Track 10, “Hand of the Dead Body,” finds Scarface and Ice Cube (the album’s only guest verse) in top form.
And that is what a diary, wether on wax or in writing, is all about. While one example is embarrassing and the other one is disgusting, they’re both honest. Then, on “Goin’ Down,” he explains how he picks up a woman by telling her that sex hasn’t crossed his mind in order to get her into bed. In the first of these two records, “One,” he talks about pulling his shirt down to cover an e#. The thing that stands out most to me are the lyrics Scarface spits leading up to them. And while there are references to sexual encounters, that’s nothing new. The following two songs on The Diary are about lust, which is also a topic that often fills the pages of a diary.
“… Cause life has no meaning, no meaning / We were all born to die, so no screaming.” For example, on “Jesse James,” Face says, “ You ain’t no motherf***in’ gangsta, g / And when I get up out your a**, you gon’ realize it just ain’tsta be / It ain’t no studio up in me, and all that bulls**t I’m hearing you talk only offends me.” Every other rapper would stop there, but he took it further. The first three songs do play like a drive-by shooting, but the despair that’s incorporated into those rhymes let listeners know that his psyche is just as destroyed as the streets where the stop signs have bullet holes in them. Even the way it starts with the instrumental intro ending in gunfire, it sets the tone for how Scarface’s aggressive perspective is there for survival and not a violent or misogynistic agenda, like many detractors claim. Just as the title suggests, the album is very personal. So in honor of such a milestone, I want to pay homage to The Diary by recognizing it as the greatest southern solo offering in rap history. Today, October 18, 2014, marks its 20th anniversary. It’s a 43-minute collection of thinking man’s hardcore Hip-Hop with themes as heavy as of some of its bass lines. Case in point: his third solo album, The Diary. And Face’s influence only looms larger with time. He is, as the saying goes, “your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper.” What he lacks in mainstream recognition is more than made up for by the affect he has had on countless others that followed him.
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