![]() In "No Tears" Scarface is on a paranoid mission of self-preservation and he wants the listener to feel his gripping anger: "I see your picture in my head and my hands shake," he raps. And, as always, they were conveyed with a consummate storyteller's eye for detail. Many of the themes of his previous records remained in place–-anger, paranoia, tragic fatalism. ![]() Scarface's soul-baring, ragged-voiced baritone seemed fated to merge with this meat-and-potatoes canvas. The lackadaisical tempos and southern-fried instrumentation, replete with simmering organs and twanging guitar, soon became a Rap-A-Lot trademark. Joe, Mike Dean, Uncle Eddie and Scarface himself-utilized live instrumentation, the emotive influence of southern blues and the steady, relaxed pace of California G-Funk. Rather than relying on the more frenetic sample-based style of his earlier records, The Diary's producers-–a core team of N.O. ![]() On The Diary, he hit upon a transcendent formula: His wizened voice, bleeding with lived experience, told stories of tragic desperation and perfectly complemented the new soulful sonic template of Houston's Rap-A-Lot Records. Though the rapper known as Scarface "retired" his name with the release of his ninth solo album Emeritus, he has already been canonized as a Third Coast legend with a 20-year career to his name, including a nine-year stint as the President of Def Jam South.Įven in his early work, Scarface instinctively sensed that rapping wasn't just poetry put to music, and that powerful somesthesia could be conveyed through stylized performance. The significance of Brad Jordan's third solo record, 1994's The Diary, cannot be overstated. ![]() Scarface relaxing in his hometown, Houston, in early '94. ![]()
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