Thursday 10.21
FARMINGDALE
Ghostface Killah @ Crazy Donkey
1058 Rte. 110. 631-753-1975. $22-$25. 8 p.m.
with Sheek Louch and Frank Dukes
My favorite Ghostface Killah song, “Shakey Dog,” is a vivid tale wherein Ghostface and his compatriot “Frank” take a cab ride over to a guy’s apartment and, amid a flurry of bullets, attempt to rob him of money and drugs. There is more detail crammed into this three-minute-and-forty-five-second song than most albums: The 77-year-old woman with a shotgun outside the apartment, the guys inside watching Sanford and Son and eating steak and onions (“My stomach growlin’ / yo I want some,” Ghostface comments), the “little shark’s teeth” on Bruno, the dealer’s pitbull. For nearly 20 years over dozens of guest spots, as part of the Wu-Tang Clan and on eight solo albums (yes, each one has a “Parental Advisory” sticker on it), Ghostface has been weaving these intricate stories with some of the best wordplay in all of rap. Plenty of rappers rhyme about drugs and gunplay, but none do it with his fluency and ease. There’s a reason my spellchecker underlines his name—there’s nothing in the dictionary like Ghostface Killah.