Ghostface Killah‘s debut solo album. Release date: October 29, 1996.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdWWfBWhVO0

Ironman  earned a platinum certification for shipping one million copies in the United States by February 9, 2004. Many music critics have praised the album for Ghostface Killah’s imaginative lyricism and RZA’s production style, with some revering it as one of the greatest Wu-Tang solo albums of all time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkKxsYgv12M

Although a solo album, Ironman features many Wu-Tang collaborations and only four tracks feature Ghostface performing as the sole rapper. The two most prominently featured artists are Raekwon and Cappadonna, who both accompany Ghost and have their names on the album’s cover. Raekwon appears on 13 of the 17 tracks, with “The Faster Blade” featuring him performing solo.

As opposed to earlier Wu-Tang solo projecthttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aj4IkrfhpMgs, in which the performers involved were believed to be infallible, Ghostface is somewhat vulnerable on several of the album’s songs. This is perhaps best illustrated on the single, “All That I Got Is You“, which is essentially a tribute to his mother. However, the rest of the album contains many street oriented, and organized crime topics, similar to Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…, in which Ghostface was heavily involved. Ironman contains more of Ghostface Killah’s highly praised unique uptempo, stream-of-consciousness rhyming style, which he would go on to further utilize on his highly acclaimed second studio album Supreme Clientele. The album also features a substantial amount of story-telling rap, such as the song “260.” Producer RZA combines his dark keyboard tones and early-1970s soul samples, heavily used on Only Built for Cuban Linx… and Liquid Swords respectively, to engender a soulful and melodic, yet dark and harsh feel that later influenced many other Wu-Tang releases, such as Wu-Tang Forever and Uncontrolled Substance, as well as numerous other East Coast artists.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aj4IkrfhpMg

In his book The Tao of Wu, producer RZA points out that Ghostface’s voice sounds noticeably different on Ironman from previous Wu-Tang releases. This is because Ironman was released following a flood that destroyed the basement studio in which those recordings were made. RZA had set up individual microphone preamps and compressors for each member, which were destroyed in the flood. Thus, the vocals on Ironman had to be recorded in a different studio with different equipment and settings, which slightly altered their sound. (Wikipedia)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKXfWUZm4V8