Released October 29, 1996.
Ghostface Killah "Ironman" album is 20 years old today!
Released October 29, 1996.
Ghostface Killah Reflects on the Making of His ‘Ironman’ Album
Ghostface Killah: That was 1996. I just left off of Raekwon’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…in 1995. I was ready but there were a lot of things going on. To me, Ironman was kind of dark for me. I wasn’t looking for it to be that dark like that. That’s why I say it could have been better. Going in there I’m thinking about music, I’m thinking about the block. It’s this over here, it’s family here, like everything just hit me after Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…
I was 26. It was just like I was still coming off the streets. I remember one time doing the album; I even had The Delfonics with me. I had got into a shootout, they was with me. I was in one car and they were in a van in back of me watching it all go down. It was a lot of other stuff too. I just found out I was a diabetic around that time. It was stressful, but I did want my turn because back then it was, who’s the next one up?
Back then we were deciding if I should name [the LP] Ironman or Supreme Clientele. RZA convinced me with Ironman because of [my] Tony Starks [nickname]. If not, Ironman would’ve been named Supreme and Supreme would have been Ironman. I would take the beat and whatever it made me feel, I would just say it. If the beat felt like a rainy night like someone had just got killed, I would describe a picture like that. That’s how I go into things. Even the “All That I Got Is You” record with Mary J. Blige, RZA played that [when] we were in Ohio. He was playing the beats for Ironman. I was like, “Keep that, I want that one right there.” So, [the beat] just took me there. I just laid it, I just wrote it. On “Assassination Day” where everybody but me was on it, I couldn’t think. A couple of songs, my brain wasn’t clicking. Like that song, “The Soul Controller” and “After The Smoke Is Clear,” my head was just fogged out. That’s why I said it could have been more than what it was.
That was me bringing to RZA [the different movie clips] so he could put it in on the album. Like I gave him [the movie clip] and said, “I want this to come in front of ‘Wildflower” ’cause I was into like The Mack, Cooley High and The Education of Sonny Carson.
We did a bunch of songs and figured out which fit where. It’s not always just making the songs; it’s about how does the next song come after the next? See, these guys nowadays, they don’t do that. The sequencing, that’s how I did mainly all my albums. We basically try to keep you here when you put on the CD.
http://xxlmag.com/news/2016/10/ghost...lbum-interview
Last edited by Vintage Wu; 10-29-2016 at 04:07 PM.
20 year anniversary
IRONMAN! October 29th, 1996
if I remember correctly.
MY personal favorite.
Last edited by x7fifteen4; 10-29-2016 at 10:29 AM.
Shit, just realized someone else posted. Good!
My personal favorite! I posted an anniversary thread before realizing you beat me to it.
very interesting insight.
and i knew something was off about them samples nearer the end of the album... in my opinion they really dont fit all too well. but it all makes sense now.
"So what's up? How you want me to touch that shit? How you want me to lick that shit, ... how you want me to rub that shit... how you want me to fuck that shit... how you want me to suck that shit?" Marvel . IT'S perfect!Originally Posted by Mister Yo
They should've named the second CD Ironman since it has a lot of Tony Starks skits and named the first CD Supreme Clientele since it had those 70's movie skits
the whole. "the greatest trick the devil played..." is a little played out and i dont think it had its place on the album. i also think it was too long. i dont even remember what track it was.
fucking album is dope.
Forever a Classic
N.I.
wow, by coincidence I've been blasting this album front to back all morning
"Mountains of blow like snow, constant cash flow
rockin a Shaft afro
Tony got maaad glowin hoes
mega powder dripping from they nose
fuckin Jet magazine bitches with
wide pussy pose
centerfold the whole night
deadly venom horror snake bite
Only Built 4 Cuban Link Kings who shoot dice"
The Wally Champ "Biochemical Slang Lord" breaks out here, debuting his fresh style of unrelentingly flowed flavorful lines and images. "Getaway driver/ this white bitch from outta town/ who love horse races, shaking jakes and highspeed chasing/ porno stations, drinking violations, godly nations"
"Banging ear aches/ lay my verse down in 2 takes"
one of my favorite LPs ever. A classic Clan album altogether. So many dope guest verses, MK on Assassination Day, Cap on Winter Warz, etc, Rae on Faster Blade, etc, Rza on Marvel, etc, Mef on Box in Hand, the list goes on....
So many ridiculous quotables---Ghost's style fully came into its own here, the Wu as a whole was at their peak, and it's one of Rza's best scores.
Always surprised no Gza appearance on here tho
"True identity hidden inside secret tabloids"
Joints like Daytona 500, which sounds equally dope on cassette or vinyl or digital mp3, is as bangin as rap can be...
And the lines, the crazy abstract images and original wordplay Ghost squeezes into every single bar.... unbelievable
"Reader's Digest passed my book to L Ron Hubbard,
got back that the world government tried to dub it, devil's love it"
the whole King Tut piece story on "Motherless Child", grimy as fuck (and feeling like a prequel to the story told on Malcolm in retrospect)
Everything about "Black Jesus" (not least of which the dusty sounds Rza pulls out of that operatic sample)
"Who wanna rhyme? Who wanna challenge the swordsman
that rock that fishermen's hat like Gorton's"
Ironman was a success. That's way there were a lot of Ironman skits on Supreme Clientele.
wow, "The Soul Controller" is one of the strongest songs on the album from a lyrical standpoint in my opinion. and "After The Smoke is Clear" is fucking bonkers.. suprised Ghost wasn't all that crazy about those two.
it's pretty cool that Ghost has no less than TWO songs on his classic debut which he isn't even on ("The Faster Blade" and "Assassination Day") and have very few actual solo tracks by himself. that was one of the powers of the old Wu-Tang LP:s though - each project was like a group effort, but it was like RZA creating the sonic world that fit into each solo artists persona for the album and then invited the rest of the crew into that world so "Faster Blade" still felt like a Ghost/Rae joint rather than a Raekwon solo (if that makes sense).
[/quote]We did a bunch of songs and figured out which fit where. It’s not always just making the songs; it’s about how does the next song come after the next? See, these guys nowadays, they don’t do that. The sequencing, that’s how I did mainly all my albums. We basically try to keep you here when you put on the CD.
[/QUOTE]
interestingly enough, Ghost didn't only do this on his own solo albums - but also on all the Wu-Tang Clan group albums up to 2001, plus "Return to the 36 Chambers" and "The Pillage" (along with Power, RZA and Divine)
how is that sample played out when it's taken from "Carlito's Way", a 1993 film that probably had it's home video release in late 1995? I'm pretty sure Ghostface and RZA was the first people to sample that flick period.
had the sample been after any other track on the album, yeah it wouldn't make as much sense, but coming after the breathtaking reflection of life that is "The Soul Controller" that ends the album on such a cinematic note it took me YEARS to be able to fully appreciate it, the sample works like a charm and closes the album on the best note possible imo... of course listening to the CD will have a different effect since it has the bonus track "Marvel" which means that the album doesn't end with the desired effect but still - "Soul Controller" + "Carlito's Way" is really the END OF THE IRONMAN STORY ..... the other song is just a bonus, albeit a dope one
it's funny, "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx..." and "Liquid Swords" are my point blank favorites from the Clan, but these days I find that "Ironman" is probably the one disc that I return to most often. i love the sound RZA and Ghost created for it, the world of soul samples and heavy beats, and Ghost's lyrics on here... Oh my god!!
"Wildflower" is perhaps the illest bite-back at a foul bitch ever recorded, not only the lyrics but the realness of Ghost's emotional performance as well. that's one thing of Ghost that is so amazing.. he's not only one of the best wriers in hip-hop, he's also very theatrical (just listen to "I Can't Go To Sleep", "Wildflower", "Camay", "All That I Got is You" - the little stutter at K-k-killed me" for example - and so on).
and then you have the tag-team of Raekwon and Ghostface back at it.. in a major way this is much more a sequel to "Cuban Linx" than "Cuban Linx Pt. II". both their voices, their flows, styles and everything compliments eachother to the fullest. Hip Hop dream team, and personally they are my favorite MC duo, beatig out people like Run DMC, EPMD, Posdnous and Dave, Mobb Deep, etc. (and that's not taking anything away from those legends).. they got chemistry through the roof, and it's a shame "Bulletproof Wallets" never got it's true proper release although I managed to assemble it what i guess is 80%-95% accurately, and there's LOADS of more Raekwon on there (the working title of course was "Cuban Linx II... Bulletproof Wallets")
another strong point of the album was when the aforementioned duo was joined by Cappa Don Don on 5 real trailblazers.. not only the unforgettable "Winter Warz" performance but for my money all songs with Rae / Ghost and Cappa here are just unbelivably lyrical. the highlight being "Daytona 500" with "Iron Maiden" coming close.
Seen Ghostface perform twice within about a 5 years time span and both times he absolutely rocked the house, he still got it and it's great to see people still get hyped to the classics from this set
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r.i.p. Johan D, Kaddu, Ricke a.k.a. "Slick Rick" and the rest of the fallen soldiers - you'll never be forgotten!
(the first, unreleased version of "Iron Maiden", completely different Ghostface verse, and a marvelous one at that)
(from "The Great White Hype" soundtrack with RZA, Ghost and Raekwon; 1996, most likely recorded during "Ironman" sessions.. definitely has that vibe and Ghost's verse is 100% his "Ironman" style)
(the REAL "Box in Hand" which was cut from the album late enough for it still to be listed on the album, as you see it says featuring Streetlife and Method Man.. this would have been Streetlife's debut on wax if released as intended.. question is what the fuck track #8 on "Ironman" is really called haha).
(video version with Tekitha replacing Mary J. Blige's vocals since she wasn't available for the video).
(1996 performance of "All That I Got Is You" with Tekitha and Cappadonna.. ILL!)
daily updates: news, articles, reviews, the best compilations on the net. that true skool street hop!
r.i.p. Johan D, Kaddu, Ricke a.k.a. "Slick Rick" and the rest of the fallen soldiers - you'll never be forgotten!
I'll never forget the day this came out...went to the '96 Yankees Ticker Tape Parade and I brought home the real trophy.
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