Every hiphop head has certain rappers we defend like it's our job. One of mine is Richard William Stephen Shaw, better known as Bushwick Bill (R.I.P.). He may not have been the most graceful on the microphone--in fact, he might not have had any of the attributes I usually look for in an emcee (wordplay, creative flows, musicality). He may have been offbeat a lot of the time. But his uniqueness made up for it. Bill was just different. Scarface is one of the greatest ever, & Willie D is a fascinating emcee in his own right, but Bill was always the soul of any Geto Boys endeavor. He was coming off a rough few years when the guys reunited to make The Foundation, which proved to be their swansong. He hadn't released any music in a few years, he was having money troubles, & his family woes seemed endless. Scarface, on the other hand, was hot off the release of The Fix & was making major moves as president of Def Jam South. This tension--one group member at a professional apex, another near a personal apogee, with Willie somewhere in the middle--makes for a fascinating listen tonally.
After the usual J. Prince spoken word Rap-A-Lot intro blends into "Declaration of War," it becomes apparent that Face has modulated his baritone vocal somewhat upward to allow Willie the low end. That has always been the Geto Boys arrangement, but you can tell that special care has been taken here in the mixing and performances to ensure that each emcee has a distinct vocal presence. Despite the budget packaging (4-panel booklet with low-res artwork, grayscale printing on the CD itself) a lot of craft went into this album musically & technically. Although Tone Capone & Cory Mo put in serious work, the beatmaking hero of this album is Scarface himself, who produced 5 of the 13 proper songs. Face's production has always been simple, funky & tight. "Yes, Yes, Y'all" does a lot with a little--mainly a single piano loop & drums made for the Boys' pocket flows. Unfortunately, the song contains the album's only 2 homophobic slurs, but it also has a delightful exchange between Face & Bill: "They say the Beatles was the biggest/N***a fuck Paul!"
As usual for a Geto Boys album, each member gets a solo song, & the highlight is Scarface's "G Code," another of his self-produced beats, an anti-snitch anthem driven by orchestral strings & synths with a sung hook & an absolutely epic sound. I remember being so mad when I heard the instrumental a few years later in a car commercial. (I mean, get your money I guess Face, but we all know that money wasn't going toward child support.) Another great Scarface beat is "What?", featuring more spooky synths with a moody, pulsating bass. Bill dominates this one, taking the opportunity to taunt the police, while Willie's verse is mostly tough guy bluster. There's a lot of said bluster from Willie on this album, so his solo track, "Nothing to Show," is a nice change of pace, dropping OG knowledge about getting your money right & streetwise financial literacy.
When Bushwick Bill passed away, I wrote this on Facebook: "...It's
a shame so many people couldn't see past the freakshow element of a
four foot-tall, one-eyed gangsta rapper with an odd, offkilter delivery.
His subject matter was shocking, obscene, profane, but he was never
mindless about it. He was fearless with his audiences. He tore his heart
out and offered it to you, showing you the demons that lived there,
begging you not to ignore your own. Bill was the most radically honest
rapper of all time, and we need more radical honesty in hiphop. In fact,
it's the only way forward." That radical honesty is best displayed in the album's 2 confessional tracks, "I Tried" & "Leanin' On You," where Bill brings the other members up to his level of frankness. In "I Tried," a song about personal failures where the hook admits "sometimes I guess my best ain't good enough," Face raps about a destroyed romantic relationship, Willie addresses his mother, & Bill vows to be the best father he can be amid the broken pieces of his life. "Fuck it I'm dying, done with struggling for mine/Sleeping on fans' floors, ain't no use to me lying/Changed my name for anonymity, slick/But a four-feet dwarf that be on television's hard to miss."
Bill's contribution to "Leanin' On You" is equally poignant, asking the listener to imagine being a one-eyed dwarf like him: "You'd never make it, life's not fair/Everywhere you go, people point, people laugh, people stare." But it's Willie who steals the show on this song, once again choosing to address his relationship with his late mother: "Sista girl, I didn't know what you was dealing with/Pointed the finger at you, now I'm feeling like an idiot/But I'm wiser now, & I've seen the world/It's messed up how they treat us Geto Boys & girls."
Even Bill's solo song, "Dirty Bitch," another revenge fantasy and closer tonally to his earlier Chuckie days, is touching if only for the wretched emotion that comes through. Bill was a writer who was willing to show you the parts of himself that other people keep hidden, & unlike later rappers to plow that field (Eminem comes to mind), there was always a sense of proportion & higher purpose to his work rather than shock for shock's sake. "Dirty Bitch" is also the only beat contribution from Rap-A-Lot's legendary Mike Dean, with subtle strings & sparse drums accompanying a horror movie soundtrack-worthy piano.
For some people, the Geto Boys are synonymous with rude, abject proto-horrorcore & squeamish spectacle. They are certainly all of that, but to me they are also the most forthright, emotionally naked group in rap history. Their music is keenly intelligent without being pompous, accomplished without being showoffy, righteous without being preachy. The Foundation is a severely underappreciated piece of work.
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