Ghostface Killah has been actively putting in work for decades now, having originally emerged alongside the Wu-Tang Clan with the 1993 classic Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). Since then, the legendary lyricist has delivered an abundance of classic solo material, including the 2006 album Fishscale. 

In honor of the project’s fifteen-year anniversary, HNHH caught up with Ghostface for an extensive conversation, and the rapper eventually opened up about some of his concerns for the future — not only for the rap game, but for humanity. “Right now we live in a young world, that’s really ignorant to the truth, to the realness of this culture, and just the way of life period,” he reflects. “Because the way of life that we’re living in right now, it’s scary, it’s spooky. These kids, they different. They’re not the same kids that I grew up with.”

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“When I was 20, I was thinking like a 50-year-old-man,” he continues. “At least a 40-year-old man. These kids think they think younger. They thinking younger. They don’t care about nothing — they rather have a Gucci belt on with no money in their pocket. Living with they moms and disrespecting everything. They don’t even hold the door for their mother, still getting high in front of their mother while she got packages, and they don’t even ask her to bring the bags upstairs. Cursing in front of their mother. It’s like it’s all disrespect. We live in a world of disrespect right now, where The Devil is totally winning. It’s just negativity.”

When asked whether or not he believes things will change for the better, Ghost makes it clear that his stance is unwaveringly pessimistic. “It’s going down,” he reiterates. “Down, down, down, down, down. It’s like Yo, ain’t nothing gonna get better on from here. You could raise your family how you want to raise them but as far as you thinking there’s gonna be a change? No. In history or life, I don’t think there ever been a change for the better. It always got worse and worse as we grow and age.”

Ghostface Killah

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“So we’re looking at people in our generation, and where we at right now?” he continues. “Listen, man you got people right now that got robots as they girls. You got these rappers wearing spandex. Rappers killing each other is at an all-time high. You got countries fighting other countries over this and that. I just looked on the news, there were just 10 people that just got shot at a supermarket in Colorado. Back in the days, it wasn’t taking place like that. None of these mass shooters was doing that shit. None of them.”

For more from Ghostface Killah, be sure to check out our complete interview with the Wu-Tang lyricist right here. Do you agree with his take on the new generation, or is he being too hard of them in his assessment?