These days, there's a frustrating phrase rap fans are probably tired of hearing: "Rap was better in the '90s." Regardless of whether or not that phrase is actually true (remember: It was our generation that decided to steal music) there are a few relics of that era who are still kicking. Two of the OG rap veterans who remember the good ol' days are Sheek Louch and Ghostface Killah. Both are members of legendary groups, they're both obviously fans of each other ("Living in the crack spot, banging that Sheek Louch!" - Ghost Deni), and what do you know? They have a joint project called Wu-Block which dropped this week.
To hear them tell it, it's simply a street record. And if you're a fan of either of those guys, that's exactly what you want to hear.
Ghost and Sheek dropped into the Complex offices to discuss the making of the album, when Ghost wasn't explaining how he tricked Def Jam out of his album, and when Sheek wasn't giving us a few details on the upcoming LOX album.
Interview by Insanul Ahmed (@Incilin)
Complex: Ghost, let's talk “New God Flow,” which is hot on the radio right now. How'd it come together?
Ghostface Killah: I just wrote a verse to it, I did it like two months ago. I just sent it to them but nobody never got back like: “Oh, shit, I heard the song.” I just did it and I sent it, instead of just putting it out on my own. I just gave it to him out of respect and that was it. I just heard that shit today on the radio for the first time.
Complex: It’s a good look for you.
Ghostface Killah: It was alright. Yeah, you know what I mean. If we get some airplay out of the shit, like the first one. We need that shit right now because we’re about to drop this Wu-Block shit.
Complex: Right. Let’s talk Wu-Block. What’s interesting to me is that you guys are obviously big fans of each other.
Ghostface Killah: Hell yeah.
Sheek Louch: Definitely. The Wu got love for us. But with them being in the game first, we was listening to all their shit. We’re big fans. [We were listening to Wu] all day long when we were hustling out there. Me, Jada, and Styles listened to all of them. I was in Mary J. Blige’s MPV or her Range Rover, riding around and bugging out to their songs.
Yonkers and Staten Island is like basically the same sh*t. [When The LOX first came out], Rae was like, “Yo, these ni**as right here, watch them. They’re gonna be some sh*t.” They came out going in and it ain’t stop. They still throwing darts now. They like the hardest motherf**kers on the streets. - Ghostface Killah
To get to work with them it’s different. You’ve got people that you can’t wait to do a song with but they ain’t saying nothing no more, they ain’t hot. These guys are still hot, still rapping and saying that shit. So that’s what makes it even better.
Ghostface Killah: That’s the same thing with them though. Like I told them, Yonkers and Staten Island is like basically the same shit. [When The LOX first came out], Rae was like, “Yo, these niggas right here, watch them. They’re gonna be some shit.” They came out going in and it ain’t stop. They still throwing darts now. They like the hardest motherfuckers on the streets.
Me and Rae think the same. So it’s like, “You know what man? Merge that shit together.” Me and Sheek was supposed to do [an album called] Gorillas In The Mist a long time ago, like before I was doing FishScale and all that.
Sheek brought the idea to me but we never carried it out. When we got on the tour together, we started going and it came back up. He just came like, “Yo, Wu-Block.” Once he said that shit, it just stuck. We had to make it happen.
Sheek Louch: The energy was there between both teams because you can have resistance. Say like me and him is all aboard, you could have both teams like, “Ehh, I don’t know.” None of that was happening with us. Everyone was like, “Word? That’s dope.” I love them and we love them.
Ghostface Killah: Yeah, we got off our Canada run in November of last year.
Sheek Louch: And knocked that shit out, b.
Ghostface Killah: That be the glory of it. Because we could say, “We’re gonna build this building” but then you don’t do nothing. But you have to get up do it. When it’s complete, you appreciate it. Me and him, when we heard the songs one after another the way down, I told him, I said,”Yo, I’m happy man.”
Everything seemed like it was in place. It wasn’t like, “Oh yo, this is weak, this is weak, now scrape six songs off’.” Nah, it’s just finished. So, in getting these two crews together, these combining forces, it’s powerful, b. Especially for the street shit that y’all looking for. It ain’t them niggas talking knowledge and doing skinny jean shit. It’s like nah, it’s straight project-block shit. If you came up in the ‘90s, then you can expect what we got, b.
Sheek Louch: We ain’t go for no big [single]. The people in the streets and the consumers are gonna pick and make something a single, because we don’t know what it is ourselves. We don’t have like, “Yo, this joint right here is gonna be the single.”
Complex: How long was the process to make the album? It sounds like it was made very quickly.
Sheek Louch: Not that quick because man, Ghost be in Beijing probably tomorrow. Or he’s over there touring.
Ghostface Killah: You know how it be. Shit. When we left last November off the tour, that’s when we started working on it.
Ghostface Killah: Yeah so it’s not even November yet right now. We just said what we was gonna do. That’s shows you how fast time flies. That’s why you can’t sleep. If you’ve got something you want to do, do it right now.
