Geto Boys (originally spelled Ghetto Boys) is a rap group from Houston, Texas, consisting of Scarface, Willie D and Bushwick Bill.
The Geto Boys earned notoriety for its transgressive lyrics which included gore, psychotic experiences, necrophilia and misogyny. Despite the explicit content of their songs, critic Alex Henderson argues that the group “comes across as much more heartfelt than the numerous gangsta rap…wannabes who jumped on the gangsta bandwagon in the early ’90s.” The Geto Boys broke new ground with their soulful southern sound (a precursor to the Dirty South style).
In the early part of the decade, several American politicians attacked gangsta emcees, including the Geto Boys (most famously Ice-T and the N.W.A). A high-profile incident in which Bushwick Bill lost an eye in a shooting with his girlfriend helped boost sales of its third album, We Can’t Be Stopped. The album cover had a picture of the injured Bushwick being carted through a hospital by Scarface and Willie D. On the album’s title track, the group responded to Geffen Records ending its distribution deal with Def American. The album featurned the single “Mind Playing Tricks on Me”, which became a big hit in the hip-hop community and even charted well on the pop charts reaching #23 on the Billboard Hot 100.
