The 2002 album, featuring the likes of Kanye West, Jay-Z, Nas, and Tony Pizarro, earned the rapper a host of favourable reviews and peaked at No. Now at the head of Def Jam’s Southern branch, Scarface’s signed rapper Ludacris, which became an overnight success story, and released his most successful album to date “The Fix”.

He subsequently won Lyricist of the Year at the 2001 Source Awards, and was awarded a highly sought-after deal with Def Jam Records. The respected rapper built on this success with the 2000 album “Last of a Dying Breed”, marking a level of introspection previously unwitnessed on a Scarface album. Scarface’s reluctance to join the ranks of mainstream rappers, earned him a significant amount of credibility among the loyal Southern rap audience.

Scarface subsequently released the albums “The Diary” in 1994, “Untouchable” in 1997, and the double-disc guest-laden “My Homies” in 1998, all of which retained the character of gangsta-infused southern hip hop, without crossing over onto the mainstream. Undeterred however, Scarface returned in 1993 to release “The World Is Yours”, his most lyrically advanced, gangsta-rap themed album to date. The solo album created tensions within Geto Boys with members Bushwick Bill and Willie D feeling overshadowed by Jordan’s success. Geto Boys’ follow-up “We Can’t Be Stopped” was issued in 1991, followed the same year with Scarface’s solo debut “Mr. One of the album’s songs entitled “Scarface”, taken from the film of the same name, introduced Brad Jordan’s alter-ego Scarface, which Jordan would adopt from that point on. The album earned the group a large and growing fan base despite the reluctance of TV and radio to offer the group airtime. Setting the precedence for Scarface’s entire career, his debut with the Geto Boys, 1989’s “Grip It! On That Other Level”, featured thuggish, violent lyrics, that would soon become synonymous with Southern hip hop. The rapper’s debut came with the 12” single “Scarface/Another Head Put To Rest” in 1989, the success of which led Jordan to sign with Rap-A-Lot Records and join the rap collective the Geto Boys. Brad Jordan’s earliest hip hop excursion came when he began recording under the moniker DJ Akshun for the Houston label Short Top Records.

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