Ghostface From Worst to Best

Ghostface’s catalogue is always at war with itself, mostly because half of his fans think “Ironman” was his best CD and some think it was “Supreme Clientele.” But is “Clientele” really the best? Is “Bulletproof Wallets” really the worst? Let’s look at this.

Here’s my list of the Ghostface CD’s I own (own, not just heard) in order from worst to best with explanations of the placing (note that I will be including Raekwon’s “Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…” since Ghost was on almost all of the songs anyway).

 

10. The Big Doe Rehab (2007)

Explanation: I don’t care what the critics (mostly) said about this CD - the only songs really worth listening to are “Yolanda’s House” and “Supa GFK.” More than just not having good songs on it, this is chock full of bullshit songs, like “The Prayer,” “Yapp City,” and “Paisley Darts.”

 

9. Ironman (1996)

Explanation: This is generally considered Ghost’s best or second best CD, but there are just way too many guests and Ghost barely holds his own. One of his few solo tracks, “Wildflower” just straight sucks. The beats mostly bang, but the rapping leaves a lot to be desired.

 

8. Live In New York (2006)

Explanation: This is a mediocre live CD, but it’s not awful. I place it low on this list mostly because there isn’t really any original material on it and the Clan yells too much in the background.

 

7. Hidden Darts: Special Edition (2007)

Explanation: This is a so-so compilation of the best songs released by Ghost in the mixtape circuit. It has some interesting songs, as well as some classics like “The Sun,” but a lot of the bootleg tracks are just qualified to be bootleg tracks.

 

6. Bulletproof Wallets (2001)

Explanation: This really is a good album, it just has a little too much filler in it. It’s definitely worth picking up, even if just for “Strawberry.”

 

5. The Pretty Toney Album (2004)

Explanation: It may be deep, moody, and harder than a motherfucker, but this album would be greatly improved if about 6 songs had been left out. A lot of the vocal samples Ghost flips on here are too pitchy and squeaky. They hurt the ears. You definetely need to download “Kunta Fly Shit” and “Run.”

 

4. More Fish (2006)

Explanation: If you overlook about 3 weed carrier tracks, you’ll see that this “Fishscale” sequel is bursting at the seams with great music. Highlights include “Block Rock,” “Outta Town Shit,” and “Greedy Bitches.”

 

3. Supreme Clientele (2000)

Explanation: Even without all of the annoying, lengthy skits, this album still comes up a little short. It’s good the first time through, but a few songs get grating the second or third time you hear them

 

2. Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… (1995)

Explanation: Again with the skits! This album is incredibly dense and cinematic, perfectly complementing Ghost and Rae’s mafia raps. There aren’t any bad songs on this, and this is also  easily the second best Wu album, solo or group.

 

1. Fishscale (2006)

Explanation: This is one of those rare albums that you can play beginning to end over and over again without ever getting bored. The skits are tight and meaningful and the songs bang like glocks. Ghost is in rare form here. He’s gone downhill on his 2 albums since, so we may never get another classic outing like this from him. Enjoy it while you can.

Findind God in the Aesthetic

Chris Taylor recently wrote this under my “Occam’s Razor” post:

I challenge the pointless-ness of having God IN the equation. To know that God, a designer, started the whole series of events, adds such a deeper, passionate understanding of the world we live in.

What if you took a spiritual world-view and started with God, God in the events of your day. God in the relationships that you have. God in the grief that you will somedays endure.

What if you used science to seek God instead of using it to try to disprove Him?

I can guarantee you of one thing. the very existence of life, the very acts of people become exponentially more vivid.

Ahhh that is true [that belief in god can hold you down]. Some people use religion to hold people down.

But Christianity “SHOULD BE” (not often is in actuality) about helping others. Serving others needs. Reaching out to the widows and children. The homeless and hurting.

The word “Minister” actually means “serve” in scripture. A public servant. Yet we Christians are all called to be ministers.

When faith is expressed through love, real brotherly/sisterly love, then amazing things happen. However, if you are doing it without a relationship with God, then it remains empty.

Even solid Christians drag their feet doing something for someone else, but after they are done, there is this incredible peace because you’ve drawn closer to God.

The effects of a “good deed” wear off. The effects of drawing closer to God do not.

…

I’m glad he brought this up, because I’ve been meaning to write about the whole “God is real because nature is so aesthetically pleasing” thing.

MY RESPONSE:

I challenge the pointless-ness of having God IN the equation. To know that God, a designer, started the whole series of events, adds such a deeper, passionate understanding of the world we live in.

I meant pointless as in “it’s an excess explanation” not “it never helps anyone.” It doesn’t add a deeper understanding, but clouds our understanding with myth and superstition.

What if you took a spiritual world-view and started with God, God in the events of your day. God in the relationships that you have. God in the grief that you will somedays endure.

Been there, done that. Something helping you doesn’t make it true. Just like getting a placebo that helps you doesn’t make sugar pills a miracle drug.

What if you used science to seek God instead of using it to try to disprove Him?

Then I would find that it didn’t stack up. You should know as well as I do the hilarious lack of validity found in creation science.

I can guarantee you of one thing. the very existence of life, the very acts of people become exponentially more vivid.

For you; that doesn’t hold true to my experience. The things around me were no more vivid, just trying to comprehend “the creator” is vivid, but it devalues the creation itself by making it just some toy god threw together.

Ahhh that is true [that belief in god can hold you down]. Some people use religion to hold people down.

No, it holds the believer down. I wasn’t referring to using it to hold others down. Just yourself.

But Christianity “SHOULD BE” (not often is in actuality) about helping others. Serving others needs. Reaching out to the widows and children. The homeless and hurting.

That’s what you say. Every Christian invents his own bastardization of Christianity and then says that all of the other versions are just “false Christianity,” as you are doing.

The word “Minister” actually means “serve” in scripture. A public servant. Yet we Christians are all called to be ministers.

When faith is expressed through love, real brotherly/sisterly love, then amazing things happen. However, if you are doing it without a relationship with God, then it remains empty.

Love isn’t empty. It’s a little sad that you can’t appreciate love’s amazing power without validation from something else - namely, god.

Even solid Christians drag their feet doing something for someone else, but after they are done, there is this incredible peace because you’ve drawn closer to God.

Really? I feel peace and contentment from having helped someone. I’m beginning to think you have some pretty bad motives for helping others, like pleasing god. Why not help for the sake of helping?

The effects of a “good deed” wear off. The effects of drawing closer to God do not.

A good deed does a lot more than you would think, whereas sucking up to an invisible dictator isn’t going to get you anything. It’s an impure and immoral motive to just try and help people to suck up to god, making civilians just pitiful inferiors caught in the crossfire of your spiritual scattershot of pseduocharity riddled with ulterior motives.

Is Atheism a Psychological Crutch?

This is a response to http://vaisnavaapologetics.wordpress.com/2008/04/21/is-god-just-a-psychological-crutch/

I’m not going to be defending the position that god is a psychological crutch, though it is an opinion I do hold, but I will be defending the position that atheism is not a psychological crutch.

…

 

Everything is Permitted

If God doesn’t exist, then everything is permitted. There’s no absolute moral standard against which we can measure our acts. Morality is created on the basis of the individual’s likings. The atheist can justify all kinds of abominable actions with claims such as: ”Somebody may think my actions are morally wrong, but that’s just their subjective opinion. I’m can do whatever I like!” In this way atheism gives people the possibility to ignore the dictates of conscience and live a life of full self indulgence. So atheism could be considered a psychological invention aimed at eliminating all moral obligations. God becomes a threat to the atheists’ egocentrism and consequently they wish to deny His existence.

On an unrelated side note, does it amuse anyone else how you can be crack slanging drug dealing, Crippin’ murderer, but as long as you have faith it’s socially acceptable? Whatever, just something to think about.

This is an old, tired argument. You cannot honestly tell me that you would be out raping, murdering, stealing, etc. if you thought god didn’t exist. It’s pretty condescending to think that we are doing so. I don’t know any atheists that do so.

There are subjective morals, like thoughts on abortion and homosexuality, but some generally objective ones, like not murdering wantonly, which are necessary for a functioning society. If everything were permittable as you claim, we would probably be extinct by now.

…

Removal of guilt

If everything is permitted then there’s no reason to feel guilty when thinking, feeling or doing something which we normally would consider immoral. Again the atheist can claim that “you might think I should feel guilty about this, but that just your subjective opinion. There’s no need to feel guilty about anything.” The idea that one day we have to settle our ethical account with an all-knowing, all-mighty God can no doubt be such an intense psychological stress factor for the atheist that he preferes to try to psychologically repress the idea of the existence of God.

This is basically your last argument rehashed with an extra teaspoon of condescencion thrown in. It’s not like you can say “Well, I’m just not going to feel guilty.” It’s a pretty ingrained thing. If a child murders someone before it’s indoctrinated by its parents, the kid’s going to feel guilty. Guilt isn’t really something you can toy with on a whim.

…

Hankering After Power and Control

If naturalism is true and God therefore doesn’t exist then the universe simply functions according the laws of nature. Consequently there’s nothing which, at least in principle, can’t be subjected to human control. It’s only a matter of us gaining the necessary knowledge, then we can manipulate it and use for our own selfish gratification. It could definitely be tempting to dream of such a materialistic universe where everything that exists in principle, either now or in the future, can or will be under human control. This idea of gaining power and control over the world could easily be another motive for atheism.

 

I find it hard to believe that you are actually arguing this, considering how Christian dogma preaches that humans are the ultimate creation and the bible has the world at our feet, created for our comfort and amusement. Your argument is basically the exact opposite of truth.

…

Aversion Towards Authorities

If the human being is simply a combination of chemicals then no human can be said to be more of an authority than anyone else. Everyone is on an equal level. In an atheistic worldview the atheist can therefore easily tell himself that no one is better than him or is in a position to tell him what is good for him, and how he should do, think and behave. The existence of God naturally becomes a big threat to anyone who suffers from aversion towards authority and such a person might very well do everything within his power to fabricate a worldview that eliminates Gods existence.

Atheism is not a fundamentalist belief, so we are generally open to change. You seem to be equating atheism to anarchy, which isn’t a position I know of any non-Satanic atheists holding (most real Satanists are against anarchy, actually, since it’s a moral law of theirs to obey the law). We are not just some rebellious little children trying to lash out at the establishment. You are also bestowing upon us incredibly arrogance, pompousness, and self-righteousness, when these are things I could easily throw at some fundamentalist Christians. Besides, it’s not like Christians are naturally all authorities’ bitches.

Thoughts On ego trip’s Miss Rap Supreme Episodes 1-3

Having been a moderately big fan of the white exploitation rap show “ego trip’s (White) Rapper Show,” I was moderately excited for the sequel (sequel, not second season - you can only make fun of us white people for so long). Obviously this sequel was going to be no good at all. I mean, the first show was just a bunch of white racial jokes featuring a contestant sideshow with no real talent outside of Sullee (I think that was his name), and even he wasn’t that good.

 

Also, women rappers suck. The obvious exceptions are Lauryn Hill and Lady of Rage and maybe one or two others, but they pretty much suck. The reason could be that they can’t seem to come up with anything except acting like men or rapping about their periods or about giving guys blowjobs. And the ladies on this show are no exception.

 

The first episode has the ridiculously talented lyricist MC Serch and the shitty woman rapper Yo-Yo acting as judges for a lineup of shitty rappers who spit shitty 16s that Serch and Yo-Yo pretended were good.

 

After a few minutes of the stream of unbearable rapping, Serch & Yo-Yo decided on a few contestants - Bree, 23 years old, Byata, 26 years old, Chiba, 28 years old, D.A.B., 23 years old, Khia, 31 years old, Lady Twist, 22 years old, Lionezz, 29 years old, Miss Cherry, 23 years old, Nicky2States, 28 years old, and Rece Steele, 25 years old.

 

Here’s some quick personality profiles of each of them:

 

Bree - Bree’s this really, really manly chick that tries to talk in this deep voice, so she sounds someone doing a really bad 2Pac impersonation (she also throws up westide and sort of Crip walks all the time). She’s one of those chick rappers that tries really hard to be manly and ends up looking stupid.

 

Byata - Byata’s another manly white chick, just like Bree, and she is one of the better of the worst rappers on the show.

 

Chiba - Chiba is this funny-looking chick that has a messed up eye from a car crash (she tries to weasel street credit out of this little injury). She’s the only woman on here that can compete with Khia for title of Queen Bitch Goddess.

 

D.A.B. - D.A.B. is the kind of dumb ass bitch (DAB, get it?) that would call herself Down Ass Bitch and is always bragging about how she’s an ex-addict, as if that makes her street.

 

Khia - Khia is a has-been from a few years ago who looks like a man’s head with a woman’s body. She’s the worst rapper in the house, except maybe for D.A.B. She’s also the biggest bitch in the house.

 

Lady Twist - Twist is this cool fat chick that is the best rapper in the house. But I tend to like fat black chicks that rap, so I might be little biased in my observation.

 

Lionezz - Lionezz is some talentless clown that looks like a religion teacher I had back in elementary school

 

Miss Cherry - Cherry’s kind of hot, so I’ve forgiven her morbid rapping.

 

Nicky2States - Nicky2States is the sort of hot contestant who is the only contestant who can compete with Khia for the title of “Craziest Contestant Ever.”

 

Rece Steele - Rece is a scary-looking chick that can’t rap for shit, either.

 

…

 

As is the style with these rap shows, the first three episodes consist mostly of the contestants smacking each other with dildos and screaming “Yo, bitch, I’ll fucking, oh shit, bitch, you bitch you gonna get fucked the fuck up, bitch, what, I ain’t no pussy bitch, what!” It’s not entertaining anymore. Sorry.

 

Also, the wrong people almost always get eliminated - for example, Lionezz was eliminated in the first round instead of Khia, who was obviously much shittier (this was reversed the day after, though, when it was revealed that the rap Khia spit in the elimination round was bitten from an album she did a few years back).

 

I don’t know why I’m going to keep watching this show, but I am (especially since Ghostface already made his cameo and I don’t really care about the rest of the guests that are going to be popping into the ladies’ house).

 

It’s not even that entertaining, and, frankly, I’m pretty ashamed of Serch because of this show.

Taking Occam’s Razor to God

Parting of the reason I am not a deist (and theist, to an extent) is because I just do not need the belief to function.

It’s pretty pointless. there is a wide world of happiness, wonder, science, and ethics without throwing the God hypothesis into the equation. It can work inversely and hold one down.

Why hang on to the extra, unnecessary baggage? Try living a day with the assumption that god does not exist. The average person will not change much, unless their entire life is centered around praying or preaching, like a pastor.

Comments from theists are appreciated.

Anyone mentioning Pascal’s Wager will be ignored.

Rewriting a Liberal Argument: Is Conservatism Unnatural?

I was having a discussion with this guy when all of a sudden my responses started disappearing. I’m going to rehash my response here just to be safe and ensure that it doesn’t get deleted again. It will be much shorter here because I just really hate rewriting something that got deleted, like I’ve had to do with comments to Paul Jub and angryxtian.
…
Basically…
…
Your main objection seems to be that I called conservatism oppressive, and that, by extension, it is unnatural for humans to try so hard to oppress each other. To show my statement as true, let’s examine some conservative and liberal views and who they oppress.

Conservative views: 1. No gay marriage, 2. No abortion, 3. Creationism & prayer in schools, 4. Religion in public places, like courtrooms, 5. No gays in the military, 6. Torture and unannounced detainment of suspected terrorists… et cetera

Conservative victims: 1. Gays, 2. Rape victims, 3. Atheists, agnostics, buddhists, etc., 4. Same as number three, 5. Gays, 6. Accused individuals

And that’s not including fundamentalist-conservative views, like killing gays and adulterers..

Now let’s examine some liberal views and who they oppress.

Liberal views: 1. gay marriage, 2. pro-choice, 3. science in science class, 4. governing under the constitution, 5. Gay and straight individuals in the military, 6. Innocent until proven guilty

Liberal victims: … I couldn’t come up with any. It might gross out a few conservatives, but that’s basically it.

…

I maintain that conservatism is unnatural because I find it unnatural to work so hard to victimize people who are different from you. Being a bully can be natural, but most bullies have some limit.

Some Favorites

Here’s some pictures of some of my favorite books, CDs, and DVDS. The third picture is of the new books I picked up last night used and not necessarily my favorites.

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Life’s A Bitch

…

Not posting this because I’m depressed or anything, just because the lyricism is so breathtaking.

[Verse One: AZ the Visualiza]
Visualizin the realism of life in actuality
Fuck who’s the baddest a person’s status depends on salary
And my mentality is, money orientated
I’m destined to live the dream for all my peeps who never made it
cause yeah, we were beginners in the hood as five percenters
But somethin must of got in us cause all of us turned to sinners
Now some, restin in peace and some are sittin in San Quentin
Others such as myself are tryin to carry on tradition
Keepin the schwepervesence street ghetto essence inside us
Cause it provides us with the proper insight to guide us
Even though, we know somehow we all gotta go
but as long as we leavin thievin we’ll be leavin with some kind of dough
so, and to that day we expire and turn to vapors
me and my capers-ll be somewhere stackin plenty papers
Keepin it real, packin steel, gettin high
Cause life’s a bitch and then you die

[Chorus: AZ the Visualiza]
Life’s a bitch and then you die; that’s why we get high
Cause you never know when you’re gonna go
Life’s a bitch and then you die; that’s why we puff lye
Cause you never know when you’re gonna go
Life’s a bitch and then you die; that’s why we get high
Cause you never know when you’re gonna go
Life’s a bitch and then you die; that’s why we puff lye 
[--> chorus #1 echoes at the end]

Cause you never know when you’re gonna go
Life’s a bitch and then you die
[--> chorus #2 includes these lines, echoes at the end]

[Verse Two: Nas]
I woke up early on my born day, I’m twenty years of blessing
The essence of adolescent leaves my body now I’m fresh in
My physical frame is celebrated cause I made it
One quarter through life some God-ly like thing created
Got rhymes 365 days annual plus some
Load up the mic and bust one, cuss while I puffs from
my skull cause it’s pain in my brain vein money maintain
Don’t go against the grain simple and plain
When I was young at this I used to do my thing hard
Robbin foreigners take they wallets they jewels and rip they green cards
Dipped to the projects flashin my quick cash
and got my first piece of ass smokin blunts with hash
Now it’s all about cash in abundance, niggaz I used to run with
is rich or doin years in the hundreds
I switched my motto — instead of sayin fuck tomorrow
That buck that bought a bottle could’ve struck the lotto
Once I stood on the block, loose cracks produce stacks
I cooked up and cut small pieces to get my loot back
Time is Illmatic keep static like wool fabric
Pack a four-matic that crack your whole cabbage

Showin’ Love For Pat Condell

His first 35 video blogs (youtube.com/users/patcondell) are finally availabe in High Def on DVD at Richard Dawkins’ site:

http://richarddawkins.net/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3&products_id=58

 

I’ve been going through his catalog on his YouTube page and I found this video:

The best line (keep in mind that this is during a divine vision in which God tells Pat that God doesn’t exist):

“I asked Him, could I have it in writing? ‘Sure, why not, take that Bible there.’ I looked over and said ‘That’s just a blank piece of paper.’ He told me it was the nonfiction version.”

New “Ask” Page

In the style of Chris Dills & Taylor, I’ve thrown on the “Ask” page where you can ask me whatever you want and I’ll do my best to answer your question on that page. Well, have at it!