Thursday, June 15, 2006

Is my mind playing tricks, like Scarface and Bushwick?

I had an interesting thought the other day, bear with me while I explain the back story. I was in New York a few weeks ago and picked up some 3 for $20 home made mix CDs in Coney Island, two hip-hop and one rare groove disco classics. All three have provided great trips down various memory lanes, tunes you used to love and haven't heard for a while, tunes you always wanted to have but never found, tunes you have lost. Anyway, it was on one of these little journeys that I rediscovered just how amazing the Geto Boys' "Mind Playing Tricks On Me" is. I remember originally discovering this tune when drawn to the unforgettable front cover of the album from whence this came, "We Can't Be Stopped". The cover shows the group with dwarf rapper Bushwick Bill on a hospital trolley with his right eye shot out, a real picture taken after he tried to get his girlfriend to blow his brains out so his mother could collect life insurance! Honestly the story itself is unbelievable and maybe one day we'll return to it in full. But to get back to the tune, it is a phenomenal tale of paranoia on the streets of Houston, violence and social issues and drugs all play a part in one of the hardest tunes ever. But so funky, sampling Isaac Haye's "Hung Up On My Baby" for the hook, the same hook featured by Biggie on "One More Chance". And then I thought, how much of a precursor to Biggie's lyrical style this tune is. Listen and then imagine Biggie rapping it, see how close it is to some of his finer, darker moments. So that's my thought. How amazing Biggie would be rapping the full Geto Boys tune "Mind Playing Tricks On Me". Maybe I should get out more.