Scarface 'Made'

New York, NY (Rap Newswire) - Now 37, he’s as thoughtful as ever, and he seems to be settling into life as a hip-hop elder statesman, lionized by his younger contemporaries, but ignored by radio D.J.’s, and (it seems) by hip-hop’s promotional machine. Many Scarface fans might be surprised to learn that a new Scarface album, “Made,” is tip-toeing into shops tomorrow; it’s his seventh, not counting the four compilations of various sorts that have also been released under his name.

In “Never,” the statement of purpose that opens the album, he sounds sad even when he’s claiming to be stoic: “I could never forget my homies, dying for their scratch/Forever pouring out liquor for ’em — God, send ’em back.”

No one can accuse Scarface of overstuffing this CD: it lasts barely 40 minutes, just long enough to provide a satisfying dose of stories and boasts, delivered in a rich, bluesy voice that often makes him seem even older than he is. His idea of a love song is “Girl You Know,” an unapologetic account of infidelity and its causes. (He sounds heartbroken but not at all surprised when he explains, “If you ain’t love my kids like you loved your own/And me unconditionally when I was wrong/I was gone.”) Or maybe his idea of a love song is “Boy Meets Girl,” a romantic tragedy that’s also a cautionary tale about the dangers of mixing “boy” (slang for heroin) with “girl” (cocaine).

Unlike that other 37-year-old rapper — the one who dates Beyoncé and turns 38 tomorrow — Scarface doesn’t keep violence at arm’s length. He still sounds scary when he describes a murder, perhaps because he still sounds scared, or at any rate haunted. “Burn,” a collaboration with the younger (but similarly mournful) Houston rapper Z-Ro, begins in midstory: “My hands got powder burns, I just murdered a man.” Driving away, he smokes, checks the rearview mirror and lets it all sink in:

As I pass by Watkins I relax, ’cause I’m home now.
Had a funny feeling in the beginning — it’s gone, now.
’Cause we live in a do-or-die society:
You do, and either die trying or do it psychologically;
I’m brain dead.

Despite the album’s brevity, Scarface finds time to address the war in Iraq, a friend’s suicide and his own Christian faith. And while “Made” surely won’t have the same impact as “The Fix,” his bigger-budget 2002 album, it provides some good (maybe great) news: you get the feeling Scarface could keep making not-so-modest little albums like this one indefinitely. KELEFA SANNEH ...


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