Happy 20th Anniversary to Scarface’s seventh studio album The Fix, originally released August 6, 2002.
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Most “gangsta” rappers don’t age as gracefully as Brad “Scarface” Jordan. They hold on too long, almost becoming caricatures of themselves as the years pass. Meanwhile, throughout his lengthy career, Mr. Jordan has dodged these pitfalls. During the 1990s, as a member of the Geto Boys and as a solo artist, he mixed grim and fantastical tales of street violence with crushing portraits of a psyche in turmoil. But when the 21st century started, he toned down the violence, while keeping the pathos and insight.
The Fix, released 20 years ago, illustrates this approach. He created an album that exemplified his strengths but continued to mine the depths of his psyche and describes as-yet unexplored corners of his South Park, Houston home. In an industry where most artists shoot their best shot early on, Scarface hitting his stride with his seventh solo album put him in rarified air.
The Fix is Scarface’s first and only album with Def Jam Records. He had spent the rest of his career signed to the Houston based Rap-A-Lot Records. He had a complicated working relationship with the label’s founder, James “Lil’ J” Smith, but it was one that produced many critically and financially successful albums. However, Scarface also had concerns with how money at the label was being dispersed and left the imprint after releasing Last of a Dying Breed (2000).
Scarface linked up with Def Jam as an executive rather than an artist. He was initially employed as the president of their new Def Jam South imprint. By the early 2000s, the Southern states ruled hip-hop, with labels like No Limit and Cash Money Records ruling the airwaves, video screens, and Soundscan. Def Jam hoped that Scarface’s southern roots would give them an in with the talent that the imprint had so far left mostly untapped. Scarface wasted no time bringing long-time acquaintance Ludacris into the fold, inking the Chicago-born/Atlanta-based artist and his whole Disturbing the Peace clique to Def Jam.
In his autobiography Diary of a Madman, Scarface wrote that he never intended to work as a recording artist while at Def Jam. However, Lyor Cohen, who signed Mr. Jordan to his contract, insisted that he record at least one album for the label, and cut apparently a very large check to ensure that it happened. What resulted is one of the best entries in Scarface’s masterful discography. Mr. Jordan takes things back to basics on The Fix, demonstrating a level of confidence and effortless execution rarely found in artists over a decade after they’ve released their first album.
By his own account, Scarface had a blast recording The Fix. He explained much of his confidence came from knowing he wasn’t singing for his supper with Def Jam. “I was already straight before I even went in the booth,” he wrote in Diary, “and I can’t tell you how much financial security helped me just relax and focus on making the best music I could possibly make. And it wasn’t just my own personal finances that were in good shape: the whole project was well financed. … I was more supported than I’d ever been, and you can hear it in the music.”
Even though Scarface was very much a seasoned veteran in 2002, The Fix plays like the type of album he would have recorded early in his career, only “updated” to sound at peace with hip-hop’s early ’00s landscape. It has all the hallmarks of a great Scarface album: the psychological depth, the angst, the swagger, and the unadulterated gangsta shit.
Hip-Hop had been decidedly deficient in the area of true, raw gangsta shit during the early ’00s, with many a “hardcore” emcee or crew deciding to gear their music more towards the clubs. Which made the album opening “Safe” so refreshing to hear. Producer China Black put together a dense track, filled with slick guitar licks and horns, with additional vocal samples from Gwen McCrae’s “I’ve Got Nothing To Lose But the Blues.” Scarface uses the track to impart lessons to aspiring street soldiers, warning them of the many perils that the desperation of others can bring. “I know the street game backwards, forwards, sideways,” he raps. “It used to be an honest hustle back then but nowadays / It’s cutthroat, that's fucked up, n****s want they come up / So bad they'll take the .357 and smoke they brother.”
“In Cold Blood” keeps the same energy as “Safe,” with Scarface describing the misdeeds he commits to rise to a position of power in the streets, and the violence required to hold on to what he’s taken. “I turned a dream into reality, with a ‘Fuck you!’ mentality,” he raps. “Silencing all these n****s in the neighborhood who challenged me.” The song holds up as well as any of his crime-related raps on albums like Mr. Scarface Is Back (1991) and The World Is Yours (1993). It was produced by a young and motivated Kanye West, who samples a sped-up section of Gladys Knight and the Pips’ “And This Is Love.”
Scarface has credited Kanye for a lot of the success and overall quality of The Fix. The producer was a longtime fan of Mr. Jordan: Face recalls Smith presenting him with an unsolicited beat CD from Kanye back in 1997, when he was recording Untouchable (1997). Scarface had the benefit of working with Kanye during his post-Blueprint (2001) ascension, when he was still very enthusiastic about his craft as a beatmaker, before his megalomania really took hold. Though Kanye only produced three songs on the finished project, Face said he was a constant presence in the New York recording sessions and the pair recorded many tracks together that may never see the light of day.
Kanye worked behind the boards for “Guess Who’s Back,” one of the best-known entries on The Fix. The energetic track, which was one of the official singles from the album, also features the talents of Jay-Z and Beanie Sigel. All three boast about their unparalleled dopeness over a sample of The Originals’ “Sunrise.” Jay-Z’s skills during the early ’00s were well-known, and he doesn’t disappoint on his opening verse here. “Face it, y’all: y’all n****s playing basic-ball,” he raps. “I’m on the block like I'm eight feet tall / Homie, I'm in the drop with the A/C off / That's why the streets embrace me, dog.”
The Fix is also notable in that it featured appearances from both Jay-Z and Nas at a time when the two emcees were in the midst of their “battle.” Since late 2001, Nas and Jay had been trading dis tracks directed at each other, and Scarface found himself potentially caught in the middle. The Queensbridge rapper appears on “In Between Us,” a track produced by Scarface himself and frequent collaborator Mike Dean. The track itself features solid use of live instrumentation, with Dean playing guitar and keyboards, Face’s uncle playing bass, and Face himself providing the drums. Scarface originally wanted Stevie Nicks to sing the chorus, but they didn’t hear back from her until it was too late. Instead, Tanya Herron (Dean’s wife) croons the chorus.
Face has revealed the Nas’ verse that appears on “In Between Us” wasn’t what the Queensbridge emcee first recorded. Portions of the initial version were apparently very clearly directed at Jigga, with Nas possibly even using lyrics that ended up on ”Ether.” Scarface requested that Nas change the verse, as he had no desire in being linked to each other’s beef.
Nas was receptive and ended up recording one of his strongest verses of the early ‘00s. Instead of throw shots, he raps about learning from adversity growing up, and applying the knowledge he acquired in order to survive in the streets. “I don't respect killers, I respect O.G. knowledge,” Nas raps. “Codes of the streets got new rules, but no guidance / Lessons, detrimental to a young disciple / Focus, take care of your brothers, niggas do as I do.”
Mr. Jordan later teams up with West Coast OG WC on “I Ain’t The One,” in what seems to be a sideways of the N.W.A song/Ice Cube solo cut of the same name. Both tracks share similar piano lines and drum tracks. However, instead of concerning themselves with shady women, Scarface and WC warn everyone that they aren’t to be underestimated or trifled with.
The Fix does not just deal in grim visions of street life. “On My Block,” one of the album’s singles, is also one of Scarface’s “quieter” endeavors, as he immerses his listeners in the environment of his upbringing, a seemingly self-contained block in the South Park neighborhood. While he muses about the traffic of illicit substances and reflects on how common it was to know someone who was a victim of violence, he also embraces the strong sense of community in this isolated area, and how it positively shaped his value system. Producer Nashiem Myrick samples the opening piano from Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway’s “Be Real Black For Me,” continuing the soulful vibe that permeates much of the album.
Scarface gives the extended middle finger to those who’ve tried to sabotage his rise on “Keep Me Down.” The Nottz-produced track has a bluesy, almost country feel, with stabs of keys and synths backing up the acoustic guitar groove. Mr. Jordan expresses even more vitriol on “Sellout,” as he takes stock on his impact on the hip-hop genre. He burnishes his bona fides, while decrying fake gangstas and those who compromise their music for fame. The track is one of a few produced by T-Mix, an in-house producer for Suave House Records, a Texas-based label run by Tony Draper, a longtime friend of Scarface.
The Fix is arguably Scarface’s most overtly spiritual album. Like many of his projects, Mr. Jordan provides thorough tales of violence’s toll on himself and his community, but this project frequently features him conversing with the celestial power, seeking guidance on how to move forward. “What Can I Do?” is a haunting contemplation on the fragility of life and the tragic certainly of death, as Scarface ponders if he can accomplish everything he’s set out to do in his life before he leaves his mortal coil. Later, on the Neptunes-produced “Someday,” Scarface speaks directly about the importance of God in his life.
“Heaven” features Face seeking the divine in his earthly interactions. He explains trying to balance seeking salvation through God with knowing that he has to take an active role in making the world a better place. The track is split into two sections, with T-Mix and Kayne both contributing to the production.
As much as Scarface enjoyed his time at Def Jam, his stint at the label made up a small part of his three-decades-strong solo career. He only served as president of Def Jam South for two more years, stepping down soon after Cohen took a position at Warner Bros. music. L.A. Reid, Cohen’s successor, asked to meet with Scarface in attempt to get him to change his mind, but Face declined. Though Face has said he regretted not making the meeting, he still believes that he wouldn’t fit in under the Reid regime. Def Jam South folded after ’Face left, just as future Atlanta-born Young Jeezy was signed to Def Jam proper. The imprint would be revived in the late ’00s under the direction of DJ Khaled.
Scarface has released numerous albums in the last 20 years, returning to Rap-A-Lot and eventually becoming an independent artist. Some of these projects came across as cash-grabs by Rap-A-Lot. The best of them concern Scarface being closer to the end of his career than the beginning; both Emeritus (2008) and Deeply Rooted (2015) were marketed as his final album.
The Fix was Scarface living in the moment, a declarative statement to establish that even though he was deep in the game, he still had a lot of tread on his tires. With The Fix, Scarface left no doubt that he could still mix it up with the best in the business and that he was one of the greatest to ever do it.
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