(Today's Reader Review is handled by P_Captain, who uses the allotted space to discuss one of his favourite albums, The Geto Boys, from the crowd of the like name.Read on for more, and allow some comments for him below.)
In 1988, the Ghetto Boys consisted of Prince Johnny C, Jukebox, DJ Ready Red, and their dancer Little Bill.
Signed to a mass with Rap-A-Lot, they released Making Trouble, which was more or less a Run-D.M.C. ripoff both musically and delivery-wise. Unsurprisingly, the album tanked, and the CEO of their label, James "J. Prince" Smith, decided that there were changes that required to be made to the crew.
Willie Dee, a solo artist signed to the same label, released his debut album Controversy in 1989, and J. Prince liked his process so often that he invited him to save some tracks for the Ghetto Boys.Johnny C and Jukebox didn't care anything Willie wrote, so they refused to read with him. Prince demanded that they enter or provide the group entirely: unsurprisingly, they both chose the latter.As such, Willie Dee became a Ghetto Boy himself, alongside DJ Ready Red and Little Bill, who decided that what he actually precious to do with his spirit was rap, changing his name to Bushwick Bill to check the occasion.
To turn things out, J. Prince reached out to a faithful ally of his, an artist named Brad Jordan who worked under the handle Akshen.Akshen released "Scarface", a twelve-inch single on Lil Troy's Short Stop Records, which was successful enough to eventually convince him to both change his name (to meet the deed of his breakthrough single) and to link up with the Ghetto Boys.With this new line-up complete, the group went from the Texas answer to Run D.M.C. to what was referred to as a southern N.W.A. as Willie Dee, Bushwick Bill, and the newly christened Scarface were heavily influenced by their peers out West.Around this time, Willie decided to spend some vowels from his rap name, shortening it to the more professional Willie D.
In 1989, they completed work on Grip It! On That Other Level, the first Ghetto Boys album using the new crew, releasing it independently on Rap-A-Lot Records. Success was immediate, and the Boys were on the receiving end of fair number of contention due to their violent habits, taking what N.W.A. started to "that other level".Former Def Jam Records boss Rick Rubin took note of the Boys and decided they would be a right fit with his new Def American Recordings label.
As they were now being promoted to the mainstream (with distribution being handled by Geffen Records), the crew (with Rubin's input) decided that retooling their original effort would be the best path of action.They changed their group name to the Geto Boys and distinct to retitle their album in an eponymous fashion, as an easy way of getting people to think their name, although for some argue they included the clause in the title, calling the new plan The Geto Boys.Ten out of the 12 tracks featured on Grip It! On The Former Level were rerecorded, now that the Boys had admittance to better recording equipment and a somewhat bigger budget, and a few other tracks were thrown in to turn things out.
When The Geto Boys was being readied for free in 1990, Geffen Records had cold feet, pulling out as the distributor due to the violent content in many of the songs (specifically "Mind Of A Lunatic"), classifying the album as objectionable material.Luckily, Rick Rubin was capable to ensure a better distribution deal with Warner Bros. who handled the discharge even though they also distanced themselves from the content.In fact, the album was originally released with a secondary warning sticker, alongside the Parental Advisory, which read: "Def American Recordings is opposed to censorship.Our maker and distributor, however, do not condone of support the subject of this recording, which they find violent, sexist, racist, and indecent."
Although I struggled to see any blatant racism, The Geto Boys is almost surely a controversial album, taking hip hop to levels it had never achieved before.In gain to the distribution issues, the original release featured a taste of The Steve Miller Band's "The Turkey" on "Gangsta of Love", a sex rap chock-full of graphic depictions of brutally sexual acts, which the band clearly did not wish to be associated with. (Strangely, the Hold It! On The Former Level version has that try to this day.Maybe The Steve Miller Band has no thought what underground rap is.The uncleared sample caused The Geto Boys to quickly go out of print, although it was re-released with an updated "Gangsta Of Bed" that now legally sampled Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" (because that's better somehow?), and with the secondary warning sticker removed.
So, were the results really worth all the argument and is The Geto Boys all that just? Take on to see out.
1.FUCK 'EM
The Geto Boys go out with what is a extremely aggressive rant against politicians who tried to prevent them down, parents trying to ban them and everybody else they had to fight in order to have their album released.This is a classic cut which features Bushwick, Willie D, and Scarface all passing at it with what can simply be described as "focused anger", even though Scarface's appearance is quite brief. The Tony Montana sound bites also add to the joy.
2.SIZE AIN'T SHIT
This is the inaugural track from Grip It! On That Other Point to appear. This time, Bushwick Bill takes a solo act to boast about the sizing of his penis and how his little stature (being a dwarf and all) doesn't matter and he can add it to anybody who is unintelligent enough to defend him. The lyrics are somewhat altered in the 3rd verse, but other than that, it's the like song. Although Bushwick is no lyrical genius (hell, he didn't even write his lyrics: Willie D helped him out), his rage and energy put into the performance sells it for me, similar to how Eazy-E can record a classic without ever pick up the pen himself.
3.MIND OF A LUNATIC
The original Grip It! On That Other Level version was not as vicious as this remake, which is credited as one of the fathers to the hip hop sub-genre horrorcore.This is too one of the best songs I get always heard, and others apparently agree: even Marilyn Manson has attempted to defile this track's legacy by recording a lousy cover.On the master version, Bushwick raped his female victim and then murdered her, but on The Geto Boys, he repeats the like process, but ends his poetry by having sex with the corpse, making this our chosen genre's first direct association with necrophilia.The instrumental is out of this world, so still if you are contrary to deviant violent and sexual descriptions, you should even be capable to relish this.Scarface's super-long verse is a mini-masterpiece: this remake is where his legendary words "I sit alone in my four cornered room starting at candles" originated, which were made still more famous later on, when the Geto Boys released "Mind Playing Tricks On Me".
4.GANGSTA OF LOVE
This song originally featured only Willie D and Scarface on Grip It! On That Other Level, but when Rick Rubin picked them up, he added Bushwick to a pretty large percentage of the song, reducing Scarface's role yet again.He clearly didn't like Scarface for any ground and cherished him outof the crew (something Face himself noted in a past interview), but irrespective of the backstory, the results on here are still better than on the original album.If you get across a transcript of The Geto Boys in a store, it's one hundred percent probable that your interpretation will take the "Sweet Home Alabama"-sampled version instead of "The Joker", but it really doesn't matter all that much: this is yet a classic sex rap with some of the wittiest and almost brutal lyrics ever.
5.TRIGGA HAPPY N-A
The phrase classic is being tossed about freely on this review and while I hold it is being overused, it'sthe perfect book to name only about every song on The Geto Boys. And you can add this call to the long run of perfection. DJ Ready Red has a lot of fun on this cut, sampling some of Al Pacino's dialogue from Scarface, and the three verses are all excellent examples of gangsta rap, as the Boys describe robberies of both liquor stores and random victims.Rick Rubin decided (again) to reduce Scarface's presence by removing one of his two verses from the original "Trigga Happy N-a", but the end product isn't affected a bit.
6.LIFE IN THE FAST LANE
We've finally gotten to Scarface's solo. Instead of playing a first-person account again, Face rewrite his lyrics and turns the song into a social commentary, casting himself as the omnipresent narrator instead of existence the guy who actually deals the drugs, escapes from the cops, or shoots guns in between recording tracks in the studio.As result, this call is a lot better than it originally was. Ready Red provides another excellent beatwith a little country twang, making this probably the most obviously Texan song on the full album.Um, most people in Texas don't ride horses to work.I don't mean it's been considered "country" in decades.)
7.ASSASSINS
This call was originally performed by Johnny C and Sire Jukebox on Making Trouble, interestingly enough.Willie D, Scarface, and Bushwick Bill each get a turn spitting one of the three verses, showing a lot more vigor than the master artists could ever muster, although the lyrics remain precisely the same.The drum sounded outdated in 1990, so you can guess how it plays today, but the brutal lyrics of the Geto Boys help this to still work, although they aren't as much "Assassins" as they are "homicidal maniacs" on this track.
8.DO IT LIKE A G.O.
This single, which was earlier a song written for Willie D's Controversy, originally featured Johnny C and Jukebox instead of Scarface and Bushwick Bill: this would notice one of the only times that the original Ghetto Boys actually agreed to recite Willie's lines.This track elevated the Geto Boys to a higher position than other local Houston heroes. Unlike the Hold It! On That Other Level version, this remake features the rappers delivering their lyrics with a lot more aggressive energy, lending a bit more legitimacy to the anger prevalent in the bars.I've always found it odd that the group never bothered to take the telephone call intro to the track, as it features J. Prince talking to Willie D and the original Ghetto Boys.
9.READ THESE NIKES
This Willie D solo effort started off as my least liked track from the album, eventually rising all the way to my favorite.How can one song mark such a drastic alteration of opinion?It isn't because of the beat, which is alright.Willie's hilarious (and highly quotable) verses about beating down random people who try to deal with him is what sells it for me.Each channel is just as funny as the one before it. It may not appeal to everyone as often as the other cuts on The Geto Boys, mostly because the former two guys are nowhere to be found,but seriously, if there were only three cuts here I could label as classics, this would decidedly be one of them.
10.TALKIN' LOUD AIN'T SAYIN' NOTHIN'
On Grip It! On That Other Level, Scarface performed the 1st verse, but Rick Rubin deleted him from the call entirely, so what we're left with is Bushwick's lone verse going against hypocritical parents and Willie D's two contributions dissing both pretenders claiming to be from the streets and cheating girlfriends. Scarface's verse was far from the best originally, though,so it doesn't actually matter that he's missing from this track, which samples the James Brown song of the sami name.Using a James Brown sample is reasonably well-worn territory in hip hip, but Ready Red manages to get more out of one sample than many other producers can get out of a solid album, and that's saying something.
11.SCARFACE
This is the call that put Brad "Scarface" Jordan on the map as one of hip hop's greats: it inevitably to be heard by anybody who is only conversant with his act from The Fix and his many guest verses.This is also where I really believe the mafioso rap phenomenon truly began. If you told me that Kool G Rap wasn't influenced by this when he wrote "On the Run", I would not think you. This song has aught to do with actual mob life, but it shares the same vision as the bulk of entries in the sub-genre: Scarface is a cocaine drug lord who fights off rivals and gets sex with ease. This call is pure perfection.The N.W.A samples used throughout make this evening more gangsta than it already is. With horrorcore and now mafioso rap on the table, tell me how many other rappers were subject of birthing two hip hop sub-genres within the same album.
12.LET A HO BE A HO
It's pretty amusing that Ready Red would sample Pink Floyd's "Money" for a call about prostitutes who are not to be trusted. This lyric alone makes this call for me: "So why you wanna kill when she says no more? / You ain't the beginning to be dumped by a god-damn whore!"
13.CITY UNDER SIEGE
This is a political rant against Ronald Reagan, the government's engagement in the drug trade, and corrupt cops. The Boys were inspired to spell this course after hearing almost a female who was killed by patrol officers after undergoing a following because she was too exhausted after exercise to draw over.Even with the change in overall subject matter (when compared to the remainder of the album), "City Under Siege" ends the album with a strike and holds up like every other song on The Geto Boys.
FINAL THOUGHTS: The Geto Boys is an undeniable classic to me and is probably my favourite album of all time. Every path is pure perfection: there isn't a dull moment here, and it says a lot when this fifty-five minute masterpiece is the only album to take it onto my iPod in its entirely.There are no useless skits or filler tracks: everything on The Geto Boys is essential. The Geto Boys is likewise the greatest Southern hip-hop album of all time, surpassing anything from Scarface as a solo rapper, anything OutKast or UGK have always made, and absolutely everything from the last decade. Every song on this album is pure gold: anybody who considers themselves a hip hop fan needs this in range for their appeal to be complete.
BUY OR BURN? If you get read this far, then you live what the solution will be. Rush to a damn store to clean it up already.
BEST TRACKS: Every song is perfect. I'm serious!
-P_Captain
(Questions?Comments?Concerns?Leave your thoughts below.)
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