Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Heavy lyrics & music: Not for the faint of ear, August 6, 2000
Even in 1991, one year before Dr. Dre released "The Chronic", gansta rap was already a prominent force. Scarface's debut proves that back then even the most played-out ideas had a better production value than today's artists. "Mr. Scarface Is Back" tackles the usual topics of gangsta life; dope fiends, drugs, guns, greedy rivals and vengeful women. However, Scarface's attention to lyrics gives his storytelling a detail only Ice Cube's early work could rival. The opening track is by far the album's standout, in which Scarface tells of another day on the street corner, peddling coke, when things go wrong. Scarface also shares his apparent fear of insanity, while secretly seeming to embrace it while it serves as a tool for him to live his dangerous lifestyle.The music on this album is nowadays of a truly rare nature. No synthesizers or drum machines present, most of his back-up consists of organs, guitars, and heavy cymbals (check out the drums on "Born Killer"). Unsurprisingly, there are many dialogue samples from the film "Scarface", but they are used with such ingenuity you don't seem to get sick of Al Pacino's constant cameo appearances throughout the album. This is a rare, confident, aggressive and overlooked piece of gangsta rap history (and far more sophisticated than the album cover suggests).
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
True hardcore is here., December 1, 2003
I give this album four stars only because I give THE GETO BOYS (the Rick Rubin-produced album with the mug shots on the cover) five--as a gangsta rap album, THE GETO BOYS is fully the equal of STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON, and I'll even say it's got an edge on it.Everyone here seems to feel this first solo album from Scarface the same way. It's not that Scarface doesn't enjoy his musical crimes while they last, and true to legendary gangsters his attitude is snide, macabre, nasty, and brutal. But dread of mental disintegration and death lies behind almost every track. MR. SCARFACE IS BACK, but he's back to die, and he knows he's doomed. It's a concept album without pretension, and a moral album without preaching. Look at the goddamn album cover, capturing that Kodak moment just after trust expires and just before the shotgun blasts commence--guest-starring can be seen lil' Bill with his pistol grip, the very picture of glee--not to mention some weird pre-Photoshop retouching going on with the bearded brother scooping caine from the pile. My favorite track, "Good Girl Gone Bad" is a meticulous portrait of just such a double-cross, and anyone familiar with Houston can picture the rotting, peeling apartment complex and the gunfight on the 610 or 59 (when Scarface gets his revenge, there's the essential begging for mercy on the part of his betrayer--and as a Southern rapper, he has the unique satisfaction of being able to boast how he "drug his ass to the bayou"). This was no million-dollar score, but the story of risking one's life for the chance to make exactly $31,800 profit on six keys. You could never picture Scarface on this album as a high roller in Vegas, Times Square, or on the Sunset Strip, let alone a "gangsta rapper" who confuses one profession with the other--a way of life that has gotten more than one rapper dead. Scarface's real money and power have come from keeping the two separate--a highly successful musician and executive whose vocal style is sardonic as rigor mortis and whose lyrics are as common-sense as a gravedigger. True hardcore is here.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
from B.G. to O.G., August 26, 2004
Scarface has done a lot for the southside just as much as 2Pac has done with the west coast and rap music itself. I have as much respect for Scarface as much as I have for 2Pac because he puts it down for the southside always and his rhymes are incredible. Its like he's killing us softly with his slow death process, his lyrics. He's a murderer in music but does it so quietly and calm. His journey, which started from the Geto Boys, has ended up to where he is at now, President of Def Jam South and still one of the ruthless rappers to ever come out. Check this album out, you'll see what I'm talking about. His incredible killer Born Killer was an instant classic. Who else do you know who can make dope rhymes like this- "See it ain't no sweat to me/Coz in the fore place you've f*cked up the minute that you STEP to me!". I fell in love with this classic as soon as I heard his killa rhymes. Another moment I enjoyed was A Minute to Pray and a Second to Die. A tale about the streets, it has an eerie production involving Marvin Gaye's Inner City Blues, which is a brilliant track. Money and the Power and Mr. Scarface is Back are two other nice touches that should be looked at.
I don't know about the rest of the world but I love the production, I guess it's because I'm more into old school hip-hop rather than the crap put out today. It has a real southside feel to it, which is another thing I like. But you should really look out for the lyrics here, this album is very underrated and I don't understand why. He lived the tales he tells us to pass on to the next generation so he knows what he's talking about. And this isn't strictly for the southside, like Scarface said- "Even though I came from Houston, my music is for everyone from every side." 'Nuff sed.
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by Scarface 
