By Richard Harrington
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 7, 2006; WE05

When the Wu-Tang Clan rocked a jam-packed 9:30 club in February, it was the first time they had toured en masse since 1997 and one of their first shows of any kind since key member Ol' Dirty Bastard died of a drug overdose in 2004. The two shows were a tribute to ODB but also a testimonial to the Staten Island, N.Y., nonet whose 1993 debut, "Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)," was one of the most influential hip-hop records of the '90s.

That album's dense, frantic lyrics and dirty, claustrophobic beats helped to revive East Coast hip-hop, providing a bracing antidote to West Coast G-funk, the era's dominant sound. As the first (true) family of hip-hop -- including mastermind-producer RZA, GZA, Method Man, Raekwon, Inspectah Deck, U-God, Masta Killa and Ghostface Killah (no relation) -- Wu-Tang Clan also provided the blueprint for all oversize rap crews to come.

No wonder the group's brief reunion tour earned instant sellouts.

According to Ghostface Killah: "It's a blessing if people come out and see you like that. It's all love. I wasn't surprised. I know they still love us; that's just what it is. We was big back then so you're going to have people that still follow and come to the shows, 'cause they know that when we approached the game, it was classic, and it's still classic when all of us are together."

Sadly, Wu-Tang fanatics probably shouldn't hold their breath for a full-scale reunion. Ghostface (the Killah is optional) says that there might be more shows this year but that there will be no record until at least next year. The group's last studio album was 2001's "Iron Flag," with 2004's live CD/DVD, "Disciples of the 36 Chambers," capturing one of the last concerts with ODB.

Don't worry about Ghostface, however. Outside of uber-producer RZA, he has been the most critically acclaimed solo alumnus, and the busiest, both on record and the tour circuit that brings him back to the 9:30 club Monday. The recently released "Fishscale" is his fifth solo album and has garnered his best reviews since 2000's "Supreme Clientele," an album referenced by the faux-boxing coach who skewers his charge in a "Rocky"-sampling skit by insisting, "You ain't been hungry since Supreme Clientele!"

It's a criticism that Ghostface has heard on rare occasion, including for 2004's "The Pretty Toney Album," his first without any Wu guests.

"I let God handle everything," he responds. "I don't have to get all the praise or the spotlight. As long as I'm a respected man and you spell my name right, I'm good. It took Denzel [Washington] a long time to get an Oscar, took Al Pacino mad years. It always happens like that to the best of us, but I'm not trippin' -- that's what it is and it's coming all in good time.

"Sometimes it change for the better, sometimes it change for the worse," Ghostface adds. "Everything I try ain't always a bomb. It's like basketball: One day you might hit your threes, next day you might get two points and that's just how it is."

Leaving basketball to return to the boxing analogy, a statement of repurposing can be heard on the new album's "The Champ," in which Ghostface spits, "This is architect music, verbal street opera . . . fully got the projects booming indeed."

It helps that the first single, "Back Like That," features R&B heartthrob Ne-Yo, whose debut album recently opened at No. 1. The track finds Ghostface bemoaning a former girlfriend who has shifted her attention to one of his rivals, and he's looking to get some gifts back ("Let me get that rock on your finger/Oh, it's stuck? Then I'll take the whole finger.") Well, he's not St. Ghostface.

He does reunite with the entire Wu-Tang (including the late ODB) on "9 Milli Bros," as well as with his most frequent Wu partner in rhymes, Raekwon, on four tracks. And though RZA is absent, production duties are in capable hands with five tracks from MF Doom and others, courtesy of Pete Rock, Just Blaze, Madlib and the late J Dilla.

The on-again relationship with fellow Wu-Tangers is no big deal, Ghostface says, comparing the group to a large family in which some people get along and others don't. "You argue," he says. "What are we going to do? But it ain't really nothing that big because that's with any family. We've remained the same throughout the years. You still have your differences you go through and all that, but ain't none too serious."

You can do catch-up history, as well as gain insight into the group's dynamics, by picking up RZA's "The Wu-Tang Manual." Published last spring, it's in keeping with the group's self-mythology, offering four "books" of nine chambers each, for 36 chambers. Besides providing an extensive history and explanations of Wu-Tang inspirations -- from martial arts films and comic books to Eastern philosophy and Nation of Islam teachings -- it includes a "Wu-Slang" lexicon and lyrics to 10 classic Wu tracks with densely annotated explanations of their meanings. (It helps, believe me.)

"It is what it is, there's still more [expletive] that could have been added," Ghostface says of the manual. "To the people that don't know, then I guess it's real great."

Most people know that the group took its name from a type of Shaolin martial arts, with the moniker Ghostface Killah from the 1979 kung-fu film "The Mystery of Chess Boxing," featuring one Ghostface Killer. He was born Dennis Coles in Staten Island's Stapleton project, also home to RZA (Robert F. Diggs), who in 1991 came up with the concept of a hip-hop clan. Recruiting rappers from nearby projects, Wu-Tang Clan announced itself with the self-pressed, self-distributed single "Protect Ya Neck/After the Laughter."

Thanks to RZA's lean, menacing production and the group's frenetic, head-spinning wordplay and complex scenarios, Wu-Tang Clan elevated the rap game, and although their sound was never particularly radio friendly, they became one of the biggest, and most imitated, rap groups of the '90s. They also pioneered rap fashion merchandising in 1995 with Wu Wear and showed their entrepreneurial instinct with a wide range of products, from the "Shaolin Style" video game and Wu Tang beer to a chain of Wu nail salons.

Thanks to a clause in their original record deal, Wu-Tang members were allowed to do solo projects on any label -- and ended up producing more than 30 albums. The most consistently successful have been Ghostface's, at least partly because his forceful, rapid-fire rhymes are full of the weird metaphors, obscure references and off-kilter humor that Wu-Tang has been loved for. In the manual, RZA says Ghostface is "known for some of the most bizarre, impenetrable language of all Wu-Tang MCs."

Ghostface and his production cohorts also have shown killah instincts for classic soul samples. At one point on the new album, Ghostface raps, "I'm stuck in that '86 to '96 era," though his loyalties seem to lie with an earlier era of Sly and the Family Stone, the Three Degrees, the Delfonics and the Stylistics.

"I'm just a fan of it and letting it grow inside of you," Ghostface says of his classic soul jones. "It just always was there, and you hear it through my music. It's not never going to go nowhere because that's me. I just do what I do, and that's how it comes out."

Plus, the 35-year-old notes, "when I was growing up, I might have been the last breed that was hearing stuff like that. The parents of these younger kids nowadays, they're younger so they don't play a lot of that older, classic music like when we was little and our mothers were playing all that good music. It's definitely gone, and the youth don't know nothing about that."

Ghostface says he feels the same way about classic hip-hop. "Even now, a lot of the essence of it is gone, so who's going to be able to reunite these [people] with the [expletive]? People might not want to hear that, but it's serious, we might not never get that vibe back."

Speaking of vibes, there's a familiar one to "Fishscale," which takes its name from street slang for top-grade cocaine. The album serves up assorted violent scenarios (the botched heist drama "Shakey Dog," "Clipse of Doom") and drug tales ("Kilo," "R.A.G.U."). But there's also the occasional cautionary tale, such as "Big Girl" (its message: Party, girls, but stay in school) and "Whip You With a Strap," a parental advisory oddly nostalgic for the days of corporal punishment ("Nowadays kids don't get beat/They get big treats, fresh pairs of sneaks/Punishments is like, here, have a seat").

Besides touring to support the new album, Ghostface is working with Raekwon on a follow-up to their classic duet album, 1995's "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx," as well as an album with masked marvel MF Doom, rumored to be titled "Ghostface Meets Metal Face."

And in June, fans with disposable incomes can get a nine-inch talking Ghostface Killah doll from 4 Cast Limited. There will be only 1,000 sold, and they'll cost $500 apiece. For that, you'll get a vinyl Ghostface sporting a real 14-karat gold chain, holding a chalice with real Swarovski crystals and wearing a miniature GFK robe, plus a Killah Doll mix tape. (A 14-carat avenging eagle accessory is extra.) And did I mention that it talks? In fact, thanks to some of Ghostface's favorite catchphrases, this doll may need a parental advisory sticker.

Ghostface Killah Monday at the 9:30 club Sounds like: Wu-Tang Clan to the 1/9 th power: Frantic, frenzied, fractious stream of semi-consciousness meets urban storytelling.