We Can't Be Stopped [PA] (CD - 1991)

Geto Boys: Scarface, Willie D, Bushwick Bill (rap vocals).

The cover of this 1991album shows group member Bushwick Bill being wheeled down a dingy hospital corridor after being shot in the eye, and it's real--no joke, probably the ugliest cover in all of rap (and one of the best). Inside, Mr. Scarface spins his drug-war stories ("Gotta Let Your Nuts Hang"), while Willie D spews his misanthropic venom ("Ain't with Being Broke"), and the 3'8" Bushwick Bill laughingly threatens those who tease him for being short ("Size Ain't S**T"). These guys are all pretty scary, but Bill takes it to a whole other level with his deadpan impersonation of "Chuckie" from the horror flick, CHILD'S PLAY. The album's big hit was "Mind Playing Tricks on Me," an Isaac Hayes-sampling tale of hallucinations and Halloween-related assault that single-handedly launched the "horrorcore" subgenre. Add it all up, include beats that flow sharp and dangerous, and you have an album that wears its parental advisory sticker like a badge of honor. Call it a voicing of the psychotic anger that ghetto life can evoke, or sicker than sick comedy, either way this album stretched the limits of what could be said and done in rap music, and it's still capable of disturbing the easily offended. minimize