Fishscale

Loved this album, great assorted group of producers and Killah's rhymes are something else. Also, I learned how to cut a brick of cocaine, so it was also instructional.

We have an APB on an MC Killer Looks like the work of a Master Evidence indicates that his stature Merciless like a terrorist hard to capture The flow, changes like a chameleon Plays like a friend, and stabs you like a dagger This technique attacks the immune system Disguised like a lie paralyzing the victim You scream, as it enters your bloodstream Erupts your brain from the pain these thoughts contain Moving on a nigga with the speed of a centipede And injure any motherfucking contender!

I wasn't expecting to like this as much as I did considering other Wu Tang projects I've heard, but man, Ghosty just has a way with words that can drag me in to a story. The narrative-based rapping is definitely the strongest draw here, with a strong second going to the excellent production (I mean, come on, DOOM and Dilla? Spoiled!). There are too many skits IMO, and not every song is a banger, but this was definitely a good project.

5/10. He immediately tells us to fasten our seatbelts, which I appreciate because I am tired of listening to rap albums that don't care about the listener's personal safety. Also listening to this for the first time after the MCU made Tony Stark a household name, but knowing that this is older than that made the constant references to Tony Starks and Ironman a bit surprising. I liked that the skits transitioned very smoothly into the following songs in this album. I kinda liked Back Like That, I suppose because it just sounds like a pop song. I also like how when he boasts about women, these women are often intelligent in addition to having great asses etc, which is pretty fun.

Listening again today; great production and incredibly cinematic album. Def up there with my fav hip hop albums of all time. “RAGU” and “Back Like That (feat. Ne-Yo)” have got to be some of my fav tracks of all time.

As someone without a lot of experience with hiphop, but no particular disdain for it, I liked this album. It's an actual album. Each song is distinct, it's not a mushy bleed-together of left-overs to pad the length. But the production is consistent and each song obviously belongs on this album. Each track has interesting things that separate them from the rest, and the production is really top notch. Production is so good it probably makes it swing above its weight class. There's nothing irritating on the album, it's all consistently good. Solid album I probably wouldn't choose to listen to again, but if it came on I wouldn't be compelled to turn off either.

Een soort rap dat op clipping lijkt. Ambitieus maar ik weet niet of het wat voor mij is.

This fucks and this Aussie gives it five pairs of Blundstones out of five.

Strangely, despite loving Bulletproof wallets when I was a teenager, I hadn't listened to this much before. That has changed now, I've listened to it 4 times today! Super album, I love Ghostface's voice and delivery, and there's some really great tracks on here.

Happy I finally have a reason to listen to this album. The production on this album was quite 50/50 but the better fifty was some of the best production on any of Ghostfaces work. Suprised that this album is on this list instead of Ironman and Supreme Clientele which are two clearly superior albums, this is still good though and Ghostface is one of the best rappers of all time. 4.2/5

The Champ

Tu peux remercier Ne-Yo

I'm not really into rap, but I did enjoy this with some standout tracks

Another random hip hop record in the 1001 list. It is almost a joke, thinking about all masterpieces left out of the list to make some room for boring random releases like this one. An exWu Tang Klan member trying to vindicate himself. That's ok, even a few good tracks like 'Whip You With a Strap' and hilarious skits like 'Bad Mouth Kid'... but come on...

Awful?

Loved it, I didn't think I would, But every track was strong and it worked together so well.

Abso loot LUV.

I love this album. Surprised to see it on this list, but it's fantastic.

Sweet, hard-hitting rhymes with a lot of energy and genuine fun. And awesome beats!

This album doesn't miss; not even mad about the massive runtime.

Gimme a pen and pand

Massive energy. The backing is so full of hooks and great grooves, could listen to it spinning all day long. Lyrics are fast and furious with passion and feeling. Loved this album

LOVE me some Wu-Tang, and Ghostface might just be my favorite member. In a group with no lack of hip-hop titans, Ghostface still manages to grab the spotlight and throttle it like it stole something from him. The man's a poet, plain and simple. "Supreme Clientele" gets a lot of attention (and rightfully so--it doesn't get much better than "Apollo Kids" and "Cher Chez La Ghost"), but "Fishscale" is my favorite Ghostface album. The skits are utterly skippable (ranging from the mildly amusing "Bad Mouth Kid" to the cringey "Heart Street Directions"), but basically every track is worthy of a place in my regular playlist rotation. And it's no wonder. Not only is he a master storyteller, but his fellow Clan members back him up regularly on this album (most notably on "9 Milli Bros."), and the tracks are produced by hip-hop greats like Pete Rock, J Dilla, and MF DOOM. I could list my favorite tracks, but it'd basically just be two-thirds of the track list, minus the skits. That's how solid this album is. Casual hip-hop fans might find this album a little inaccessible, but for those who appreciate the Wu-Tang style "Fishcale" is solid gold.

Some of the best rap I've heard in a long time. Loved all of it. The flow, the samples (these guys love their comic books), the collaborations. All of it!

Perhaps the craziest thing about Wu-Tang was the number of incredible rappers and producers who were part of the crew from it's outset. Ghostface is a great example of that. He's one of the greatest rappers of all time, and yet when you list of the members of Wu-Tang who were most important to rap history, Ghostface barely sneaks into the top 5 (I'd put Rza, Method Man, ODB, and perhaps Gza in over him). Despite that, Ghostface clearly shows how well his style ages here. More than 10 years after 36 chambers, Ghostface comes in hot with Fishscale. It helps a lot that this album features some of the greatest producers of all time at the height of their careers. One of the coolest things about this album is getting to hear some of my favorite songs off of Donuts by J Dilla employed by a rapper whose style meshes well with Dilla's. I can't think of another rapper who can tell a story in verse the way that Ghostface can. His flow is incredible, but the way that he paints a picture while he does it is his true skill. I can't believe that I'm going to give another Wu-Tang rapper a 5/5 album, but here we are. This album is undeniable 5/5

Amazing.

This is the album that kept me from listening to the last 10+ days of 1001 assigned albums. This album absolutely floored me. I’ve listened to it countless times. The storytelling is so vivid, the wordplay so nuanced, and the production and sampling is just some of the best ever. I could go on…but it’s just all-time hip-hop album.

Loved this. It wasn't on my radar when it came out but this is absolutely what I loved in like 2003

Like most hip hop albums... it’s a tad long. But pretty pretty good 👌

2006. Key Songs: R.A.G.U, 9 Milli Bros, Shakey Dog

Really enjoyed this one

Cocaine rap isn't my favorite thing, but the lyricism is on point. Best track: The Champ.

good

Good shit

Surprisingly good, and all-star guest appearances

This is probably tied with Inspectah Deck's Resident Patient as my fav Wu Tang solo record out there.

This was super great and a pretty vicious album! I feel like this is an album that if I listened to it when I was younger it'd have an even bigger impact. As it stands though, a really great reason why Wu-Tang ain't nothing to fuck with.

Great solo album from the clan man

Great album

One of my favourite unheard hip hop albums so far. Doesn't sound like he takes himself too seriously but hits hard all the same. Lots of solid features but surprisingly the Ne Yo hook was my favourite - especially loved Kanye's verse on the remix. Can definitely hear where Action Bronson gets his style from. The Bad Mouth Kid skit was hilarious.

Cinematic and dense. I need to listen to this again, I feel like I missed so much. The beats just felt so groovy and vital as well.

Wu Tang Forever

Ok

i don't really think i understand how to appreciate hiphop but this has an energy....a lifeblood running through it.

good album, can’t go wrong with wu tang

I like the style and flow. Enjoyable hip-hop/r&b variant of rap, with creativity, color and an attitude.

Miles better than the Raekwon album, IMO. I don’t know what makes “9 Milli Bros.” anything other than just a Wu Tang song, but I ain’t complaining. I would absolutely listen to this again.

This is a great album from start to finish. Ghostface is always great, and this is hands-down his best album.

Impressive!

Great production, overall a great listen and def up there with one of my fav hip hop albums of all time. RAGU slaps.

Mucho flow, más de lo que puedo procesar... por ahí caché letras bastante buenas, creo que el disco suena bien en conjunto y las colaboraciones son muy chidas. Especialmente me gustaron "The Champ", "Three Bricks" y el remix (con la familiar voz de Kanye) de "Back Like That". 8/10

Wasn't familiar with this (so much wu tang catalogue), but loved it.

Pretty good, I like the beats but it was long and had a bunch of boring skits. 8

This is real good. Three Bricks is an awesome closing track

Every rap album on here seems to be by a member of the Wu Tang Clan and takes about a day to listen to. This one, though, is the best. Great use of smoky soul samples, skits that actually add to the proceedings, and a genuinely brilliant couple of tracks in The Champ and Back Like That. Gonna use The Champ to get myself psyched into a killer mentality before playing badminton with my work colleagues

This album is completely out of my normal wheelhouse of rock/punk/emo, but I loved it. I wish there were less skits, but they come with the territory I guess.

Es que siento que no tengo las suficientes herramientas para la apreciación de este género. Diría que pasó sin pena ni gloria. Está okay para un ratito, pero sí me pesó una hora. Me gustaron Kilo, The Champ, y Underwater que tiene un instrumentación chidilla. Heart Street Directions es muy cagada. Mood: "it's kinda wet down there" lol

Love this album. Could still do with trimming down a bit

Not normally my thing but enjoyed that added couple of songs to my favourites.

8/10 a lot of good tracks on here, great beats and samples. i think it's a little overly long.

Liked it.

Shite at the beginning Good decent Got slower Got bored

Disco desigual, las canciones más populares creo que son las más culeras. Es mejor The Supreme Clientele. ¿Cuál es el criterio para elegir los discos? En fin. Aún así, como es tan largo, tiene chingos de rolas chidas.

great production, good flow but iffy lyrics in places... would rather mr killah spat rhymes about the benefits of recycling so knocking it down a star until he makes that change

This was actually great. Very funky / soulful. Not very Wu-Tang. Didn't catch many lyrics on first listen, but lots of effing and jeffing. Terrible skits though.

Yeah

Really enjoyed it, Ghostface a legend

buena primera escuchada jajaja me aburri un poco escuchando pero es wea mia pq si el disco es muy largo me da lata fdajkadjkf

A very solid and lyrically rich rap album. 8.0/10

Man, I listened the hell out of this back in 2006. Kilo has a great, great hook and I didn't remember anything else about the rest of the album. But I think pretty much every song on this is a gem.

Jesus this album was dope. I haven't really listened to any rap album before, and initially I wasn't that into it, but I gave myself some time and went for a promenade in the rain with this album and and felt it very much. Every now and then I wasn't that into a song, but overall it was tremendous. It definitely feels like a complete work and the songs work together. Amazing.

Great lyricism. Solid RZA production.

Ghostface Killah is peerless on this album of grimy storytelling and verbal dexterity. His taste is impeccable,with beats from underground heroes J Dilla (RIP) and MF Doom (RIP), old school innovator Pete Rock and chart topper Just Blaze. The samples are sublime - the old soul tracks gives the album a cohesion often lacking in other rappers’ efforts. If Ghostface isn’t the GOAT then he damn near gets close to claiming the crown with this record.

A high quality rap album with great rhymes and beats. The album flows through from beginning to end and it's hard not to bop your head to the beat. I thought I wouldn't like it from the first song/skit, but it drew me in and I enjoyed it until the end.

This was really really good and lyrical with amazing percussion and flow. But man the jokes are really cringe.

My type of music. Definitely some favourite yracks

It's alright. I mean, I do like it. It has a lot of charm, with its pretty fast and short skits along with the array of producers (Pete Rock, MF DOOM, J Dilla, etc.) I do think straying away from RZA Production does kind of hinder it but I still think its a unique album. Its pretty long, tackling an hour with 23 tracks. A few of them are skits, but still. It's a lot of tracks! Raekwon, Trife, & Cappadonna are some of the recurring features but its not limited to them. I do like the J Dilla cuts on here. Using "Hi." And "One For Ghost" on Donuts, I really think GFK uses these beats very well. The production on songs like Jellyfish, Underwater, The Champ, all great. I think this album loses me a bit with it's length but overall, its a fun one. 7/10 As of July 21th, 2021 Best Tracks: Kilo, The Champ, 9 Milli Bros., Beauty Jackson, R.A.G.U., Whip You With A Strap, Be Easy, Jellyfish, Underwater Worst Track: Barbershop

This is what I imagined Wu-tang would be like; actually creative and a blast to listen to! Closing in on a 5 for sure

OH NO ITS A SPOOKY GHOST

Czego jak czego, ale pana Ghostface Killaha na takiej liscie sie nie spodziewalem i to dodatkowo z takim materialem, bo dalbym sobie obciac lape, ze ironman, gdzie persona tonyego starka snuje opowiesci z getta bedzie miala o wiele wieksze szanse na pojawienie sie tutaj, tak samo sprawa ma sie z supreme clientele jako album inspirowany czarnym ladem, a tu jednak fishscale, czyli album ktorego motywem przewodnim jest dealowanie koko, na co juz nawet tytul jasno wskazuje, rybie luski to okreslenie na wyjatkowo czysta kokaine, okolo 90% wtedy nie mamy do czynienia z bialym proszkiem sprzedawanym na dworcach, ale raczej z bialo lsniacymi krysztalami lub czyms oscypkowo wygladajacym przed pieczeniem, wiec plyta trzyma sie tego motywu opowiadajac na temat dzialalnosci przestepczosci zorganizowanej po murzynsku, jak przystalo na gettowe historie mamy opowiesci o biegaczach, porucznikach, kucharzach, niewinnych przechodniach wciagnietych w ten swiat kilogramow za sprawa kawalka olowiu, thugowej milosci, lojalnosci do rodziny i do ulicznej rodziny, szybkich pieniadzach, szybkim zyciu i jeszcze szybszym umieraniu, plyta to godzina dwanascie solidnego materialu, z 27 trakow 7 to skity, ktore sa dla mnie jak najwiekszym problemem albumu, bo w wiekszosci sa to bardzo typowe ghostowe monologi, ktore maja wprowadzic do traka, o ile ghost nigdy nie byl w moim top 3 czlonkow wutangowych, tak jak slucham tej plyty to jest zadziwiajaco rowna, jesli chodzi o liryczny deliwery, nie ma tutaj przesadzonej liczby featurow, jak na poprzednich materialach, taki ironman, to praktycznie album trio killaha raekwona i cappadonny, dodatkowo z beatami od pana RZA, wiec wutang pelna geba, tutaj natomiast czuc o wiele bardziej solowosc tego projektu, takze od strony beatowo producenckiej, bo RZA nie wystepuje tutaj jako producent, tylko ma jednego wersa na 9 milli bros, ktory featuruje wszystkich zyjacych, oraz tych troche mniej zyjacych, czlonkow wu tanga, a wiec kto wyprodukowal plyte, odpowiedz na to pytanie jest skomplikowana, bo dlugo by wymieniac 11 apostolow producerki ktory zebrali sie zeby ugotowac taki krazek, obok takich nazwisk jak pete rock czy j dilla pojawiaja sie takze calkiem niespodziewane picki, ktore slychac juz podczas pierwszego odsluchu, mianowicie mf doom na producerce, zastanawialem sie skad on mial tyle materialu zeby wypuscic trzy albumy czysto instrumentalne, ktorych w wiekszosci nie uzywal na swoich materialach, to wlasnie po czesci otrzymalem odpowiedz na clipse of doom czy jellyfish, albo na wspominanym juz wutangowym traku, na nastepne instrumentalne sluchanie musze obadac orginy reszty special herbsow, z pikow plejlistowych na liste wpada kilo, brosy i back like that, z najbardziej 2k06 featurem jaki mozna sobie wysnic, czyli pan ne-yo i jego aksamitne wokale na chorusie, lista kolejny raz pozytywnie zaskakuje iloscia murzynskich albumow, a zaskoczenie tym wieksze, bo to jednak thugowo hardkorowy material, a nie radio friendly kontent

Above average cocaine rap. Great NY attitude.

I quite enjoyed this. Pretty chill.

Unexpectedly incredible

Nce flow

This was great but suffered from the skits and stuff.

I still don't understand skits on rap albums, but the tunes were bangers

Production > lyrics but crack spot and kilo are elite. I probably missed a lot so gotta run it back

pretty great album, some of the skits were a little corny but that music slapped I’ll give it an 8/10

Rating: 8/10 Best songs: Kilo, Whip you with a strap, Back like that, Big girl

This is pretty great. Now I know where a few samples on Donuts come from.

Klassisk hiphop, soul-samples, nice flows, wu-tang, hård lyrik

I really enjoyed some of the songs on this, particularly The Champ and Three Bricks. Overall great album.

I was not really looking forward to this album but it really surprised me! Great beats, the rapping was really clear so you I could understand what he was saying. And that's the most grandpa thing I've ever said.

I have to say this was a total surprise and I really enjoyed it!! I loved some of the sampled songs. I think I'll listen again - some of those got me pumped

I love the song Kilo, I might use that in some Maths lessons in the future. Back like that is a bangerrr. There's a lot of variation and interest in this album. I like it! Enjoying the samples on some of these tracks and great rhymes, every track is distinct. We all know by now, I love skits! I wish I had discovered this album earlier in life and I prefer a few more melodical moments than this album provides so it isn't my perfect hip hop album but it's certainly a 4.

I'm totlly digging this!

4.1 + I remember liking lots of the joints off this record back in 2006, especially "Kilo." Sadly, it quickly fell off my radar and I think the skits are to blame. With the exception of "Barbershop" that turns into a fire track, the skits add so much bloat to an otherwise amazing record. At the outset, it's intimidating to look at these 24 track that clock in at over an hour. Overlooking all that, all the actual songs on here are bangers. First, I love Ghostface's writing, his ecstatic storytelling on "Shakey Dog" and the way he adds strange details to his descriptions on "Big Girl." Second, there are recognizable samples to create some insane beats. Third, the collabs: Raekwon, Wu-Tang, BIG, etc.

Loud, noisy, black, and gangsta. I don't care too much about the lyrics, I feel like I'm too disconnected from that black anger and black power that is reflected in the lyrics, so I judge this purely on how much I enjoy the noise that comes out of my speaker. I have to say, the first two songs are the best, Shakey Dog and Kilo. Crack Spot being number three, and then maybe R.A.G.U...perhaps I just have a soft spot for rap with female voices.

I wasn't expecting much from a Wu-tang member about a decade from the group's peak to release something this great. It's cinematic, perfectly produced, the beats and flows are on point. This might just be one of the best albums of the early 2000's.

I really didn't expect much from this album. Maybe that's why I found myself enjoying it. Sure, the skits are super lame and a lot of the content is dated but it turns out that Ghostface Killa is a damn good writer. The delivery is on-point and these tracks are just so tasty. Color me surprised.