His entire career has subsequently been spent relating that hardship and recounting those tests. And it will test you every step of the way." He writes, "If you really want to go, dying is the easy part. In retrospect, he admits he was depressed, but believes that if he truly wanted to die, he would've seen at least one of his attempts all the way through. Not the first time he tried to off himself, 'Face downed a bottle of sleeping pills and after surviving, spent the better part of the next two years in a mental institution. In his 2015 autobiography, named after 1991 solo track "Diary of a Madman," the rapper opens by recounting an attempted suicide from his high school years. Like many other artists who have been slapped with the "gangter" or "horrorcore" tags, Geto Boys' gruesome tales may not have been entirely nonfiction, but we know one thing for sure: Scarface's depression was no myth.
"I often drift while I drive, he raps, "Havin' fatal thoughts of suicide/'Bang' and get it over with/And then I'm worry-free, but that's bullshit." That type of internal debate, that admittance of severe depression simply didn't happen in hip hop, let alone its most macho subgenre, in '91. Real and imagined threats bleed into one another during Scarface's two verses, which depict a sleepless night fraught with a plethora of fears: of death, of disappointing his family, and of leaving a fatherless son behind. Other contemporary gangster rappers made songs that played like highlight reels of their exploits "Mind Playing Tricks on Me" depicted the off-camera aftermath of a murderous lifestyle that, despite frequent glamorization, has clearly never been a cakewalk. 90% of that exploration was carried out by Scarface, the most devoted rap psychologist of all time. But what made the group special was their exploration of all sides of violence and crime, not just the pulpy, in-the-moment gore. Their depiction of violence, both on record and on record cover, surpassed N.W.A.'s and soon begat darker heirs like Three 6 Mafia and Brotha Lynch Hung. In their heyday, Geto Boys very much fit within the gangster rap genre that stayed, by today's standards, unbelievably marketable for nearly a decade. Most of what followed in Scarface's original verse was pretty standard for the Geto Boys at the time (IE: horrorcore), including outing himself as a "homicidal maniac with suicidal tendencies," but that vivid imagery and palpable claustrophobia would soon be given its due elsewhere. First uttered by Scarface on Geto Boys' 1989 track "Mind of a Lunatic," those words would appear two years later in the intro of "Mind Playing Tricks on Me," perhaps the pioneering Houston group's best-known song. "I can just tell by the way that you driving it, I pull up in that car just like its stolen." Check out "P2" right now, and chime in with your thoughts below - when you're all finished with Eternal Atake, that is.There's a case to be made that all depressive, paranoid, and anxiety-afflicted rap music stems from that one line. "I am no hater, yeah are the same but the only difference is that you do not own me," he raps, kicking things into double time. Uzi is actually rapping on his one, his flow taking surprising turns as he deftly navigates the brooding instrumental. In some ways, "P2" even feels like an improvement on the original. Yet where part one featured a slurred cadence, Uzi sounds focused here - his reflections on a souring relationship resonate deeper as a result. Naturally, both songs are linked by a similar melodic throughline as the iconic "with your head" hook makes a return. Off the bat, "P2" impresses in its ability to honor its predecessor while still sounding like a fresh take all too often we've seen sequels attempt to skate by off the original's legacy, and Uzi seems to have swerved that pitfall.
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