It’s not often that the description cinematic or dream-like can be applied to hip hop songs, but ‘Underwater’ from Ghostface Killah (fomerly of the Wu Tang Clan) taken from his latest release ‘Fishscale’ is exactly that. Clocking in at two minutes, part hallucination, part sensory surrealism, Ghostface takes us on a strange journey to the depths of the ocean where he encounters rays of light that “resemble live fireworks”, mermaids, Noah’s Ark, Spongebob in a Bentley Coupe, a rock from the Titanic and an underwater city. Ghostface’s lyrics are extremely vivid here. “I seen rubies, diamonds, smothered under octopus Jellyfish sharks soar, aquaproof pocketbook Pearls on the mermaid girls”.

The MF Doom production fuses mysterious flutes with the sound of water bubbliing and splashing along with barely audible eerie background vocals. At the end of the song, Ghostface takes comfort in Muslim chants – “All I heard was Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar Bismillah ar-Rahman, ar-Raheem, Allah screamed” and the song ends at a peaceful and spiritual Amen.

Ghostface Killah – Underwater     [Buy]

Ghostface Killah’s album ‘Fishscale’ is definitely the best Wu Tang member album in a long time and is definitely worth picking up.

Related Tags:
Ghostface Killah
MF Doom