Re: Scarface Made Full Album Zip
Gaspard Xenos
Made is the ninth studio album by American rapper Scarface. The album was released on December 4, 2007, by Rap-A-Lot Records, Asylum Records and Atlantic Records. The album was both critically and commercially successful, making it to 17 on the Billboard 200 and 2 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. One single was released, "Girl You Know" featuring R&B singer, Trey Songz, which became a minor hit on the R&B charts.
Face hasn't released a solo album of new material since 2002's The Fix, an epic about love and death in America's ghettos and a late-career masterpiece. When he recorded that record, Scarface was president of Def Jam South, where he signed Ludacris, and he had at his disposal both A-list guest-spots from the likes of Jay-Z and Nas and bluesier, more expansive beats than any he'd rapped on. Soon after its release though, he left Def Jam, and he's only occasionally dabbled in rapping since then, recording worthy albums with old crew the Geto Boys and new crew the Product and popping up for a few guest verses. Sometime last year, he announced that The Fix would be his last solo album, that he was sick of the music business. But now he's back with a new album on Rap-A-Lot, the venerable Houston indie that first launched his career nearly 20 years ago. On "Git Out My Face", he explains his reasons for returning to rap, and they're predictably confrontational: "This shit ain't go the planned, I'm caught in a cross/ And if I leave, they won't respect the South 'cause niggas soft/ Talking 'bout what's in they mouth, talking 'bout they cars and house/ That ain't what we about." After all these years, he still can't relinquish his messianic role.
MADE is a decidedly minor album: Barely 40 minutes, it has no guest rappers and its beats are entirely from Rap-A-Lot's house producers. But those beats-- slow and heavy melodic monsters laced with soul-samples and organ-blurts-- mesh beautifully and intuitively with Scarface's weary drawl. Over its ten songs, Scarface mostly treads familiar ground: harder-than-thou street-rap boasts, intimate grown-man relationship talk, wide-angle society-gone-wrong laments. When he's talking hard, as on "Big Dogg Status", Scarface can be both thrilling and terrifying: "He's a nerd, and they fuck nerds in jail I heard/ As a nigga, I came in here with my balls and word." He's also still a gifted technical rapper with a gift for unshowy but intricate and alliterative rhymes: "I roll over roaches in Rovers with rims on 'em/ Sniffing out a rat, I expose him and then dome him." We've heard him say this stuff hundreds of times before, but his tough-talk gets more interesting as it gets more specific. "Burn", for instance, is a chilling murder-ballad, as Face explores the emptiness he feels immediately after killing someone: "My hands got powder-burns, I just murdered a man/ Took his life for nothing/ If you ask me, fuck it." His voice isn't the only thing he has in common with Johnny Cash.
Coming from a slow, booming voice like Scarface's, that confusion sounds all the more poignant, and it's the thing that sticks with me the most about MADE. Scarface is a rap legend and an elder statesman, but on this album, he's got more questions than answers. MADE might be a small album, one that never musically ventures outside Scarface's comfort zone, but it's a heavily personal work from someone with a whole lot to say. If we're lucky, Scarface might have another few albums like this left in him.
Some of you fambruhs might only know Brad Jordan as the title of an Isaiah Rashad song, but the man has had more of an impact on rap than possibly anyone else in the history of the genre. Right out of the gate, he out-obscened N.W.A., then invented the "gangsta with a bad conscious" stereotype, worked with everyone from Gucci Mane to Nas, put on half of Houston, then defined what it is to be an old man in a young man's game, all the while making some of the best music in any genre. With his new book and a new Geto Boys album in the works, I present: Scarface.
This was the first Geto Boys album to feature Scarface and Willie D, and there's not really much reason to get into its predecessor Making Trouble, which is really only interesting from a historical perspective. But this made some serious noise when it came out. For all the controversy N.W.A. made with Straight Outta Compton, this went an extra step further in every way. Face (at this time still called Akshen) was only 19 years old on here, but he already sounds like a vet. This is worth hearing front to back, it's that nice.
This is the one that has Mind Playing Tricks on it. It's a great album, to be sure, but I usually play their predecessor or Scarface's debut when I want that raw sound that Rap-A-Lot Records had in the early 90's. Still, the high points on this are insanely high, and if you've never heard this album, you need to. Just as important as Grip It! was.
This shit is hard. Scarface's debut paints him as a southern Ice Cube, just as quick to rob you as to tell you how the world works. The production on this is basically a cross between the earlier Geto Boys stuff and Ice Cube's stuff from around the time. It's a damn good album to catch a 21-year old kid talking more game than anyone had yet heard.
This is the start of Geto Boys having lineup troubles, and it wouldn't be the end. Anyway, Willie D was out for this one and Big Mike would be the one taking his place. This album holds up okay now, but back in the day everyone hated this. Willie D was, to a lot of fans, the real star of the group at this point, and I remember hearing rumors saying the GB's were washed. This should be one of the last Geto Boys albums you grab.
This album is nearly 70 minutes, and it's really unfocused. Still, it gets slept on unjustly, there's a few great joints on here. This going Gold didn't do a whole lot to dispel the rumors surrounding the GB's that they were soon to be forgotten. The production on here sort of tries for a G-Funk thing, which pissed off a lot of heads who wanted more of that Rap-A-Lot sound. A lot of the songs don't connect as well as they could have, and as a result I have to rank this in the low-end of the man's work.
And just a couple years later, the Geto Boys were back with the best album of their career. Willie D returned to the group, and this shit sounds fantastic. 1996 was one of the best years for rap (and my favorite) and this album does not disappoint, hanging in there with the big dogs no problem. People in the hood when this came out were going crazy. This is another one you have to hear early, this shit sounds unstoppable.
A weed carrier group, like any other. But as with any weed carrier group, there's one shining light that makes it all worth it: Devin the Dude. You don't really need this until you've heard everything else he made this decade.
People call this album too polished, and in this case, the general consensus is right. Scarface decided to go really big after The Diary was a huge success, and it shows. People loved this back in the day but it doesn't quite hold up as well as I'd hope. The best songs on this bang though, and it makes for a worthy addition to Face's catalog. Get it after you have most of his 90's stuff.
Scarface made the opposite of The Untouchable here: a double album filled with southern rappers. Yeah, its big and unwieldy and it has a couple joints on it that don't really connect, but man, this thing is a lot more solid than you'd think. It's basically a Houston All Eyez on Me. This shit kept his credibility solid, and did a good deal to popularize Devin. Check this out before The Untouchable.
Right when Willie D came back, Bushwick left. It's not a huge loss though, they filled in with a lot of guests, and I mean a lot of guests. This is the least Geto Boys album they ever made, it just feels really different from the rest of their discog, but not bad. Check it out when you've heard at least 2 or 3 other Geto Boys albums.
The album does have mishaps and thats due to production and weak hooks. I could never get into Burn or Dollar which was due to horrendous hooks and very flat production which. Even though Dollar minus the hook has a message behind it. It becomes hard to enjoy but perhaps maybe it would eventually grow on to me. But he closes the album out with perfection with the very dark and eerie Suicide Note about a friends warning to him about suicide and the story unfolds from there.
On songs like "Faith" and "For Real" Scarface made it a point to drop knowledge on issues of racism, poverty and revolution. On tracks like "Smile" featuring Tupac Shakur and Johnny P, the heavy bass, distorted intro and competing lyrics of the rappers caught the attention of fans and highlighted the issues of corrupt government and America's societal drug problem.
6. The Untouchable (1997). The obvious centerpiece of this album is his song with Tupac Shakur, Smile, which might have been the last feature he recorded before being murdered. but there are some powerful deep cuts here as well.
Scarface is one of the unsung icons of Hip Hop. A true pioneer, he was one of those responsible for putting Southern Hip Hop on the map. As part of the Geto Boys and especially as a solo artist, his three decades in the game left an indelible mark on Hip Hop, with a string of classic songs, albums, and guest appearances.
Born and raised in Compton, rapper and producer DJ Quik pioneered a unique sound infused with articulate, witty and smart lyrics laced with smooth yet rugged funky tracks. DJ Quik's platinum-selling 1991 debut "Quik is the Name" was the catapult to an epic career including 10+ albums, unforgettable collaborations and over 25 years as one of L.A.'s biggest rapper-producers. DJ Quik is responsible for introducing talents such as AMG, Second II None, Hi-C, Suga-Free, Mausberg and Truth Hurts.
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