Ghostface Contemplates Retirement
If you're a Ghostface fan and failed (or forgot) to pick up his latest CD, The Big Doe Rehab, you've probably bruised his feelings. In a new YouTube video, Ghost Dini holds fans who chose to download rather than buy his album responsible for his sagging sales. The Big Doe Rehab has sold less than 100,000 copies since inception, while Wu-Tang's 8 Diagrams has only moved 145,000 units since its release.
"I thought y’all loved me, man," griped Ghost, "Y’all n***as be hurtin’ the kid, because y’all don’t wanna go cop our CD. Y’all rather download our s**t." At one point in the video, Ghost briefly suggested that the a lack of support from fans may force him to consider retirement.
At the risk of inciting guilt in the hearts of bootleggers, let me add that Ghost is justifiable in his disappointment. One way to ensure that creative artists stay relevant is to buy their albums. Although it's not Ghost's best work, The Big Doe Rehab is definitely a solid follow-up to Fishscale and More Fish.
Watch the video and tell me what you think about Ghostface's reaction.
Related: Ghostface - Big Doe Rehab Review© Bryan Bedder/Getty Images
Comments
i downloaded it…i couldnt find it anywhere here…i live in belgrade,capital of serbia…in the biggest record store,no ghostface,no wu tang,the last album i copped was finding forever,and that was 1 of the 10 copies supplied…i would like to buy it,i think its great.and sorry ghost,i will always bump wu-tang…but if i have the chance to buy any wu or wu fam album…i will…
Damn making me feel bad about downloading the .. lol fuck, I bought 8 Diagrams though so at least I showed some love lol
hope he don’t retire, i have all his albums except for more fish, and the pretty toney album,so i cop his shit all the time man, and i got all the wu’s too, well i aint get 8 diagrams yet, but ima get it asap! lol
So did you buy Big Doe Rehab, Henry?
I’ve enjoyed Ghostface for some time and will still buy his albums, but in the last several months, it’s become clear to me that Ghostface is a whiner.
He complained about the timing of the release of 8 Diagrams. He complained about the beats on it. And now he’s complaining about the sales.
What really turned the tide of my opinion, though was when I saw a show of his a couple of months back. Scion (the car company) has been doing these free shows where they pair rappers up with bands and do a free show in order to publicize their cars. He was doing one of those shows with Rhythm Roots All-Stars at The Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro, NC back in November. My friend and I were there lined up early since admission was being done on a first-come-first-serve basis. As it happened they were having trouble getting the tour bus parked where they wanted it and I went out and helped one of the guys from the club flag it into the right place. It was one of those things where they had to back it in, but they couldn’t see behind it, so signaled how much space was left and the guy from the club relayed that to the driver. So once the limo was in place, the guy from the club invited my friend and me to come into the club through the employee entrance and hang out inside where it was warmer. So, obviously, we took him up on that.
Now, sitting in there, we listened to the end of the sound check with Rhythm Roots All Stars. After they got finished with the main sound check, the sound people were still hearing a slight buzz on the left channel of the main turntable set up, so they reran cables and replaced components and generally worked their asses off trying to make stuff sound perfect. They spend about 20 minutes trying to find and eliminate the source of the buzz, and really, it wasn’t even a very loud buzz. I’ve worked sound before, and I didn’t even notice it until they started talking about it.
So, I tell you all this so that you’ll know that the sound men really worked hard. This is a club which does a couple of hip hop shows a month, far more than any other club around here. KRS-One shouted the Cat’s Cradle out on Keep Right. One of the sound guys I’ve seen at hip-hop shows at other clubs. This is not some club with a bunch of rock guys who resent having to run sound for rappers. I know that rappers sometimes have had to deal with that, but this wasn’t one of those kind of times.
Now, later when Ghostface goes on, he gives a good show. He was flowing nice and the crowd was into it. I won’t front, I was definitely enjoying myself. Everything was going great, until suddenly right at the end of one song, the wireless mics all stopped working. The sound men set to work on it immediately. One of the five mics started working again after like 15 seconds, but the other four were still out. Now, I don’t know what happened, maybe someone accidentally kicked a cord backstage or maybe some equipment just had problems, but it took them a couple more minutes to get the mics back up. You could see that the sound men were on it, though. They immediately started changing things on the board and then went down to check on some of the equipment. But for that whole 2 minutes, Ghost used the one working mic to complain about the sound men. He accused them of fucking up the show and encouraged the crowd to boo them. The sound man who I’ve seen at hip hop shows at other clubs is a little chubby and Ghost called him a fat-a**.
In the end, the two minute delay in the show was not a big deal, but Ghost’s complaining about it was enough to drop it from being an excellent show to just a pretty good one. When I think back about that show, nothing else is going to stick with me as much as Ghostface’s complaining.
Ghost can rhyme, no doubt, but to my mind he’s definitely proven himself a whiner.
Keith
^Luckily, I didn’t have to.
Was he on a plane??? filming this
well, the sad thing is, even if a few more fans quit downloading, great rappers like ghostface still aren’t gonna put up numbers like the pop megastars like kanye or fads like soulja boy. lets just hope he realizes this and doesnt quit
but let’s be frank for a sec, its really hard to drop 20 bucks everytime a decent cd comes out. i still try to buy the real thing once in a while, but if cds keep getting more expensive, companies are less likely to get the sales they want