First he offered up the off beat wise cracks that was the audio/visual experience “Super Fuck.” Next he came with the enlightened right hand and followed through with introspective bars over Chris Keys’ instrumental for “Loop Dreams.” Just before dropping the project in its entirety, the man we call Quelle leaked a self-produced title track “Ghost At The Finish Line” that would become the curtain call for the 13 track project. As October 28th faded into the 29th, Mello Music Group gifted the sound sphere with the finality of what feels like an entire year of roller coaster-like build up. Contextual lows that claim proverbial inside joking, like the mid-year standalone “Rat Shit,” were light heartedly filtered to a willing niche that supposedly “get it.” Yet the undeniable strength of Ghost both as a whole and individually track by track hits new, gimmick-free highs for the Detroit emcee. As a third full length, it thrives in production with Oh No and Knxwledge filling in gaps where Quelle himself isn’t cooking up his own sonic narratives. Strategic features from cross coast comrades like Alchemist pay tribute to boundless modern hip-hop, while teaming up with D-town brethren Guilty Simpson and Black Milk keep in line with the authenticity of the thriving and tight knit Michigan scene. House Shoes status as a Detroit fixture planted in L.A. seems to bridge a thematic gap that takes Ghost from just being another solid release, to entering the discussion as a talking point for Album of the Year. Casual name dropping aside, it’s the moments when Quelle is floating alone, in the zone of self-identifying the parallels and juxtapositions of his reality against the fantastical imagery of hip-hop culture, that really stick the landing. Quelle Chris has always been dope for those that know, but he is no longer just the dude that produces Danny Brown’s significant cuts. If you listen to anything I post this quarter, then this is the one to sit back and spin.
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