebonics. Any snob can Frasier Krane you with their, I believe it was Kierkegaard who first argued that...

but if you start to see the light from a guy who is using language widely believed to signal the disintegration of American intelligence- I think my head just exploded.


Back on Cuban Linx you had the “Shark Biters” skit, and more recently Raekwon on his new track, “State of Grace,” talked about “rappers biting up the God’s bible.” What are your thoughts on these new artists using your music as blueprint for success and the industry’s newfound love with coke rap?

Ghostface Killah: It’s like, really you supposed to stay in your realm, but if nobody don’t got another glass to sip off of and they only see that one glass, then they going to come at that glass. It’s out of respect, though. Subconsciously, they love niggas -- they carrying the torch for what we done did back in ’95. So I stopped getting mad at shit like that. They just attracted by the truth. It’s like a magnetic attraction that will draw you closer.

When you observing that shit that was hot back then, you start to follow that shit without you even knowing. Talking about the Cristal, the drugs, the silk shirts, how we was coming through -- you know, they get caught up in it. That’s how come a nigga like me, I keep it moving with different topics. I like to write about shit like “Underwater,” “Shakey Dog,” “Strap,” “All I Need Is You.” C’mon, man: If I got a pair of brown Tims and you came copped a brown pair, I don’t even want that shit no more. I’ll go to the black Tims. Or the new Nike boots. Whatever I got to do, I keep it moving on you.

That’s that New York state of mind.

Ghostface Killah: Nah, that’s my state of mind.

Word. We are just attracted by the Truth. You are the Truth, man.