As we continue to celebrate Hip-Hop’s 50th anniversary this year, many Hip-Hop heads in Toronto may have seen it as a blessing in disguise when LL Cool J and The Roots’ The F.O.R.C.E. Tour got postponed by a couple months, as it meant we no longer had the conflict of having to choose between seeing them or this Ghostface Killah show booked for the same night.

When we talk about the greatest discographies in Hip-Hop history, Ghostface Killah is an emcee who has to be included in the conversation. Not only is he one of the most prominent members of the legendary Wu-Tang Clan, but his solo discography by itself is one of the most extensive of any Hip-Hop artist, spanning 15 albums over nearly 30 years, not to mention all of the collaborative albums he’s done outside of his work with Wu-Tang. He’s achieved a longevity few artists get to reach in their careers, and has consistently kept it fresh while staying true to his own style. The Wu-Tang Clan will have their own epic celebration at Scotiabank Arena with Nas in October, but it’s only right that we also get to celebrate Ghostface Killah as a solo artist along the way.

Brought to us by Toronto-based indie label Supreme Genes Records, this show at The Opera House would be a one-off solo concert for Ghostface between Wu-Tang Clan tour dates.

Holding it down on the turntables for most of the evening would be DJ Mercilless, who’d be spinning both some classic Hip-Hop throwbacks as well as more modern underground rap for over two hours from when the doors opened. Fans wearing all kinds of Wu-Tang gear would slowly fill up the building, and pretty soon the host for the evening, Lord Fury of the Wu-affiliate group Moon Crickets, would come out to introduce the first opener, Supreme Genes Records’ own Asun Eastwood. While I wasn’t familiar with Asun’s music going into this, he definitely came correctly on the mic to impress the Wu-Tang fans and any first-time listeners, with his vocals cutting through sharply on the mic as he spit his raw raps.

Asun would bring out a few special guests during his performance, including fellow Toronto emcee Ashton Francis to perform their new joint together, “Iceberg Slim.” He’d also perform a few songs off of his 2020 album Let Me Talk My Shit, as well as the DJ Mercilless-produced Buffalo Rapchaz, which features several guest appearances from Griselda members Conway The Machine and Benny The Butcher. He’d close out his set joined by Lord Fury to perform a tribute to the late Louie Rankin with the song “Scary Aura,” which has a Griselda-esque type of beat that let the bars and the vocals stand out. After a dope set by Asun Eastwood filled with sharp rhymes and bar-heavy verses, Lord Fury would bring out a surprise guest, veteran Toronto Reggae/Dancehall artist Lindo P, who came out and moved the crowd with just one song.

While the openers were dope, you could tell this crowd was more excited to see Ghostface Killah. Bronx, New York’s own Technician The DJ would get his gear set up to take over for DJ Mercilless, and when he asked the crowd to make some noise, we all broke out into a “Wu-Tang!” chant, with many fans throwing up that W hand symbol. The crowd may have been ready for Ghostface, but Technician The DJ still ran through his set to get warmed up. Similar to how he held it down at The LOX show at Queen Elizabeth Theatre earlier in the month, Technician got the crowd moving by quickly going through classic Hip-Hop beats and hooks, jumping to the next track after playing just a few of the most recognizable bars of the song. After a quick warmup on the turntables, it was time to set off the main event.

Always one to give the fans a little something different every time he comes to town, Ghostface Killah set off his performance with a rarity most probably haven’t seen him do live before, performing his verse from G Dep and P. Diddy’s “Special Delivery (Remix)” with Trife Diesel joining him as his hypeman. He’d follow up with a cover of Raekwon’s “Knowledge God” and got the crowd grooving early on to the classic “Ice Cream,” everyone helping Trife to cover Method Man’s chorus. Ghostface has also been known to bring at least one surprise guest with him every time he has a solo show in Toronto, and you never know if it will be a fellow Wu-Tang Clan member, a close Wu-affiliate, or any of the great New York City legends he considers his peers. This time it would be the latter, as he’d bring out The LOX’s Sheek Louch, who some may remember joined Ghost at the Sound Academy almost exactly ten years ago on the Wu-Block Tour; the crowd erupted as he got into a performance of “All About The Benjamins!”

Sheek showcased supreme synergy with Technician The DJ, as he nailed his verse while Technician chopped up the beat on the turntables and flipped between both versions of the “Benjamins” beat. It would be a bit of a friendly competition between Sheek and Ghost to see who got the crowd the most hyped, with Ghostface coming back with the high-energy Only Built 4 Cuban Linx cut “Criminology,” and Sheek following up with The LOX’s “Wild Out.” Having only been rocking his guest verses on other artists’ songs so far, Ghostface finally pulled out a Supreme Clientele joint with “One,” and would join in on Sheek’s performance of “N***** Done Started Something,” spitting his verse from “Ice Water” over that DMX track. Once again, Sheek and Technician were on point together, playing like a live mixtape as Sheek restarted his verse on queue when Technician chopped up and reset the beat multiple times.

Continuing with songs from his own discography, Ghostface would tease a bit of “Stay True” before doing another rare joint I was looking forward to seeing once I knew that Trife Diesel was in the building: “Biscuits.” While Ghost didn’t rock his verse from The Pretty Toney Album deep cut, Trife finally got to shine as he spit his guest verse and sang along to the chorus with Ghostface; Ghost even traded mics with him when they realized his volume was lowered. Not to be outdone, Sheek would return with an energetic performance of his feature on Jay-Z’s “Reservoir Dogs,” with Technician cutting the beat off midway so he can go in acapella and spit his verse word-for-word.

Ghost & Trife would return with some more rare album cuts, with Ghost performing another Supreme Clientele joint with “We Made It,” followed by Trife shining on the Theodore Unit 718 track, “Smith Brothers.” For heads who’ve been to a lot of Ghostface Killah and Wu-Tang shows over the years, seeing him pull out a Theodore Unit cut was a rarity that almost never happens, making for a special yet underappreciated moment. With Ghostface Killah’s hook on “Smith Brothers” borrowing from Queen’s “We Will Rock You,” they took a moment to vibe out to some classic Rock n’ Roll, playing the original Queen song followed by a tribute to the late Tina Turner with her song “What’s Love Got To Do With It.” Having an eclectic taste in music himself, Ghostface was visibly pleased to see the Toronto crowd join him in singing along to Tina.

Bringing it back to Hip-Hop, Ghostface would do an energetic performance of his song “Mighty Healthy,” with Technician The DJ chopping up some alternate drum loops and break beats for him to rap over, and would follow up with a tribute to the late Prodigy of Mobb Deep, performing a cover of Raekwon’s verse on “Eye For A Eye (Your Beef Is Mines).” Besides the collaborations and guest features, Ghostface had only really touched on two of his solo albums so far, but he’d eventually bring it back to his 1996 debut Ironman, performing “Fish” and “Motherless Child” between Sheek getting another segment with “Mighty D-Block” and “Fuck You.”

Now starting to take it back in time, Technician The DJ made sure the entire crowd was jumping when he dropped the beat to “4th Chamber,” Ghostface killing that opening verse to the Wu-Tang posse cut. They’d then test the crowd to see how many day-one Wu-Tang fans were in the building, Ghost holding out his mic and letting the fans rap along to “Da Mystery of Chessboxin'” up until the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s verse, everyone shouting out the lyrics “introducing the Ghost. Face. Killaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!”

Rather than spit his own verse on the song, Ghostface would continue to let the crowd rap for him, next picking out a fan to join him on stage for “Protect Ya Neck.” He’d get the crowd to help him cover Inspectah Deck and Raekwon’s verses before letting the fan take the mic and rap Method Man’s verse with the crowd cheering her on, and Toronto emcee Mind Bender would come out from back stage to cover Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s verse. As he usually does for this segment, Ghostface would encourage the crowd to boo the fans off stage if they didn’t know the words, but these fans were able to deliver and get Ghost to hype them up.

Again ending the song after ODB’s verse, they’d then get into a tribute to the late Wu-Tang member, playing his song “Shimmy Shimmy Ya” for everyone to sing along to. Sheek would join Ghostface at the front of the stage to continue the tributes, next playing Biggie’s “Hypnotize” and DMX’s “Ruff Ryder’s Anthem.” The crowd definitely turned up for these classics as we paid tribute to the late legends. Ghost would next do a couple more Wu-Tang Clan covers, spitting Raekwon’s verse on “C.R.E.A.M.” and RZA’s verse on “Wu-Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthing Ta F’ Wit” before giving Sheek one last moment to shine with an epic performance of “Kiss Ya Ass Goodbye,” Sheek playing an air piano to the intro then killing his verse.

If there’s one thing that Ghostface Killah’s music is known for besides his rapping, it’s his taste in 1970’s Soul records he often samples in his beats. Throwing us a curve ball, he’d get Technician The DJ to play Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” just to vibe out to, and the crowd naturally danced and sang along to the 1971 hit. Now in a mood to groove, Ghost would perform his own dance hit, “Cherchez LaGhost,” the crowd turning up even more as he rocked both his own and U-God’s verses. He’d then throw us another curve ball, keeping up the dance vibes but this time with some Caribbean flavour, playing Bob Marley’s “Is This Love” and being surprised at how the Toronto crowd sang all the words without him even prompting them.

After vibing out to the Caribbean chunedem, Ghostface would bring back Lord Fury to give him his props as the host and organizer of the event, and let him get off a few shoutouts. They’d give a shoutout to Conway The Machine, who was originally supposed to perform this show before he broke his leg, Ghostface speaking on how he answered the call to step in, and they took the opportunity to announce that Supreme Genes would be bringing Conway back to The Opera House during his Won’t He Do It Tour this fall. Ghostface and crew would say peace to the crowd, directing the fans to head to the merch booth if they wanted autographs. Many fans stuck around hoping for an encore, but it never came as Ghost took his time to chop it up with the artists on stage before making his way to the merch booth.

Overall, this was a dope Wu-Tang show that serves as a warm up to their second NY State of Mind Tour when they return in October.

You never know what you’re going to get at a Ghostface Killah concert, as he has endless material he could cover between his solo albums, Wu-Tang Clan albums, features and collaborations with his fellow Wu-Tang members or other artists, or even simply playing some ’70s throwbacks that somehow fit the vibe that Ghostface brings to the table. As a fan who’s seen Ghostface perform several times over the years, I kind of wanted to see him dig deeper into his own discography, especially with close Wu-affiliate and Theodore Unit member Trife Diesel making a rare appearance in Canada. It was dope seeing them perform a couple tracks together, but I was left wishing they went in with more of their circa ’06 joints like “Be Easy,” “Clipse of Doom,” or “Guns N’ Razors.” Their feature on Mark Ronson’s “Ooh Wee” would have even been a perfect fit with the dance vibes and tributes to late legends they had towards the end of the set (R.I.P. Nate Dogg), plus I gotta shoutout how wifey and I entered our wedding reception to that song.

While Ghostface mostly leaned into his Supreme Clientele album with a little Ironman and Pretty Toney sprinkled in, fans who may have been seeing him perform for the first time would have been happy with those selections along with the Wu-Tang covers he did. It was still good vibes all around as he covered a lot of Wu-Tang material, plus material from his influences, and brought Sheek along for the ride to give the fans a taste of what they may have missed at The LOX concert a few weeks ago. In an ideal world, I would’ve liked to see more Fishscale, Wu-Block, or even some of his newest material off of 2019’s Ghostface Killahs, but that’s just nitpicking on my part. Ghostface still served up some rarities and threw in a little variety between the obvious classics, and that’s really all we can ask for in one show.

Follow Supreme Genes Records on Instagram to lookout for when they announce the sale of their tickets to see Conway The Machine this fall!

Check out this playlist of Wu-Tang concert videos from all the times I’ve seen them over the years.

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