These days, a new Geto Boys album from Scarface, Willie D and Bushwick Bill is more of a rarity than you might think. It never happens without Scarface, the apparent leader, but the three members don’t always get along, so every other album since the group said they Can’t Be Stopped in 1991 had outsiders taking the place of either Willie D or Bushwick Bill. That makes this Foundation their first new album in almost a decade.

Not a lot has changed since then. “It’s the return of the murderer, maniac, madman,” Scarface announces, in one of the grimiest voices in the world of popular rap, while Willie D grabs a knife to “stab your ass in the leg and the chest and the back and mouth”, respectively. Yep, they’re still violent, and still crazy, after all these years. Bushwick Bill exposes his dick in a club full of strangers and idolizes a plastic horror movie doll… still.

As fascinating as their psychopathic antics can be, they might be at their collective best when revealing their softer sides. I Tried, possibly their best song, takes us on an introspective trip down the bumps in the road of Memory Lane, where even Bushwick seems to care as he overcomes thoughts of suicide for the sake of his babies. The music is jazzy, soulful and delicate; a peaceful rarity on an album otherwise ready for war.

War And Peace was supposed to be the title, as J Prince suggests on the prelude, before they changed it for whatever reason. Names aside, it’s an album that could’ve been better if it had a better ending. Leaving listeners with a random Bushwick Bill song about the Dirty Bitch he holds a heart full of hatred for was an awful artistic decision. Even given the lazy “Outro” that follows, the album seems awkward and incomplete because of it.

my rating : 3 of 5

2005