Mr. Scarface Is Back 1991 Album

Scarface

By this point, Geto Boys albums began to read like a macabre anthology of grisly ghetto slasher/horror stories, with each subsequent release trying to outgross the previous effort. It all came to a peak in the fall of 1991 when they had a hit with "Mind Playing Tricks On Me", followed quickly by Scarface's solo release, which turned out to be another thriller, and on a lot of levels, better than actual Geto Boys records. Essentially, this is a Geto Boys-style record executed by Scarface, with his own unique imprint (the man in the black hat), so it's fairly clear Willie D and Bushwick weren't really needed to make Geto Boys records, right? "A Minute to Pray and a Second to Die" thematically capitalizes on "Mind Playing Tricks On Me's success, and like every good horror protagonist he had enough sense to off himself at the end ("I'm Dead"), but not before leaving a trail of dead bodies ("Diary of a Madman").

Despite not being a massive fan of early hip hop beats, most of these are funkily pretty good and despite it lyrically being very much shoot, kill, murder etc, none do that kind of rap better than Scarface did. "Hell I don't give a fuck about no witnesses / Witness this" - 'gunshot' Track for track, for me it's one of those fairly consistent records (drops off a touch toward the end though). In saying that though, while there are some great songs like the ones mentioned below, there is nothing amazing. If you love 1990-1991 beats though I can understand absolutely loving this record, but for more Scarface check out 'The Diary' and 'The Fix' for better later production. 3.5-4/5 Best Tracks: Mr. Scarface, Born Killer, Your Ass Got Took, Body Snatchers