Ghostface Killah Interview
Thursday, 17 April 2014
Throwback Thursday.
Part-Time Poker Player… Full-Time Phat Ghost
Bluff Europe has done some pretty out-there interviews in the past, but this one really takes the cake. Kicking off a series of throwback interviews, we present an interview Bluff Europe conducted with rapper Ghostface Killah in June 2007. Enjoy, yo!
“This is No Limit Hold’em; you gotta know
when to fold ‘em if you plan on staying on top.
You can’t lose what you don’t push in the pot,
You can’t make much either, if you a believer in luck,
Go all in if you feel your cards deep in your gut.”
So opines the great Ghostface Killah on the track “Pokerface” from his new album More Fish – a kind of retelling of Kenny Roger’s “The Gambler” for the hip hop generation. You see, Ghost has caught the poker bug bad. So much so that he’s launched his own site, GFKPoker.com. bluff just had to find out more…
Ghostface, we hear you’ve been getting into poker. How’d that happen?
I’d be down in the studio and my manager would be in the back playing cards and I got to check out what’s going on. I just got involved in it, and it’s dope, you know what I mean? I started playing when we was back doing the Fishscale album – about two years now.
You’ve got a lot of aliases, Tony Starks, Iron Man, etc. Have you got a poker nickname yet?
Well, I’m trying to think. That’s what the whole Pokerface song is about. Pokerface like Ghostface. I’m thinking I might just keep my mask on at the table – something like that.
What’s your style of play?
Yeah, I’m aggressive, you know. I like to put my chips in with the best hand. I like to get busy…
Shaolin style?
Yeah. It’s like put-it-on-the-line style.
Your new album is called More Fish. Is that a poker reference?
No, that’s more of a reference to Fishscale. I just called it More Fish ‘cuz I had some fish left over from Fishscale. But we kept the “Pokerface” song on there, just for the love of the game. That’s me and my man Wigs on that.
Tell us how GFKPoker.com came into being.
Hip hop and poker’s kinda merging together, you know what I mean? I keep many styles, so I try to merge ‘em together a little bit, and ain’t nothing like the net when it comes to doing that.
Do you have a favourite poker player on TV?
I don’t watch the big games that much, but I like Mike the Mouth and Daniel Negreanu, and Doyle, of course. But I like to be involved in playing the game more than anything.
Do you play with other rappers?
Yeah, in the studio. Meth [Method Man] comes down; my man Tru-Life. You know, man, whoever come down, we always get busy in the back.
Who would you most like to whup for a million dollars?
Anyone, you know. Whoever’s my competition. I’ll go against anybody. Don’t matter.
We heard you’re bringing out a Ghostface action figure.
Yeah. It’s more like a doll; like a statue thing. That’s coming out soon…
And are we going to see a new Wu-Tang release any time soon?
Yeah. We working on that now. We all putting our heads together, trying to make it happen. Once we get everybody on the same page, everything gonna work out.