Interview: Ghostface Killah on waiting 88 years to hear the new Wu Tang, and his upcoming Canadian reality show

“Uh, is this Ghost?” Tracking down Ghostface Killah while he’s in the midst of a Canadian tour is no easy task, but when we finally connect to the one and only Ghostface (a.k.a. Tony Starks, a.k.a. Ghostdini) while travelling down the 401 (“somewhere outside of Oshawa,”) he seems pumped to be back in the country. Ghostface is currently cementing his mark in Canada, collaborating on an album with Toronto’s jazzy Badbadnotgood ensemble last year, and preparing to launch Canada Takes the Mic this spring, a reality show search for Canadian talent.

We spoke with Ghost about his thoughts on the controversial release plan for the new Wu Tang album, his motivation for creating Canada Takes the Mic, and his thoughts on Canadian rap (and Justin Bieber).

How’s the Canadian tour going so far?

You know, it’s been great. Everything’s been good. A lot of love here. We just conquering land, me, GZA, and Cappadonna. That’s about it, just conquering good land.

You’re hitting Montreal this weekend, is there anything special you look forward to doing when you’re here?

Just trying to have a good time man, and give the people 100%. Just have fun, do whatever songs they want us to do. I don’t plan my shows, I don’t plan ’em out or anything like that. It depends, if you’re doing a live band, or rolling with a DJ. Right now, we don’t have a live band rolling with us, it’s a DJ and we’ve got a nice little set, and we’re going to give it to the people of Montreal.

You’ve been working with a lot of live instrumentation on your recent records, is it important for you to keep that aspect in the recordings?

I mean, yea, it’s different. It’s not what you do, it’s how you do it. And I think it works for me, totally.

 What’s the status of Wu Tang? Is everyone is on good terms now?

I don’t know, I can’t speak for everybody, you know what I mean? But I know that on my side, everything is cool, where it’s supposed to be. I think they’re trying to do a tour in June overseas. I don’t know if everybody is on or whatever. I’ll know in like, another 30 days.

What’s up with the new Wu Tang album, The Wu – Once Upon a Time in Shaolin? Have you been able to hear it yet?

Um, no, not really. I heard the songs I was on, and stuff like that. But I heard there was like 30-something songs on it, like 33 or 37, I forgot what it was. And they said they’d put it out in like 88 years … you know, I didn’t agree with that. But I don’t got control over that. It depends on what you’re trying to do. It’s like, in 88 years, the only thing I get out of it is like, “I’m going to give you a boost in 88 years,” that’s if people are still into our music, you know what I mean?

Like, “Oh shoot, these are the guys my grandfather and them used to talk about, they just got a new album out, and they old.”

I guess in 88 years from now we’ll all be dead, you know what I mean? So it’s like, “They gone, but yo, they just dropped an album.” Like Tupac, but you just did it like, 88 years from now. So, you know, that’s a little mystery. Or you could just do it and drop it and see how people take it, and tour off of it.

Where did you get the idea for Canada Takes the Mic?

My girl Val from Vancouver, because I told her I was going to open up a label here in Canada, and she was like, “OK then, this is what I’m doing and we could tie this together with the label, and it would make perfect sense.” So basically, I’m looking for artists, looking for a lot of talent. I know there’s a lot of hidden talent in Canada, and I just want to give people the opportunity to reach their goal, you know what I mean? Whether you’re a singer, whether you’re a rapper, or whatever you do with music, we’ll give you a chance to reach your goal, and go to the next level. You could win $100,000 and a record deal. So, that’s what it is right now.

In September we’re going to be checking out the auditions in like, 10 or 12 cities, and hopefully we’ll narrow it down to 10 people, and then place them somewhere in a house for like a month. And each week, or two times, we haven’t decided yet, somebody will just get eliminated, until you get down to number one. It’ll be a televised show, so that’s exposure right there. It’ll be televised hopefully on a good network, I don’t want to say no names. And yeah, let’s get it in.

So it’ll be open to any singers or MC’s in Canada?

Yeah, you just got to go to the website, you register there on April 15th, you pay your money, and that’s it.

You’ve always been a strong supporter of Canadian rap, but how do you think others in the US look at it? 

Hmm, I’m not sure, I never really asked nobody. Everywhere in the world somebody’s rapping. Young kid in London, Amsterdam, this or that.

So I never really took hold of somebody in New York and was like, “Yo, you heard of Canadian rap?”

Like, nah, they don’t look at it like that, because even Drake’s from Canada, but some people don’t know that he’s from Canada, and he just sounds like a regular person. It don’t even come up in they mind like that. Like Justin Bieber, they just hear him on the radio, they’re not looking at him like “Where you from?” and stuff like that.

When you were working with Badbadnotgood last year did that help cement your relationship with Canadian music?

I don’t know, we did a lot of shows, but we haven’t done a lot of shows in Canada.  We did a lot of shows in the States, and we’re about to go to London for a couple of shows, but not too many in Canada.

Does anything excite you about hip hop these days?

Am I excited about it? Nah, not really. I’m not really excited. I was excited back in the 90’s, but nah. It’s just hip hop.

What about all the buzz over the new Kendrick Lamar album, is that something you’d have a chance to listen to? 

I haven’t had a chance to listen to it, but I understand it’s really good. But I haven’t had a chance to listen to it.

Are we about due for another Softest Rappers list? 

Ohhh, I don’t know. You might hear from somebody else, but not from me.

What’s coming up next for you?

I don’t like to speak before the time. People can look out for my Supreme Clientele Part II: Blue & Cream: The Wally Era. But other that that, I’m just gonna keep my mouth closed until things start going further and manifesting themselves more and more. Then I can let ya’ll know more information.

Ghostface Killah performs at Theatre Telus, 1280 St-Denis, April 3rd at 9:00pm with GZA and Cappadonna. Tickets are $46/$57, available here. Registration for Canada Takes the Mic opens on April 15th. For more information, visit www.canadatakesthemic.com