Music

How The Wire helped me finally understand Ghostface Killah

by Aaron Brophy

The five seasons of HBO crime drama The Wire were a game-changer. The harsh look into the world of Baltimore cops and drug dealers was filled with insider jargon so dense and uncompromising it made the soliloquies of Deadwood seem like nursery rhymes.

So confusing was the language in The Wire that no lesser publications than the Wall Street Journal were providing translation guides to help viewers decode the show. There was even a sort of class warfare that emerged between the people who watched The Wire without the subtitles on versus those who did.

But the knockos and corner boys whose language seemed so impenetrable to so many were just testers. The Wire was merely a gateway drug, ninja training for unraveling a deeper linguistical mystery — the lyrics of Ghostface Killah songs.

See, Ghostface (a.k.a. GFK, a.k.a. Ghostdini, a.k.a. Ironman, a.k.a. Tony Starks, a.k.a. Pretty Toney, a.k.a. The Wally Champ) lyrics hold a certain mystery to even relatively savvy musicos like myself whose formative high school years were spent absorbing Ice-T, N.W.A. and Public Enemy as one of the few white kids in his high school. What it comes down to is crime. Where “I’m Your Pusher” was pretty easy to understand, Ghost talks in street codes that, because the worst criminal offenses I’ve ever committed resemble the FUBAR guys destroying bus shelters, were completely foreign.

That is, until Avon, Stringer, Marlo, Snoop, Bodie, and the rest of the The Wire toughs came into my life. Then, suddenly, Ghostface Killah made perfect sense.

“Kilo (Remix)” — So that’s what yellow tops are

Lyrics: “Red tops, blue tops, green tops, yellow tops / Purple tops, beige tops, white tops, grey tops / Black tops, clear tops, gold tops, pink tops / Silver tops, tan tops, aqua tops, orange tops / Salt tops, long tops, short tops, 12 12’s / 58 58’s, weed bags, ziplocks / Big rocks, coke spots, big glocks, one OT’s / Crumbs chopped, hot pots, one plate, crack Spot”

Eureka moment in The Wire :

“How You Like Me Baby?” — Serving rooftops = controlling towers

Lyrics: “Yo! Better shoe spots, red and blue drops / I used to serve those, those my rooftops”

Eureka moment in The Wire :

“Outta Town Shit” — You’ve got to learn the odds if you want to win at dice

Lyrics: “Like one day right over a powerful dice game in Minnesota / We hit the mall up for kicks / Slid, in other words bounce, tip the chauffeur / To get that cheddar cheese back we lost from earlier / Get back the dices shaking, stretching my arm like Troy Aikman / What’s in the bank? Nigga what? Twelve grand bowl ’em / No little shit on the floor roll ’em / That’s what I do (sounds of dice shaking) / Six ’em girls, hit his kicks / I’m a still show that motherfucker he fish / Pound cake, beat that bitch / Holy smoke! I admire your roll / Two fours and a five, they all applause and he smiled / But confident me, yea I threw my twelve on the ground / Grab the dice, blew on ’em / Passed off the other thirty five thou, I’m doin’ ’em / Nigga move shoot ’em, what’s that? You roll a five? / Twenty or better y’all, I’m taking all side bets! Everybody spread out! / Watch the magic number that my pretty hand let out / My first roll was one two four, picked ’em up / Somebody screamed out, “Tony Starks headed for the dust off!” / I’m like hell no I’m headed for the gun store / Punch you in your motherfuckin’ face like Spongebob / Watched his face when he aced, the place got quiet / Bowled like twenty forty times, my arm got tired / Couldn’t hit a point, not even a deuce / Took a swig of my man’s goose / Anything just to give me a damn boost / Then out came a wonderful six / Holy shit! Stack that shit / Yo Trife Dies snatch that fuckin’ cream quick / That was one one six, one sixteen point C / And I don’t care about no motherfuckin’ Royce Green / He pulled out, he pointed at me, I pointed at him / My main man pointed at them / They pulled their guns out and pointed at him / And crazy shells they was coming in”

Eureka moment in The Wire :

“Ghetto” — Snitching gets you fried like a pork chop

Lyrics: “Yo, yo, aiyo we ox ’em, duff ’em, stuff ’em in black bags/ Torture them, toss ’em out the window with rift rafts / Cuz we don’t take kindly to rats in the ghetto / Either your mouth stay shut or get slapped with the metal / Big fat rats get fried like porkchops for snitching / Get your ass hung like a wall clock / It’s Tone Stark, Billy the Kid when the gun bark / A wire sticking out his shirt, he talking to NARC!”

Eureka moment in The Wire :

“Run (Remix)” — Sage advice: when crackers are gonna throw you into the shit you better run

Lyrics: “Run! If you sell drugs in the school zone / Run! If you gettin’ chased with no shoes on / Run! Fuck that! Run! Cops got, guns! / They givin’ out life like bird tons / Run! If you ain’t do shit, you it / That next felony, nigga, it’s like three zip / So, run! Hop fences, jump over benches! / When you see me comin’ get the fuck out the entrance! / Run! Fuck that! Run! Cops got guns! Muthafucka”

Eureka moment in The Wire :

Aaron Brophy writes for Maclean’s, Rue Morgue and The Grid, amongst others. He’s also the former Editor-in-Chief of Chart Magazine, and is one half of RiskyFuel.com. Follow him on Twitter @aaronjjbrophy.