Everybody who's talked to me about rap for more than a few minutes knows how much I love the Geto Boys, so it's probably telling that the last time I really gave this album much thought was back in 2015 when I was trying to convince people that Kendrick bit this album's cover for To Pimp a Butterfly. (TPAB is a much better executed take on the same concept, but I guess I'm alone on this island because I've still never heard anyone else suggest that.) There's a pretty obvious reason I've tended to ignore this album: Face is Face & Willie is Willie & both are great in their own right, but for me that peculiar Geto Boys magic always emanated from Bushwick Bill, & I don't think it's an accident that the only GB album not to feature him is their most lackluster. Bill always pushed the Boys to be a bit more confessional, a bit more colorful, a bit stranger. But the big 3's reunion on 1996's The Resurrection was shortlived, just like the other reunions in 2005 & 2015.
In fairness, though, I'm not sure Bill's participation could have done much to liven up the dullest batch of beats the Geto Boys ever worked with. At 1st glance you see that Scarface & Mike Dean combined produced more than half of the album & you assume you're in good hands. Well, I don't know what happened but most of Mike's beats sound like tired retreads of his customary southern funk style. The exception is "Free," which finds Face & Will in meditative mode & stands out thanks to its unison piano & bass runs & its soulful chorus vocals. It's the kind of song that you imagine there would have been more of if Bill had contributed to this album. Similarly, there's only 1 standout among the raft of yawn-inducing Scarface beats (the worst of which is definitely the stiff robotic drum machine & repetitive organ & synth bass stabs of "Do Yo Time"). "Gangsta (Put Me Down)" captures the classic summertime Scarface sound with prominent high-pitched bass guitar noodling. The song finds Face & Willie in sexual escapade storytelling mode, & while it might sound a bit too close to The Diary's "Goin' Down," its sunny energy is welcome in an album that can otherwise feel monotonous.
Most of the other producers don't fare well either, with the album's nadir coming courtesy of 3-time loser Mr. Lee on "Thugg N***az," with an awkward beat that sounds like it was programmed in complete isolation from the rest of the instrumental. In actual fact, the 2 best beats on the album come from producers who only contributed a single song: Tone Capone with "They Bitches," a funky strut that fixes the syncopation problems of the aforementioned misfire; & Swift with the mournful piano chords & violins of "Eye 4 An Eye." Both of those songs find the emcees in sociopolitical mode, especially the fiery revolutionary rhetoric of the latter, which features a spoken word outro by Willie D that breaks down the totality of Black/white race relations in a lean 2 minutes.
Occasionally, Da Good, da Bad & da Ugly sounds like a Willie D solo album with a lot of Scarface features. Face doesn't even appear on the first song, "Dawn 2 Dusk." This isn't exactly unusual, since every Geto Boys album gives each member at least 1 solo song, but making 1 of them the opener is at the very least an odd decision. You can also hear Willie trying hard to flow like 2Pac on the album in general & that song in particular, making it ironic when the Outlawz show up for 2 features later in the album to bemoan "Why everybody sound like Pac nowadays?" Both Willie's affectations & the presence of the Outlawz--not to mention the G-funk-isms that show up in Mike Dean's beats--are typical of a moment when everybody wanted to rub up against the mystique created by Pac's megafame & murder, but it doesn't really belong on a Geto Boys album.
It was a strange time to be the Geto Boys, with the lack of Bill in the mix creating a vacuum that opened the door for several stylistic influences that probably shouldn't have been entertained. Luckily, Bill was able to return to the fold for 1 last album, ensuring that the Geto Boys' recorded history went out on a high note.
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