Fire Starter: Trife Diesel

Better known by fans of Ghostface Killah's Theodore Unit as Trife Da God, Trife Diesel is finally getting his own thing off with the just-released Better Late Than Never.

"My brother Ghost is on there, my brother [Shawn] Wigz is on there," Trife told us earlier this week. "It's a nice classical album. It's not a mainstream album, but it's more me, Trife Da God."

"My brother put me on to Trife," Ghost said of how the two crossed paths. "This little dude, he had an ill swag, he was clean-cut. He was ahead of his time, up to date, and his darts were clean. His darts were illmatic. I sent him down to Florida with me when we was doing Bulletproof Wallets. Ever since Wallets, he's been on tour with me."

Trife said his experience with Ghost has been indispensable.

"I'm not ashamed to say, he's like a father figure," Trife said. "He taught me in rap. I'm very appreciative, and that's why when I go out there and do what I do, I gotta make great music. I can't let him down or my fans down."

The Streets Is Talking: News & Notes From The Underground

If the great Ghostdini got his wish, he'd do a duets LP with one of his most popular collaborators: Mary J. Blige.

"We got the ill chemistry together," said Ghost, on the set of his "Baby" video in Harlem. "I love Mary. I hope one day we could ... get together and just make an ill classic. Some Peaches & Herb. [Hip-hop editor's note: Google that group!] We just hop in real quick. Just one go-round, a one-off. That's just fly."

Sitting in his tour bus, parked across the street from Rucker Park, Ghost was also thinking about collaborating with some other R&B greats. His past R&B collaborations are highlighted on the new J-Love mixtape [article id="1617518"]The Wizard Is Coming.[/article]

"That was when we was in Cali at that time," Ghost thought back to his guest appearance on Mary's "Your Child" remix. "I remember Mary wanted me to do that for her real quick. I did two of them [verses]. The other verse wasn't all right. I think [the verse that made the song] might have been eight bars. Those were the days. I was stuck a little bit."

Tony Starks' eyes were as bright as Iron Man's suit with a fresh coat of candy-red paint when he talked about the "Freek'n You" remix he did with Jodeci.

"We smashed that out in two or three hours," he said of the song. "They was drinking that red shot, some red liquor. [Jodeci] was in there singing, doing their own parts. Me and [Raekwon] was in there sitting down writing our part. Then Rae went in and did his part. I laid mine after Rae. That's when our pens were going off fast and did what it did. Connected the dots. [Jodeci] were some good brothers. They was drunk, but they were doing it like it was nothing."

Ghost is putting out his Wizard of Poetry later this fall, featuring duets with John Legend, Estelle, possibly Blige and definitely Raheem DeVaughn on the first single "Baby."

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