<p>Ghostface Killah<br><i>?More Fish?</i><br>Def Jam Records<br><img src=http://www.dailybruin.com/ae/paw.jpg width=25><img src=http://www.dailybruin.com/ae/paw.jpg width=25><img src=http://www.dailybruin.com/ae/paw.jpg width=25><img src=http://www.dailybruin.com/ae/halfpaw.jpg width=13> <br/>Following a year in which ?Fishscale? somehow snowballed into New York rapper Ghostface Killah?s most acclaimed album, one would think the aptly titled ?More Fish? could only be an afterthought. <br/>?Fishscale? was an album of big guns and high profiles: producers J Dilla, MF Doom and Pete Rock all contributed beats, and various Wu-Tang Clan members stopped in for guest verses. <br/>With left-field tracks (?Underwater?) next to bangers (?The Champ?), it sounded more like a greatest hits collection than a fifth solo album and proved, once again, that Ghost can rap over anything. <br/>?Fishscale? also made a push toward supplying the commercial recognition he?s long deserved, with the single ?Back Like That? peaking at No. 39 on the Billboard hip-hop charts. <br/>So with Christmas just around the corner, Def Jam dropped ?More Fish? like day-old tuna, hoping to cash in. <br/>Or did they? <br/>A few listens in and ?More Fish? sounds less like ?Fishscale? outtakes and more like Ghostface enjoying his success. <br/>The subject matter is the same ? drugs, women, drugs ? but instead of verses from the likes of Raekwon, the album is full of Ghost?s less-recognized posse, Theodore Unit (which includes a couple of deities ? Trife da God and Ghost?s teenage son, Sun God). <br/>The return of MF Doom aside, the production credits are strictly no-name and low-budget. This is a family affair, a loose and comfortable one where nobody?s dressing to impress. <br/>?Ghost is Back? starts the album off right with a fast-break beat that the MC himself produced. With its DJ-scratch chorus and retro samples, it?s the most old-school track on the record. <br/>Elsewhere, ?Good? is another R&B-leaning club song in the vein of ?Back Like That? while the hulking ?Blue Armor? sounds like a thousand pounds of metal clanging down a New York City street. The MF Doom-produced ?Guns N? Razors? is pure Hanna-Barbera cartoon, straight surrealism that the comic book-loving Ghostface trumpets over. <br/>Ghost?s guests hold their own, the deep-voiced Cappadonna spitting hard for Wu-Tang on ?Guns N? Razors? and Trife da God ruminating poetically on life on the street in ?Grew Up Hard.? <br/>On the one hand, ?More Fish? is a second-rate ?Fishscale?: The beats aren?t as flashy, the guests are less charismatic and the star of the show doesn?t even appear on a few of the songs. <br/>On the other, this is a Ghostface Killah album. If he wants to show off some MCs, let him; if he wants to put out a no-pressure one-off album because Def Jam gave him the OK ? or even if they asked for it ? why turn it down? <br/>Say what you will about ?More Fish,? but it?s hard to complain about more Ghostface. <br/><hr><div align=center><img src=/images/2006/9/29/Ratings.jpg></div></p><br><br><a href='; target='_blank'>;