: A literal disaster helped define the album's sound. A flood in RZA's basement studio destroyed custom vocal presets (preamps and compressors) designed for Ghostface. As a result, his voice on

Ghostface thought of the mother in the picture and the boy with candles on his cake. He thought of the way loyalty grabs at the throat like a hand. "I don't sell people," he said. "I make sure they're heard."