Ghostface Killah celebrated the 25th anniversary of his classic debut studio album Ironman by taking over Pandora’s 90s Hip-Hop Station on Friday for a special "Artist Takeover Mode" on the streaming service. In an interview with the takeover, Ghostface spoke on the impact hip-hop had on his life and gave the backstory to Ironman’s “Wildflower.” 

“Hip-hop saved my life,” he said, “and it means everything to me” He explained that before taking up rapping, he was “on the streets doing a lot of stuff.” 

“If it wasn’t for hip-hop, I don’t know where I’d be right now, you know what I mean? The last place I took up before I started doing this music, I was on the streets, just like, I was doing bad. Robbing and selling drugs, you know what I mean? Smoking dust, doing everything.”

Ghostface recalled conversations with RZA changing his perspective about his direction in life.  “I remember one day RZA said, ‘Yo, what you gonna do, bruh? You can’t mix pork with beef man, you gotta do one or the other,’” Ghostface recounted. “I had to make a decision, and that was it.”

When the topic of his favorite tracks came up, Ghost reminisced on the making of his song “Wildflower,” saying “I got my heart broke,” he said. “I didn’t like that pain, ‘cause that was like my first girlfriend, you know what I mean? She kinda like cheated on me and stuff. So I just carried that with me… and I put it out with words.” He added, “This is my first time saying that too, she ain’t even gonna know like… I did tell her, ‘Yo, you broke my heart.’ I didn’t tell her ‘Wildflower’ was based on you made me write that shit.”

Check out the 25th Anniversary of Ironman on all streaming platforms.