Ghostface Reveals The Wizard of Poetry Tracklist, Fall Tour Dates

(swiped from Pitchfork Media)

This month, two new albums will feature two very different versions of Ghostface Killah. Ghost is all over Raekwon's bleak and violent Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II, which came out yesterday. But come September 29, he'll release his R&B-themed The Wizard of Poetry. As Ghost himself told me last week (in a Pitchfork interview that'll run soon), The Wizard of Poetry is his "mature" album. This is still Ghostface, though, and as this totally NSFW preview for "Stapleton Sex" makes clear, he's not exactly in Bill Cosby mode here.

We've already shown you the album's incredible Oz-themed cover art, and now we've got the album's tracklist, which you can check out below. Worth noting: The only other rapper on the entire album is Fabolous. (That's unless you count Kanye West's turn on the "Back Like That" remix, which already appeared on Ghost's More Fish and is included on Wizard as a bonus track). There are a lot of guests here, but they're mostly slick R&B singers. Still, "Stapleton Sex".

After the album drops, Ghost will spend October touring U.S. clubs. Ghostface has one of the most searingly intense live shows in rap, so take note. Those dates are below.

The Wizard of Poetry:

01 Not Your Average Girl [ft. Shareefa]
02 Do Over [ft. Raheem "Radio" DeVaughn]
03 Baby [ft. Raheem "Radio" DeVaughn]
04 Lonely [ft. Jack Knight]
05 Stapleton Sex
06 Stay
07 Paragraphs of Love [ft. Vaughn Anthony and Estelle]
08 Guest House [ft. Fabolous and Shareefa]
09 Let's Stop Playin' [ft. John Legend]
10 Forever
11 I'll Be That [ft. Adrienne Bailon]
12 Goner [ft. Lloyd]
13 She's A Killah [ft. Ron Browz] *
14 Back Like That [ft. Ne-Yo and Kanye West] *

* bonus tracks

Ghostface Killah:

10-02 Albany, NY - Northern Lights
10-03 Philadelphia, PA - Trocadero
10-04 Carrboro, NY - Cat's Cradle
10-05 Charleston, SC - Music Farm
10-07 Ft. Lauderdale, FL - Revolution
10-09 Oxford, MS - Lyric
10-10 Baton Rouge, LA - Spanish Moon
10-11 Austin, TX - Emo's
10-13 Tucson, AZ - The Rock
10-14 Tempe, AZ - The Clubhouse
10-15 San Diego, CA - Canes
10-16 Los Angeles, CA Key Club
10-17 Santa Barbara, CA - Velvet Jones
10-19 Reno, NV - Club Underground
10-20 San Francisco, CA - Slim's
10-21 Arcata, CA - Arcata Theatre
10-22 Portland, OR - Berbati’s Pan
10-23 Eugene, OR - WOW Hall
10-24 Seattle, WA - Showbox
10-25 Bellingham, WA - Nightlight
10-28 Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge
10-29 Aspen, CO - Belly Up
10-30 Denver, CO - Bluebird
10-31 Boulder, CO - Fox

Video: Raekwon: "Walk Wit Me"

After years of speculation about whether the thing even existed, Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II finally hit stores yesterday. Rae celebrated the occasion by taking to his Twitter and posting a link to a video for a song that's not even on the album.

It's not entirely clear why Rae spent what looks like a decent amount of money (by 2009 standards, anyway) shooting a video for "Walk Wit Me", an iTunes-only Cuban Linx II bonus cut. (At this point, though, Cuban Linx II is outselling Jay-Z's The Blueprint 3 at iTunes, so Rae is doing something right.)

It's not too easy to follow the video's narrative, but it seems to center around Rae and his accomplices killing off a series of drug-trade rivals in Hawaii. Mostly, though, it seems like a great excuse for a series of badass images of Rae scowling hard against an electric blue sky. I love the shot at 2:11, when Rae hides behind a newspaper, waiting for a mark in an elevator.

Check it out below:

DOWNLOAD: Orikal "Organized Grind Vol. 1"

(L-R: Orikal, Analyrical)

Get it here. I'm also featured on it.

EDITORIAL: Maia’s Descent Is No Laughing Matter By D.L. Chandler

D.L Chandler is also Mash Comp of Dumhi and you can follow him on Twitter

Like many young men in the 1990s, I found actress Maia Campbell to be one of the more attractive young black starlets on television. Early on, I discovered that she hailed from the Greater Washington Metropolitan area just as I did and that factoid endeared me to her as well. Of late Maia Campbell has fallen out of the public eye, and has been unfairly ridiculed by her poor life choices fueled by her bout with Schizophrenia. The daughter of late bestselling author Bebe Moore Campbell, Maia found fame on the LL Cool J vehicle In The House. For 3 seasons, the show enjoyed some mild success and Maia Campbell was a prominent fixture of the sitcom. Once the show ended, Maia worked bit parts in television and small movies, but nothing more.

I am not going to play reporter here and try to guess what happened beyond that point. What I do know is that in the last three years, nude photos of an obviously inebriated Campbell and a very recent video of the actress has appeared on the Internet. The gossip blogs, Twitter, message boards and news outlets (such as The Examiner) have all had their say to the inner workings of Ms. Campbell’s fall. We don’t know what’s leading her down this path nor do we know if she’s ever had adequate help – at least as far as what’s been released publicly. However, what is quite telling is how much of my Twitter feed was filled with hurtful jokes about her condition. The blogs and their comment fields were also filled with the same insensitive and lame commentary found in the linked Examiner piece above.

I immediately felt sorrow for Maia Campbell after viewing the video and wanted nothing more than to protect her. It triggered an almost instinctive brotherly reaction. It was if I saw my little sister on that screen and just wanted to snatch that camera away from her antagonist and whisk her away. There wasn’t anything humorous about this scenario. There wasn’t a reason to make this a Twitter topic of the day. It didn’t have to become this ugly display of humanity – anonymous keyboard cowards levying all types of hurtful, insensitive words towards Maia. I’ve just read that there’s a prayer campaign for Maia Campbell and that’s great. I’m not a religious person but this is obviously a step in the right direction so I support it fully.

Many of us know a Maia Campbell, a young person lost to their own devices and lacking the help, love and care needed to rise above whatever demons ails them. Are we to look at Maia Campbell with pity or are we to act when we see this pattern in our respective cities and towns? What did you truly feel when you saw Maia in that state? What would you do if you saw it? Are you witnessing something of this nature now? Are you out there helping to prevent more lost souls? Are you content with reading the insensitive comments and hashtags on Twitter? I know I’m not. I know that any time I can help a person – young or old – I’m going to give whatever time I can spare. I don’t see how we can look at this as a laughing matter. Moreover, for those of you that I know who choose to see humor in such a sad situation, you’ve lost a huge chunk of my respect.

VIDEO: A.R.M. (Manifest & Krukid) "Heaven Only Knows" (featuring Brother Ali)