Rest in Peace Collins Leysath/DJ Ready Red, 1965-2018
After I wrote about their 2005 album The Foundation last week, the universe must have known I was in the mood for some more Geto Boys, so the random number generator blessed me with an opportunity to revisit their 1990 self-titled album. Most people, including me, think of this as the Geto Boys' debut LP, but really it's more of a rerecorded compilation. There are only 2 wholly new songs ("Fuck Em" & "City Under Siege"). Most of the tracks are rerecorded, rearranged songs from their 2nd album Grip It! On That Other Level. One of the most controversial songs, "Assassins," is re-recorded from Making Trouble, the 1988 debut album by a group called The Ghetto Boys, where it was written & rapped by a completely different person (Prince Johnny C).
It's important to understand that at this stage, the Ghetto/Geto Boys were not a group so much as a brand masterminded by Rap-a-Lot founder J. Prince. He wanted to create an identity for southern hiphop, & after a few false starts, decided the way forward was the headline-friendly shock tactics of gangsta rap taken to the extreme. He fired the overly Run-DMC-derivative Johnny C & Sire Jukebox in favor of the more streetwise southern drawls of Willie D & Akshen (re-christened Scarface in keeping with Making Trouble's sample collage "Balls and My Word"), & promoted backup dancer Bushwick Bill to emcee status.
The second person most responsible for the sound & impact of the 1990 Geto Boys album is another label executive: Rick Rubin, who made it his return to hiphop after pivoting to rock in the mid '80s. I'm not sure exactly what about the Geto Boys caught his ear, but I imagine he, like Prince, saw the commercial potential of their no fucks given, "let's piss off the world" attitude. (The Def American release proudly displays a big disclaimer on the front cover stating that their distributor objected to the album's contents, & indeed Rubin cut ties with Geffen over this record & had to find new distribution.)
Rubin's classic-rock-loving fingerprints are all over this album, from the remixed "Gangsta of Love" riding a "Sweet Home Alabama" sample (the original sampled Steve Miller's "The Joker," of course) to the breakneck pace of the album, with micro-gaps between the songs giving the listener no time to catch their breath. Still, most of the strongest beats come from the original Grip It! production. DJ Ready Red (R.I.P. 2018) was an unsung musical asset to the group. The skanky guitar & harmonica of "Life in the Fast Lane," the horns in "Mind of a Lunatic" that stab the beat like Bill's knife, one of the earliest hiphop samples of Curtis Mayfield's "Superfly" in "Do It Like a G.O."...each song has a unique, memorable identity thanks to Ready Red's ear.
Lyrically, each emcee was comfortably exploring their own territory even at this early stage. Face is mostly interested in storytelling (as in solo tracks "Life in the Fast Lane" & the iconic "Scarface"), Willie is all macho bluster mixed with some street knowledge ("Read These Nikes" & "Let a Ho Be a Ho"), & Bill is eagerly exploring the depths of violence & degradation in the proto-horrorcore "Mind of a Lunatic," as well as "Size Ain't Shit." The misogyny of some of the tracks, like "Gangster of Love," is impossible to take seriously, especially considering how unpleasant & violent many of the boasts are. Like Kool G Rap in his sex songs, the Boys are bragging about their sexual prowess to a mostly male audience, in language aimed at men, which is an interesting arrangement & goes to show how thin the line between macho shit & homoeroticism really is.
The Geto Boys' music was always influenced by the sociopolitical issues of the day. Here, they connect Reagan & Noriega on "City Under Siege," discuss how systemic racism is backed up by economic inequity in "Do It Like a G.O." while extolling the virtues of keeping their label independent & black-owned, & pointing out the hypocrisy of the moral outrage over their music in "Talkin' Loud Ain't Saying Nothin." Although they got more mature later on, they were never so much politically educated as they were full of piss & vinegar, of which this album (& maybe "Fuck a War" from We Can't Be Stopped) is the best expression.
Similar to Malcolm McLaren's creation of the Sex Pistols in 1970s Britain, what started out as a cynical business decision to make a band that would sell ended up producing authentic artistry that revolutionized a genre. J. Prince was trying to hit a lick & somehow ended up assembling one of the greatest hiphop groups of all time. The Geto Boys for me has an edge on We Can't Be Stopped because it has more focus & fewer solo songs. (A few of those go a long way, as demonstrated here.) Despite its weird status as somewhere between album & compilation, to me this is one of the Geto Boys' best discs.
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