Ghostface Killah was a founding 
member of the Wu-Tang Clan. The 
Wu-Tang Clan was founded in 
1993. Thus, Ghostface Killah has 
been musically active since 1993. 
That’s a 25-year career. That’s a 
long time.
Reinvigorating 
East 
Coast 
rap with his hard-nosed squad, 
Ghostface and the Wu-Tang Clan 
were extremely important 25 years 
ago. Dr. Dre’s The Chronic had just 
stripped away New York’s hip-hop 
credentials, and the rap world was 
fully embracing the West Coast’s 
lighter-hearted G-funk, save a few 
hits from The Notorious B.I.G. 
In response, the Wu-Tang Clan 
delivered music that sonically 
combatted 
the 
groove-rap 
flourishing in Los Angeles; their 
sound was dark, brash, cold and 
still authentically New York.
Throughout his career as a solo 
artist, Ghostface Killah has stuck 
to this mold religiously. Even 
modern spins, like his collaborative 
album with eerie jazz group 
BadBadNotGood, 
played 
into 
his ’90s wheelhouse. His most 
recent release, The Lost Tapes, is 
no exception. Introduced by tired 
comedian, 
Michael 
Rapaport, 
the project is described as “dusty 

soul,” a full embrace of its stark 
contrast with modern hip hop. 
Even the album’s title has a vintage 
connotation. Track after track, 
Ghostface raps in static aggression 
over grandiose soul-sampling beats 
at 90 beats per minute.
“Buckingham 
Palace” 
starts 
with a sample that sounds like it’s 
played through a phonograph, 
and, 
shortly 
after, 
Ghostface 

begins to half-shout in a monotone 
timbre over the same beat for the 
remainder of the track. “Saigon 
Velour” also starts with a sample 
that sounds like its played through 
a phonograph, and shortly after, 
Ghostface begins to half-shout in 
a monotone timbre over the same 
beat for the remainder of the track 
(except this one has Snoop Dogg in 
it). “Watch Em Holla” also starts 
with a sample that sounds like it’s 
played through a phonograph — 
you get the gist.
To clarify, there is nothing 
wrong with this mold. It made 
for some of the most iconic 
music in hip-hop history, and its 
compressed, “dusty” nature makes 
for a very cozy listen. It’s just very 

obviously a 25-year-old mold, void 
of all of the distinct qualities of 
modern rap: no vocal inflections, 
no repetitive cadences, no dynamic 
beats driven by the potential of 
digital production.
The lack of these contemporary 
characteristics 
is 
obviously 
understandable; 
the 
era 
in 
which 
Ghostface 
thrived 
is 
vastly different from today. He 
acknowledges hip hop’s evolution 
and his consequential irrelevance 
on “Reflections of C.R.E.A.M. 
(Interlude 2)”: “It’s a new wave 
of children that’s up. Music is 
different... If we would’ve came 
out with C.R.E.A.M. right now, 
we wouldn’t have gotten played.” 
If anything, the rapper should be 
lauded for acknowledging his age 
and sticking to his proven sound, 
as opposed to dangerously denying 
his diminished importance by 
forcefully implementing modern 
sounds that end up sounding 
unauthentic (see: Snoop Dogg’s 
atrocious Make America Crip 
Again).
Ghostface’s The Lost Tapes 
should be the how-to-guide for 
any dated rapper. Instead of trying 
and failing to reinvent yourself, 
embrace the fact that your new 
music is no more than a nostalgic 
window to hip hop’s past and the 
relevance you used to hold. Let the 
kids handle the new stuff and save 
your reputation. 

Ghostface Killah is old, 
and he’s okay with that

MIKE WATKINS
Daily Arts Writer

ALBUM REVIEW

Helen 
Simpson’s 
2015 
collection 
of 
short 
stories, 
“Cockfosters: 
Stories” 
is 
preoccupied with the ordinary. 
Each story takes place over a 
short period of time — often no 
more than an hour or two — and 
in most, there is little physical 
or external action.
Simpson 
deftly 
balances 
narrative and interiority in 
these small compartments of 
time. Each story is both dull 
and 
thrilling, 
slow-moving 
and 
blindingly 
insightful. 
The strongest stories in the 
collection are about gender, 
a theme on which Simpson 
delivers 
startling 
insights 
through various unremarkable 
men and women.
Perhaps the best story in 
the collection is “Erewhon,” 
a 
delightful 
skewering 
of 
gendered 
expectations 
and 
dynamics. The title is a nod to 
Samuel Butler’s 1872 novel, the 
setting of which is a satirized 
Victorian society.
In “Erewhon,” a middle-
aged man lies awake in the very 
early hours of the morning. 
He 
ponders 
the 
emotional 
distance that has developed 
between him and his wife and 
hopes to transition to part-
time work. The first page of 
“Erewhon” 
seems, 
at 
first 
glance, unremarkable. Slowly, 
though, the subversive nature 
of the story emerges. “Not nice 
to think how the overwhelming 
majority of men who were 
murdered were murdered by 
their own wives,” the narrator 
says darkly.
The strength of “Erewhon” 

is how ordinary the world 
it creates is — no detail is 
outlandish, 
except 
for 
the 
premise of the gender-swap 
itself. All the cultural and 
social expectations and norms 
associated with women are now 
applied to men, and vice versa. 
“It was hard,” the narrator 
says, “the way older women got 
better with age while men lost 
their sexual allure … Nobody 

really respects a man anymore 
once he turns 40, particularly if 
he’s losing it on top.”
Simpson slickly pokes fun at 
the heavily gendered aspect of 
the real world by maneuvering 
the sad, frustrated protagonist 
of “Erewhon” through assorted 
machinations. “In a pathetic 
attempt to fight back, he’d 
recently been engaging on a 
spot of newsagent guerrilla 
warfare,” 
Simpson 
writes. 
“Now when he bought his paper 
he made sure to stick some of 
his preprepared Post-it to the 
naked boys on the covers of 
women’s magazines — notes he 
had felt-tipped in advance with 
the words WHAT IF HE WAS 
YOUR SON?”
In 
the 
other 
stories 
in 
“Cockfosters,” Simpson builds 
recognizable worlds. In this 
way, she gains our trust in 
her ability to assemble places 
and people we might know. In 

“Erewhon,” Simpson applies 
her trademark vigilance to an 
imagined place, one whose 
inversions bring to light that 
which is painfully familiar but 
also often obscured by its own 
routineness.
While sometimes verging on 
the ridiculous — the narrator 
talks about driving his daughter 
around the country for her 
competitive yoga tournaments 
— “Erewhon” is a masterful 
demolition of the pressures 
women are constantly under. 
“Don’t be such a MascuNazi,” 
the narrator’s wife says.
“That 
was 
what 
really 
worried him — him and the 
other 
dads,” 
the 
narrator 
explains. “They all agonized 
endlessly about whether or not 
they were good fathers.” Or: 
“He wasn’t overjoyed about 
still being on the Pill. All four 
of his grandparents had died 
of strokes or heart attacks, but 
Ella couldn’t tolerate condoms. 
‘They 
muffled 
things,’ 
she 
said.”
Upon completion, it becomes 
clear that “Erewhon” is not 
quite a satire; it’s devoid of the 
amplification that defines the 
genre. There is no exaggeration, 
just a sleight of hand that 
exposes the world for what it is, 
and what it has always been.
“The world was woman-
shaped — get over it!” Simpson 
writes. 
Reading 
“Erewhon” 
in 2018 is perhaps different 
than reading it when it was 
originally published in 2015. 
Brett Kavanaugh was appointed 
to the Supreme Court this 
week, despite multiple credible 
accusations of sexual assault.
“This was the way things 
were,” writes Simpson. “This 
was the natural order.” 

‘Cockfosters: Stories’ is a 
timely collection of tales

MIRIAM FRANSISCO
Daily Arts Writer

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

By Bruce Haight
©2018 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
10/09/18

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

10/09/18

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Release Date: Tuesday, October 9, 2018

ACROSS
1 “Big Board” that 
lists GM and GE
5 Strauss of jeans
9 Scam using 
spam, say
14 Fireworks cries
15 Eye layer that 
includes the iris
16 Roman robes
17 How something 
precarious may 
hang
19 Love, to 
Casanova
20 Soft toss
21 “Out with it!”
23 List-ending abbr.
24 Diplomatic office
26 “No more for me, 
thanks”
28 Simon __
29 How a good 
comedian leaves 
the audience?
33 Farm layer
35 Lamp-to-plug line
36 Little mischief-
maker
37 Marisa of “My 
Cousin Vinny”
40 Asian New Year
41 Very unpleasant
43 “It’s __-win 
situation”
44 Clinton’s veep
46 Fifth scale note
47 Difficult time
50 Queries
54 Schlepped
55 Eats a little
57 “Verrrry funny”
59 Stem (from)
61 Opposite of “yep”
62 Overplay the part
64 Care
66 Career employee
67 New __: modern 
spiritualist
68 Rebuke from 
Caesar
69 Put off
70 Gridiron throw
71 Stinging insect

DOWN
1 Aristocrats
2 Grammy-winning 
cellist
3 “Not too __!”: 
“Good work!”

4 “To the max” 
suffix
5 Slyly attracts
6 “Brideshead 
Revisited” 
novelist Waugh
7 Wiener schnitzel 
meat
8 Words of 
confession
9 School 
fundraising gp.
10 Household skills 
class, for short
11 “Let me handle it”
12 __ Lee desserts
13 Canine 
command
18 Elevs.
22 Mideast 
chieftain
25 Arthur of tennis
27 Dictation pro
30 Like dessert 
wines
31 Ambulance pro
32 007, e.g.
34 Figure skating 
figure
37 Sticky subject?
38 Musical Yoko
39 Get sassy with 
someone

40 Import-export 
imbalance
42 “Sadly ... ”
45 Newspaper 
opinion page
46 Norelco products
48 Pointed beard
49 Baked potato 
topping paired 
with sour cream
51 Piano piece
52 Some big box 
stores

53 Clinched, and a 
hint to the four 
longest Across 
answers
56 “... and two if 
by __”
57 __ up: robbed
58 Parisian gal pal
60 Latvian capital
63 Blow it
65 “Do the __”: 
soft-drink 
slogan

“Cockfosters: 
Stories”

Helen Simpson

Vintage 
Contemporaries

The Lost Tapes

Ghostface Killah

X-Ray Records

If 
you 
can 
recall 
my 
review last week, I made an 
impassioned argument in favor 
of giving network television a 
chance. And, well, how should 
I put this?
I take everything back.
A lot can change in a week. 
For example, last week I still 
held onto the wild, optimistic 
notion that regardless of how 
shitty the quality of a show is, 
there must be someone behind 
the scenes that gives at least 
a sliver of a care about what 
type of product is presented 
to the world. Well, ladies and 
gentlemen, that was last week. 
CBS’s newest comedy, “The 
Neighborhood,” premiered this 
week.
From creator Jim Reynolds 
(I want everyone to know his 
name), “The Neighborhood” is 
simply one of the worst things 
I have ever watched. The show 
is a classic fish-out-of-water 
tale, and by “classic” I mean 
“would have been topical in 
1976.” Dave (Max Greenfield, 
“New Girl”), a professional 
conflict mediator from Mich., 
runs into a big conflict of his 
own when he and his family 
relocate to a predominantly 
Black neighborhood in Los 
Angeles 
and 
aren’t 
exactly 
given a warm welcome. Did I 
mention Dave was white? Did 
I mention the neighbors were 
Black? You’re going to want to 
remember that, because it’s not 
like they mention it every 30 
seconds. Essentially, Dave just 
wants to be friends with his new 
neighbors, but is thwarted from 
this goal by Calvin (Cedric the 
Entertainer, “The Last O.G.”), 
the patriarch of the family 
next door. Calvin, whose job, 
ostensibly, is to wear oversized 
Chaps polos and pace around 
angrily, wants nothing to do 

with Dave because — oh wait, 
it’s never explained. Everyone 
just assumes it’s about race. 
Which it is. Oh wait, it isn’t? No, 
it definitely is. And that’s the 
show!
The 
show’s 
treatment 
of 
conflict could be likened to a 
child trying its hardest to fit a 
circle block in a square hole: 
It is repetitive; it is frustrating 

for onlookers who know better 
and it feels easily solvable. But, 
alas, with CBS’s track record 
for 
continuously 
renewing 
mediocre content well after its 
expiration date (looking at you, 
“Big Bang Theory”), we may 
just have to watch this one-
dimensional 
conflict 
stretch 
over seven seasons.
The show’s issues do not stop 
at its weak premise. Like many 
other 
fish-out-of-water 
tales 
that have preceded it, “The 
Neighborhood” 
requires 
the 
audience to suspend some of 
their disbelief to conclude why 
two opposites would ever come 
into contact, and further, why 
they are forced to stay in contact 
with one another. Unlike “The 
Nanny” or even “The Beverly 
Hillbillies” who have set-ups 
somewhat based in reality, “The 
Neighborhood” gives us no 
explanation as to why a family as 
vanilla as Dave’s would choose 
to move to this predominantly 
Black neighborhood that hasn’t 
even begun to show the first 
signs of gentrification. The 
characters on the show do not 
speak like humans. Every line 

of dialogue is tailor-made to fit 
between insufferable drags of 
the laugh track. On top of that, 
the tonality is erratic. Shortly 
after making a joke about a 
neighborhood crackhead, Nick 
goes off on a legitimate tangent 
about how the opioid epidemic 
has shown him that addicts 
are victims. Which is true. But 
what?
Worst of all, the show takes 
itself entirely too seriously. 
Jim Reynolds and company 
actually carry this show as 
though they are at the vanguard 
of a new racial discourse in 
America, when in actuality they 
are peddling the same ideas 
that have been in circulation 
since the ’90s. Yet, rather 
than refining those ideas, they 
somehow do it with less tact. In 
this episode, a Black character 
actually has to break down the 
idea that Black people can’t be 
racist. And he is treated like 
he’s being the stubborn one. 
I know CBS’s target audience 
is the AARP crowd, but come 
on. Aren’t we tired of hearing 
this same thing? Aren’t we 
tired of white people’s aversion 
to educating themselves on 
systemic racism being treated 
as a punchline? A punchline 
that is, conicidentally, written 
by a white man. Similarly to the 
comedy of the show, Reynolds 
cannot seem to figure out what 
he wants the show to be. Is it 
a commentary on the tone-
deafness of the “colorblind” 
millennial generation, or is it 
simply just a vehicle for a bunch 
of white guys to test out “Black 
People Be Angry” jokes? No 
matter what the answer truly 
is, the result appears to be the 
latter. In the same way that 
Dave simply being in a Black 
neighborhood 
will 
not 
end 
racial tensions there, merely 
placing Black people in dated, 
buffoonish roles does nothing 
to end the diversity issue in 
Hollywood.

‘The Neighborhood’ is in 
dire need of a renovation

ALLY OWENS
For the Daily

“The 
Neighborhood”

CBS

Series Premiere

Mondays @ 8 p.m.

TV REVIEW

6A — Wednesday, October 10, 2018
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

BOOK REVIEW

