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Ghostface Killah

• Wu-Note Album Cover Project

  Analog Medium - Found Nov. 6, 2009 Ghostface Killah - Iron Man by Logan Walters Check out Logan Walters' re-envisioning of the original Wu-Tang album art as Blue Note album ...

• What's going on Thursday?

  brooklynvegan - Found Nov. 5, 2009 Ghostface Killah performed "Baby" with Raheem DeVaughn on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Video below... What else?

• Video: Strong Arm Steady - Strong Arm Steady - Montezumas Revenge ...

  Nah Right - Found Nov. 4, 2009 Here is both performance and interview footage of SAS on the road with Souls of Mischief, Fashawn and Ghostface Killah on the Montezuma?s Revenge

• This Week: Concerts We Recommend + Announcements

  Muzzle of Bees - Found Nov. 2, 2009 Shows: 11/2 - Throw Me the Statue + Bishop Allen - High Noon Saloon, Madison 11/3 - Ghostface Killah - Barrymore, Madison 11/5 - White Denim...

• Weekend Rock List: Ghost Songs

  Rolling Stone Rock and Roll Daily - Found Oct. 30, 2009 In what we hope will by law become a Halloween tradition, Jimmy Kimmel Live somehow managed to convince Ghostface Killah to tell a ghost story on

• Ghost Stories with Ghostface Killah

  Baller Status - Found Oct. 30, 2009 The Wu-Tang Clan's Ghostface Killah appears on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" to tell a host story about midgets just in time for Halloween.

• The Mecca of Hip-Hop Hosts Red Bull Big Tune 2009 National Finals

  Reuters - Found Oct. 28, 2009 All-star acts such as Digable Planets, Ghostface Killah, Alchemist and Sha Money made cameos. The Mecca of Hip-Hop Hosts Red Bull Big Tune 2009 National Finals - Houston Chronicle The Mecca of Hip-Hop Hosts Red Bull Big Tune 2009 National Finals - Breitbart.com The Mecca of Hip-Hop Hosts Red Bull Big Tune 2009 National Finals - Business Review Albany The Mecca of Hip-Hop Hosts Red Bull Big Tune 2009 National Finals - Interest!ALERT Explore All

• Son Get Wreck ? Five Tracks From Rapper?s Kids

  unkut.com - A Tribute To Ignorance (Remix) - Found Oct. 27, 2009 ?Then & Now? GZA Jnr., Young Masta and RZA ?s son get a little shine on this opener from Made In Brooklyn . Ghostface Killah feat.

• Is hip-hop really dead? Or just resting?

  Matt Dentler's Blog - Found Oct. 26, 2009 A few months ago, I was excited for the releases of some highly-anticipated rap albums: work by Jay-Z, Kid Cudi, Eminem, Ghostface Killah, and

• Ghostface Killah falls short in Barrymore show entertainment > music ...

  Capital Times - Found Nov. 4, 2009 By KATJUSA CISAR The Capital Times kcisar@madison.com | Posted: Wednesday, November 4, 2009 8:40 am | Loading? Related Stories Ghostface Killah

Ghostface Killah extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (December 2007) (Find sources: Ghostface Killah – news, books, scholar)

Ghostface Killah
Background information
Birth name	Dennis Coles
Also known as	Tony Starks, Ironman, General Tony Starks, Pretty Toney, The Wallabee Kingpin, GFK, Ghost Deini, Starky Love, P Tone, Sun God, Wally Champ
Born	May 9, 1970 (1970-05-09) (age 39)
Origin	Staten Island, New York, United States
Genres	Hip hop
Years active	1991–present
Labels	Razor Sharp, Epic, Starks Enterprises, Def Jam
Associated acts	Wu-Tang Clan, Theodore Unit, MF DOOM, Rakim, Adult Swim
Website	Ghostface's official site

Dennis Coles (born May 9, 1970),¹ better known by his stage name Ghostface Killah, is an American rapper and member of the Wu-Tang Clan. After the group achieved breakthrough success in the aftermath of Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) , the members went on to pursue solo careers to varying levels of success. Ghostface Killah debuted his solo-career with Ironman, which was well received by music critics. He would continue his career, creating additional award-winning albums over the following years such as Supreme Clientele, Fishscale, and The Big Doe Rehab.

Ghostface Killah is critically acclaimed²³ for his loud, fast-paced flow,⁴ and his stream-of-consciousness narratives containing cryptic slang and non-sequiturs.⁴⁵

His stage name was taken from one of the characters in the 1979 kung fu film Mystery of Chessboxing.⁴

Ghostface Killah is a practicing Muslim ⁶

Contents 1 Early years 2 Early Career 2.1 Def Jam 3 Aliases 4 Discography 4.1 Studio albums 4.2 Compilations 5 Filmography 5.1 Movie appearances 5.2 TV series appearances 5.3 Video game appearances 6 References 7 External links

Early years

This biographical section of a needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (January 2009) (Find sources: Ghostface Killah – news, books, scholar)

Ghostface Killah was raised in the Stapleton housing projects in Staten Island, New York. In his autobiographical song "All That I Got Is You", Ghost tells the story of his childhood. He raps about how he grew up in a three bedroom apartment without his father, who left him at the age of six.

Early Career

He debuted with the rest of the Wu-Tang Clan on their critically acclaimed debut, 1993's Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). A roommate of Wu-Tang founder The RZA, Ghostface helped bring together the other seven members, and would function as executive producer on all the Wu-Tang Clan releases.

In 1995, Ghostface guest-starred extensively on fellow Clan member Raekwon's debut album, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx..., appearing on almost every song. He also contributed songs to the Sunset Park and Don't Be A Menace To South Central While Drinking Your Juice In The Hood soundtracks, which would be included on his first solo LP, Ironman, in 1996. The album, which debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200, had a more pronounced soul influence (particularly 1970s soul) than previous Wu-Tang releases, and Ghostface's future albums would continue to feature this stylistic trait.

Ghostface became well-known for both his up-tempo, stream-of-consciousness rap and, later in his career, for his emotionally charged raps and his smooth constant flow. In 1996, he discovered that he was diabetic, a condition that would weaken his health. According to "Trials of Life", a 2007 song with fellow New York rapper Prodigy (himself a sickle-cell anemic), Ghostface assumed he had been stricken by a sexually transmitted disease until he received the diabetes diagnosis. This assumption was brought on by his rapid weight loss and that he had "hit it raw aplenty."⁷

Ghostface was incarcerated for attempted robbery in 1999, a situation that was never publicly commented on by the Wu-Tang Clan or Ghostface (the charge dated from 1995). It would lead to a delay in his next album. In 2000 with his follow-up to Ironman, Supreme Clientele. It was very well-received by critics. It was placed #2 on Hip Hop Connection's list of "The 100 Greatest Rap Albums 1995-2005". It had "Apollo Kids", a popular single which featured Raekwon and had a sample of "Cool Breeze" by Solomon Burke; "Cherchez LaGhost", another single off the album, became a minor club-style hit. It also notably had the sentimental "Child's Play" brought numerous comparisons to Slick Rick. Supreme Clientele would be a turning point in RZA's influence on his sound, as only four songs are produced by the RZA, compared to Iron Man, its predecessor where every song but one is produced by him. Though he contributed fewer beats to the project, Rza personally over saw the mixing and production of the album as a whole, contributing to Supreme Clientele's unified sound

Ghostface wasted little time in recording his next album, the heavily R&B-influenced Bulletproof Wallets, released a year after Supreme Clientele. Its feature single, Never Be the Same Again, featured Carl Thomas and Raekwon. He had another minor club hit with "Flowers", which featured guest vocals from fellow Wu-Tang members Method Man and Raekwon, and a popular single "Ghost Showers" which featured Madame Majestic, who also sung on the popular Wu-Tang track "Gravel Pit". It was well received, but never really matched its predecessor in popularity or renown.

Def Jam

In 2003, Ghostface signed with Def Jam Records. After temporarily dropping "Killah" from his stage name, Ghostface released The Pretty Toney Album in April 2004. The album, while containing two RZA productions, featured none of the Clan; instead, it featured collaborations with Missy Elliott, D-Block and Jacki-O. The singles "Tush" and "Run", the collaborations with Missy and Jadakiss respectively, achieved moderate success in the clubs and charts, and the album was featured on numerous "best of the year" lists, including number nine on Pitchfork Media's.⁸ Ghostface also appeared on the track "On My Knees" by UK R&B group The 411, which became a hit in the UK and Australia, and released an album titled 718 (after the Staten Island area code) with a group of his protégés, the Theodore Unit. In November 2005, Ghostface and Theodore Unit's breakout star Trife Da God released a joint project, Put It On The Line.

In 2006, Ghostface teamed up with underground artist MF Doom for a still unreleased album entitled Swift & Changeable. MF Doom also produced several songs for Ghostface's 2006 album Fishscale, which was once again attributed to "Ghostface Killah". The album debuted strongly, in the #4 position on the U.S. Billboard 200 and at #2 on the R&B charts,⁹ the rapper's most auspicious chart showing since the heyday of the Wu-Tang Clan and the release of his solo debut. The album also nearly unanimously received positive reviews. Ghostface embarked on a limited-date tour of US venues in support of the album, performing several of his concerts together with most members of the Wu-Tang Clan.

He has worked with 4Cast to produce his own action figure.¹⁰ In December 2007 Ghostface appeared on Spinner.com's comedy show The DL [1] to do a holiday commercial for his action figure.[2]

On December 4, 2007, Ghostface released his seventh solo studio album, The Big Doe Rehab.

In a May 2008 interview, Ghostface Killah said that his next project is going to be an R&B-inspired album. It is going to be in the vein of the tracks he has done before with such artists as Ne-Yo and Jodeci. ¹¹¹² In March 2009, Ghostface recorded a song called "Message from Ghostface" dedicated to women who were abused in relationships.

Raekwon, in a May 2009 interview with Rolling Stone indicated that Ghostface Killah is preparing to release a new album. In response to a question asking if the Wu-Tang Clan are going to release a follow up to 8 Diagrams, Raekwon stated "Everybody's doing different things right now — you got Meth [Method Man] coming out with an album, you got Ghostface coming out with an album, some guys working on their projects, some guys getting into the film world, everybody is multi-tasking right now."¹³ Ghostface appeared on a total of 8 songs on Raekwon's highly anticipated release of Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt. II.

Aliases

Ghostface Killah, like most members of the Wu-Tang clan, rapped under several personae, each with their own name, mythology and influences. Some recurring aliases:

• Ghostface Killah (occasionally spelled Ghostface Killer, Ghost Face Killah, or abbreviated GFK)
• Ghostface

His shortened stage name during the The Pretty Toney Album era. ¹⁴¹⁵

• Ghost Deini ¹⁶
• Ironman, Tony Starks, or just Starks

Ghostface has frequently assumed the persona of both Ironman and Tony Stark, a reference to the Marvel Comics character Iron Man and his true identity, millionaire industrialist Tony Stark (note the variant spellings). He released a 1996 album titled Ironman and has drawn deeply on the Iron Man mythology. His song, "Slept On Tony With Dirt," appears in the 2008 film, and he even appears in a deleted scene on the DVD. ¹⁷

• Starky Love ¹⁸
• Pretty Toney, P Tone¹⁹

Discography

Studio albums

• Ironman (1996)
• Supreme Clientele (2000)
• Bulletproof Wallets (2001)
• The Pretty Toney Album (2004)
• Put It On The Line (with Trife Da God) (2005)
• Fishscale (2006)
• More Fish (2006)
• The Big Doe Rehab (2007)
• Ghostdini: The Wizard of Poetry in Emerald City (2009)
• The Wu-Massacre (with Method Man and Raekwon) (2009)
• Customer Love (2010)^{citation needed}
• Agitate, Educate, Organize (2011)^{citation needed}

Compilations

• Shaolin's Finest (2003)
• The Wallabee Champ (2008)
• GhostDeini The Great (2008)

Filmography

Movie appearances

• Black and White (1999) as himself
• Hunter Dawson (2002) as himself
• Fade to Black, (2004) as himself
• Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007) as himself
• Iron Man (2008) as a Dubaian sheik; cameo. (Though it was cut in post-production, his cameo can be found in the DVD's deleted scenes section.)

TV series appearances

• Made (2005) as himself (episode "Nile Is Made Into a Rapper")
• 30 Rock (2006) as himself (episodes "Jack-Tor" and "The Source Awards")
• Human Giant (2007) as himself (episodes "Mind Explosion" and "Mosh Pit!")
• The Boondocks (2007) as himself (episode "Stinkmeaner Strikes Back")
• Rushing Jason (2008) as Big Poppa

Video game appearances

• Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style (1999) as himself
• Def Jam Vendetta (2003) as himself
• Def Jam: Fight for NY (2004) as himself
• Def Jam: Icon (2007) as himself

References

External links

• Official Def Jam site
• HHC Digital interview with Ghostface
• Ghostface Killah at MySpace

v • d • e Ghostface Killah Studio albums Ironman · Supreme Clientele · Bulletproof Wallets · The Pretty Toney Album · Fishscale · More Fish · The Big Doe Rehab · Ghostdini: The Wizard of Poetry in Emerald City Compilations Shaolin's Finest · Hidden Darts: Special Edition · The Wallabee Champ · Ghostdeini the Great Collaborations Put It on the Line · 718 · Swift & Changeable Solo singles "Daytona 500" · "All That I Got Is You" · "Apollo Kids" · "Cherchez LaGhost" · "Never Be the Same Again" · "Ghost Showers" · "Guerilla Hood" · "Tush" · "Run" · "Milk Em'" · "Be Easy" · "Back Like That" · "We Celebrate" · "Good" · "Baby" · "Forever" · "Let's Stop Playing" · "Guest House" Guest singles "Heaven & Hell" · "Criminology" · "Ice Cream" · "I Want You for Myself (Remix)" · "Stand Up" · "Thrilla" · "On My Knees" · 'You Know I'm No Good · "New Wu" · "House of Flying Daggers" Other songs "Me, Myself and I" · "You Know I'm No Good" Related articles Discography · Wu-Tang Clan · Theodore Unit · Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... · Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… Pt. II

v • d • e Wu-Tang Clan RZA · GZA · Method Man · Raekwon · Ghostface Killah · Inspectah Deck · Masta Killa · U-God · Cappadonna Ol' Dirty Bastard (deceased) Studio albums Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) · Wu-Tang Forever · The W · Iron Flag · 8 Diagrams Singles "Protect Ya Neck" · "Method Man" · "Da Mystery of Chessboxin'" · "C.R.E.A.M." · "Can It Be All So Simple" · "Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nuthing ta F' Wit" · "Triumph" · "It's Yourz" · "Protect Ya Neck (The Jump Off)" · "Gravel Pit" · "Careful (Click, Click)" · "Uzi (Pinky Ring)" · "Back in the Game" · "Rules" · "The Heart Gently Weeps" · "Take It Back" Compilations The Swarm · Wu-Chronicles · Wu-Chronicles, Chapter 2 · The Sting · Disciples of the 36 Chambers · Legend of the Wu-Tang Clan · Wu-Tang Meets the Indie Culture · Mathematics Presents Wu-Tang Clan & Friends Unreleased · Wu-Tang Chamber Music Related Discography · The Wu-Tang Manual · The Tao of Wu · Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style · Affiliates · Affiliates discography · Category

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Persondata
NAME	Coles, Dennis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Ghostface Killah
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Hip hop artist
DATE OF BIRTH	May 9, 1970
PLACE OF BIRTH	Staten Island, New York
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH