Today in Hip-Hop — October 29: Ghostface Killah’s Ironman Turns 30, and Motown Is in the Credits

October 29, 1996. Ghostface Killah drops Ironman, his first solo album, and it turns 30 today. Here’s the jewel: check the songwriting credits on “All That I Got Is You,” the song he wrote for his mother. Berry Gordy’s name is in there, next to Fonce Mizell, Freddie Perren and Deke Richards, the Motown writing team behind the Jackson 5’s “Maybe Tomorrow.” RZA took a Motown lullaby, put Mary J. Blige over it, and let Ghost tell the story of a cold Staten Island childhood. Hardcore rap almost never got that open in 1996.

A Solo Album With a Crowded Cover

Ironman came out a year after Liquid Swords, on Razor Sharp and Epic Street, and RZA produced almost all of it (True Master did “Fish”). It’s barely a solo record. Raekwon and Cappadonna have their names on the cover, the Chef is on more than half the tracklist, and Method Man, Inspectah Deck, U-God and Masta Killa all stop by. That’s the Only Built 4 Cuban Linx partnership flipped around. On Cuban Linx, Ghost was the co-star on Rae’s album. On Ironman, Rae is on Ghost’s. If you’re wearing one, you should know the other, so here’s the Raekwon Only Built 4 Cuban Linx tee.

The sound is pure ’70s soul and blaxploitation film. The Delfonics sing on “After the Smoke Is Clear,” Al Green and Teddy Pendergrass are chopped across the album, and dialogue from The Education of Sonny Carson shows up between verses. Spin called the beats “soul horns with horror-film keyboards.” For the deep-catalog heads: “The Soul Controller,” with the Force M.D.’s, was missing from later pressings because a sample hadn’t been cleared. If your CD has 17 tracks, hold onto it.

The numbers held up too. Ironman debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and went Platinum. Four years later he topped it creatively with Supreme Clientele. We broke down every code on that one in our Supreme Clientele deep dive, and our best Ghostface songs guide covers the rest of the catalog.

Rep Tony Starks’s Catalog

Ironman was the first chapter, and Supreme Clientele is where Ghost’s stream-of-consciousness style hit its peak. We made a Ghostface Killah Supreme Clientele tee for the heads who have been following Pretty Toney since the Wallabees and the mink robe.

Also Today in Hip-Hop

• 1991: Ice Cube’s Death Certificate (35 years). The album is split into a Death Side (“where we are today”) and a Life Side (“where we need to go”). Sir Jinx, DJ Pooh and Cube produced it on Priority. It debuted at No. 2, the same spot Ironman landed exactly five years later to the day. There’s the Death Certificate tee, and the full era breakdown is in our Ice Cube shirts guide.
• 1991: Organized Konfusion’s self-titled debut (35 years). Pharoahe Monch and Prince Po put out their first album on Hollywood Basic, and it was dense, funny and political at once (“Walk into the Sun,” “Releasing Hypnotical Gases”). It was a cult classic from the start. Rep the Queens duo with the Organized Konfusion tee.
• 1991: Big Daddy Kane’s Prince of Darkness (35 years). This was Kane’s fourth album on Cold Chillin’, with Q-Tip and a young Busta Rhymes as guests. The same day, it shared shelf space with Cube and OK. For his earlier peak, there’s the It’s a Big Daddy Thing tee.
• 1996: O.G.C.’s Da Storm (30 years). Starang Wondah, Top Dog and Louieville Sluggah of the Boot Camp Clik dropped their debut on Duck Down the same day as Ironman. Da Beatminerz handled much of the production, and it’s Brooklyn through and through.

Stay creative — The Custom Creative Team

Jon Jones