Scarface Albums (11)
What The Critics Say
With Emeritus, the legendary Scarface brings his solo career to close, a declaration he made six yeas earlier, although this time it seems more realistic. The former Geto Boy's stipulation that collaborations are still possible is right in line with his recent projects like his three-man crew the Product but more than anything, there's a bitterness throughout Emeritus that feels like pulling up stakes and cutting your losses. Right from the extended intro where Rap-A-Lot CEO J. Prince roll calls the snitches as if it was jailhouse poetry, the album is filled spite for a game that doesn't appreciate its elder players. This uncompromising stance never wavers, even with an appearance from superstar Lil Wayne who, along with Bun B., contributes to the furious highlight "Forgot About Me." Bilal, an Ohio Players sample, plus accusations that corporate drug companies are pimping harder than crack dealers all make "Can't Get Right" a standout while "Soldier Story" and the ironically named "Redemption Song" both look back in anger at Face's rise to fame. With the rapper making women hit the "High Note" and getting hedonistic elsewhere, Emeritus is not the usual, very serious good-bye record, but in so many ways, it's a typical Scarface record. It's just better than usual with the rapper sounding liberated by his decision to move on. ~ David Jeffries, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Hip-hop veteran Scarface doesn't evolve much or waiver from his usual hardcore, minimal sound on his 2007 effort MADE, but that doesn't mean his loyal fan base shouldn't eat it up for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. MADE is Scarface doing everything right, delivering those cold, hardcore rhymes over uncomplicated, soulful beats. He's inspired enough to carry this almost guest-free album on his own, and if anything's changed about his lyrics, it's that he's more willing than ever to show his maturity. On the highlight "Big Dog Status" he tells the younger generation to stop worrying about the price tag of their ride and start thinking about what it takes to stay in the game for life. "Boy Meets Girl" is an insightful story of a hood relationship gone wrong while the bleak "The Suicide Note" wonders how Face's old neighborhood slipped into hell so fast. Memorable choruses and hooks like the ones found on "Never" and "Dollar" round the album out just enough, although a couple of redundant numbers keep this from being one of his best. Oddly enough, the rapper picks up his guitar for the album but doesn't hand in a production, leaving it up to Mike Dean, Drumma Boy, and One Drop Scott to deliver the satisfying beats. ~ David Jeffries, All Music Guide
'My Homies, Pt. 2'
Release Date 2/14/2006
Tracks 14
Label Asylum / Rap-A-Lot
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Over-releasing like he was Master P with bills to pay, Scarface didn't even let one month of 2006 pass before he followed the excellent One Hunid with the guest-star-filled My Homies, Pt. 2. To put some confusion to rest, One Hunid was a "Scarface presents" affair -- that is, he was presenting his new crew, the Product -- but it contained much more material from Scarface himself than My Homies, Pt. 2, which looks more like a solo album than it is (longtime fans are less confused, because the original My Homies was also a near-compilation). With that out of the way, My Homies, Pt. 2 is better than its predecessor and would be every reason a Scarface fan needs to celebrate if it didn't draw attention away from the superior One Hunid by proximity. After Z-Ro and Ice Cube help Scarface set things off with the club banger "Definition of Real," Beanie Sigel and the Game join the man for the solid "Never Snitch." From here on in, Scarface bows out just about every other track, but if the listener accepts the album as a compilation, there's plenty of solid material left. Z-Ro's "Man Cry" is a heart-wrenching classic, perfectly complementing Scarface's own tales of bleakness and struggle. Skip and the Ghetto Slaves revive the beat from Mike Jones' slept-on "Cutting" for the party-starting "We Out Here" while Lil' Flip, Chamillionaire, and Bun B have a hood anthem on their hands with "Platinum Starz." Bouncing between the slick and the dirty, the bleak and the bravado, My Homies, Pt. 2 still hangs together well, and with little filler to suffer, only those who want an album of entirely Scarface are going to be disappointed. ~ David Jeffries, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
The introductory release from Scarface's new Underground Railroad Movement imprint opens a brand new chapter in the Southern godfather's career. The Product, a collaboration between Scarface and talented newcomers Willie Hen and Young Malice, does what so many other Scarface releases couldn't: live up to the man's legend. One Hunid is dirty, grimy, street-level, and doesn't give a damn about what radio is doing, but more than anything, it's a lyric-lover's dream and often delivers its urban survival stories with poignant regret. Bleak and mature are two other adjectives you can throw at the album, but One Hunid is not without its reckless hunger and hedonism. Kick-off single "I'm A" breaks down the door like a dirty Westside Connection club track while the Alchemist's loopy backing track makes "G Type" a head-bobber of the highest order. Weekends were made for tracks like these, but what gives the album legs are the numerous soul-searching numbers that contrast fatherhood and family with gangsta lifestyle and how crime has consequences but it's the only way to get the family clan on top in less than five generations. The well-respected Scarface could have spun his Rolodex and had any number of Southern superstars in the studio, so it's fascinating how One Hunid relies on Scarface's new inner circle with no guest shots and production mostly from Tone Capone, J. Bido, and Scarface himself. Capone delivers dramatic grooves that could live in the house of G-Unit while J. Bido and Scarface cut hypnotic loops with the more alternative than underground "Don't Matter" being their masterpiece. Hen and Malice made some local noise -- in the Bay Area and Mississippi, respectively -- and they already sound like cynical victims of the game, ready to throw their hands in the air if the radio keeps ignoring the hardcore while also acknowledging the muse inside just won't let them give in. The background vocals of the sultry Tekia Hicks and the always Isley-sounding Tony Mac complete this closely knit crew, which in the end seems a conscious decision by Scarface. A Mariah, T.I., or even a Ludacris appearance would have taken the album in a totally different direction, stripping the intimacy and blunting the purpose. Not for nuthin', but Scarface's legend and his discography don't match up and some of the time he seemed better in theory than in practice. There's not even a whiff of that on One Hunid, an album the game really has been missing. ~ David Jeffries, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Though nothing on the packaging states so, Balls and My Word is Rap-a-Lot's attempt to spruce up a bunch of Scarface outtakes and make them seem like a new studio album by a departed and increasingly popular legend. Circa 2003, the year Rap-a-Lot released Balls and My Word, the Texas indie label was in dire straits. The rise of myriad indie rap labels during the early 2000s took away a big chunk of the Dirty South market that Rap-a-Lot once dominated; furthermore, the departure of the label's marquee artist, Scarface, for the greener pastures of industry heavyweight Def Jam certainly didn't help. Desperate times breed desperate measures, so Rap-a-Lot definitely goes for broke here on Balls and My Word, taunting 50 Cent, who was presently the industry's hottest rapper, on "Bitch Nigga." It's a baiting track, for sure -- one that absolutely begs for a response, one that would garner ridiculous media attention and, in turn, some much-needed publicity for Rap-a-Lot. The catch, of course, is that it's not Scarface who does the baiting; rather, it's Rap-a-Lot figurehead J Prince and his latest signee, Z-Ro, who hijack a dusty verse of 'Face's about snitches and misplace it into a new context. (Scarface has no beef whatsoever with 50 and, in fact, even went so far as to affirm this in the media.) This publicity ploy is downright crass, but if you can look past all this, Balls and My Word does contain some quality performances by Scarface and his longtime producer, Mike Dean, as well as a production by Murder Inc.'s in-house mastermind, 7 Aurelius ("Spend the Night"). ~ Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Brad Jordan, head of A&R for Def Jam South, was a big success after just a few months on the job; his signing of Ludacris in 2000 paid off in triple-platinum after less than a year. It's not every A&R man who's rewarded for great work with an album of his own, but then again, not every A&R man is also one of the most influential voices in the history of hip-hop. After defining the down South gangsta during the late '80s with Geto Boys, Scarface began a solo career that earned him a couple of gold albums and saw some of the biggest names in rap (2Pac, Ice Cube, Kurupt, Too Short) angling to work with him -- this back when posse tracks were rarities. Scarface fans will recognize quite a few of the usual themes throughout The Fix, like the good-times-and-bad territory anthem "My Block" (complete with an old-school production, '70s style) and "In Cold Blood," a first-person journal entry from a gang-banger. The highlights, though, find Scarface morphing back into Jordan the bottom-line businessman, banking on the familiar names: "Guess Who's Back" is more a Jay-Z track with a little room for Scarface than the other way around, and the same goes for the Nas feature, "In Between Us." And Pharrell from Neptunes takes over "Someday," with Faith Evans adding a little sugar to the chorus to make up for the patented Scarface growl on the verses. Though The Fix has him reaching for the charts as well as focusing on the personal, the inimitable Scarface balances the competing concerns well. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide
'The Last of a Dying Breed'
Release Date 10/3/2000
Tracks 15
Label Virgin
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
The sixth album from Scarface doesn't stray too far from his usual subjects: pain, murder, mayhem, and vengeance are all well-represented on this sort-of concept album involving a life in turmoil. It's certainly Scarface's most personal album, with the rapper taking more responsibility for his actions and accounting for his words (and actually providing some well-deserved introspection on a few tracks). But this is still a street album, and Scarface still often takes a lazy street stance. Nonetheless, it's a good representation of a gangsta's development into conscientiousness. ~ Michael Gallucci, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Over-releasing like he was Master P with bills to pay, Scarface didn't even let one month of 2006 pass before he followed the excellent One Hunid with the guest-star-filled My Homies, Pt. 2. To put some confusion to rest, One Hunid was a "Scarface presents" affair -- that is, he was presenting his new crew, the Product -- but it contained much more material from Scarface himself than My Homies, Pt. 2, which looks more like a solo album than it is (longtime fans are less confused, because the original My Homies was also a near-compilation). With that out of the way, My Homies, Pt. 2 is better than its predecessor and would be every reason a Scarface fan needs to celebrate if it didn't draw attention away from the superior One Hunid by proximity. After Z-Ro and Ice Cube help Scarface set things off with the club banger "Definition of Real," Beanie Sigel and the Game join the man for the solid "Never Snitch." From here on in, Scarface bows out just about every other track, but if the listener accepts the album as a compilation, there's plenty of solid material left. Z-Ro's "Man Cry" is a heart-wrenching classic, perfectly complementing Scarface's own tales of bleakness and struggle. Skip and the Ghetto Slaves revive the beat from Mike Jones' slept-on "Cutting" for the party-starting "We Out Here" while Lil' Flip, Chamillionaire, and Bun B have a hood anthem on their hands with "Platinum Starz." Bouncing between the slick and the dirty, the bleak and the bravado, My Homies, Pt. 2 still hangs together well, and with little filler to suffer, only those who want an album of entirely Scarface are going to be disappointed. ~ David Jeffries, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
With the dissolution of the Geto Boys far behind him, Scarface follows the epic overreaching of The World Is Yours with The Diary, a refreshingly modest album with a few really strong moments and little filler. Never short on ideas, Scarface had nonetheless gone a little too far with the 70-minute The World Is Yours. There was plenty of brilliance there, including the stunning "Now I Feel Ya," but you had to do some sifting to find it. That's less the case with the 43-minute Diary, which doesn't overextend its ambitions. Scarface here once again offers a laid-back gangsta ballad, "I Seen a Man Die," that's as thoughtful and somber as the style gets and also perhaps the album highlight. Elsewhere, he teams up with fellow gangsta veteran Ice Cube on "Hand of the Dead Body" and reprises his best-known song, "Mind Playin' Tricks 94." Not counting the interludes, there's only ten songs here, and they're nearly all produced by the team of N.O. Joe and Mike Dean. It may make the album a short listen, yet it also makes The Diary one of Scarface's most solid efforts, one where you rarely, if ever, feel inclined to skip a song. And that's something you can't say about the work of most rappers, particularly ones as creative as Scarface. ~ Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Scarface once again quickly follows a Geto Boys album, Till Death Do Us Part, with a solo release, The World Is Yours, just as he'd done two years earlier with his brilliant solo debut, Mr. Scarface Is Back. The circumstances are otherwise quite different, though. Scarface had been on a roll in 1991: fresh off the breakthrough success of "Mind Playing Tricks on Me" and its similarly well-received Geto Boys album, We Can't Be Stopped, he unveiled a cinematic, somewhat conceptual solo debut that made him a bona fide national superstar. Furthermore, much changed within the rap world between 1991-1993, specifically the end of free-for-all sampling and the widespread proliferation of gangsta rap. Scarface thus delivers a follow-up that's a huge leap forward from his debut, both in terms of production and rhetoric. He works here mostly with producer N.O. Joe, who crafts a G-funk style distinctly modeled after the West Coast sounds of the moment à la The Chronic, and he favors personally introspective rhymes rather than his heedful narratives of the past. The heartfelt seven-and-a-half-minute "Now I Feel Ya" showcases this new lyrical approach best, as Scarface rhymes at one point about his new son and how in turn he's had to alter his lifestyle. The significant changes Scarface has made here on The World Is Yours showcase his unwillingness to revel in the past, as glorious as his past may have been, yet they at the same time may frustrate fans of his early work, as his new style moves him further into the gangsta rap mainstream. ~ Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide
