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 Ghost Ghost Stories 12"
I usually prefer the more funk aspects of the output from the breakin bread stable; the straight hiphop cuts on the compilation were ok, but nothing to scream about. So they blow my theory away with this three tracker from London (Norwich originally) producer Ghost, his vinyl debut as far as I’m aware.
So we've got three vocal cuts on side A with a quality list of guest MCs. Kashmere and DPF on 'Flip It' are a dreamteam combo, both with their distinct vocal styles and accents, DPF in his first foray since his excellent debut solo EP on Son, and Kashmere who is just growing with confidence on every successive track I hear him on - 'me and my fam, yeah we're taking off, with a hard enough style to make the wu-tang sound like the blazin squad'.
'Exactly' could be taken straight off the Lowlife 'food' compilation, featuring as it does Asaviour & Verb T, sounds very familiar instantly but in a good way with its piano and double bass laden samples, and you find yourself joining in with the ‘drop knowledge on the scene…exactly’ choruses straight away
‘42’ has Tom Evans on the mic and one of the best young DJs, IQ on the decks. Something akin to the Supra produced Ashbury album with its almost ambient sampling and dark beats, done well, but probably the weakest of the three
Flip the disc and its time to leave the MCs behind and let Ghost show his production talents with three two minute samples of the A-side tracks to let you concentrate without letting the rhymes distract you, and a fourth track – ‘dedication’, erm, dedicating the song to Ghosts influences with some nice cuts and vocal snippets – Guru, Diamond D, ATCQ, Rodney P all get props amongst many others. Little more than a filler really but would fit in nicely in a mixtape or something
Overall it’s a pretty impressive debut for Ghost, who over the three main tracks shows there’s quite a few sides to his production bow and has the contacts to bring in some quality MC’s, ‘Flip It’ steals it for me as Kashmere & DPF are two of the more interesting sounding MC’s around and they work the well produced track well, but none of them are especially weak. The two minute instrumental samples give the game away that once you've got past the original breaks there's little changing going on, but if you've got the MCs to give the variety then tracks can hold up, and this 12" does just that.
- Spoon | profile
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