Even amongst so-called gangsta rap groups, the Geto Boys have always been know for taking things to an extreme level. Sure, N.W.A. had the same "I don't give a f**k" attitude when they came out, but could you ever imagine Eazy-E writing a song like "Mind of a Lunatic" in which he brags about slitting a girl's throat and continuing to have sex with the body? Or MC Ren doing a Mr. Scarface song where, while he's having sex with a "freak" who rides him on top, a rival drug kicks down the door and blows her head off with a shotgun blast? The Geto Boys' self-titled 1990 release was offensive enough to force Geffen Records to sever its profitable relationship with American Recordings- A precursor to the drama that Ice-T, Paris and Death Row would have with Warner Bros. in the years that followed. Not that they cared about it. Being sound businessmen, the group, along with Rap-A-Lot founder and president James Smith, realized that controversy sells, and they were able to market that dangerous image to millions of listeners. Who else would use an actual picture of the group wheeling Bushwick Bill down a hospital corridor after he unsuccessfully tried to kill himself, his girlfriend having accidentally shot his right eye out with a low-caliber pistol?

"The first records were so raw," remembers Willie D., a founding member who, after five-year hiatus, recently rejoined the group. "I don't like using the word real, but those records were so goddamn real. We just wanted the whole world to know that there was some shit going down in Houston, Texas, that fans didn't know about, that was slanging the same amount of keys, dealt with the same scandalous-ass hoes and the same corrupt cops. For years we listened to the music that the East and West Coast gave us, so we took it [upon] ourselves to put Houston on the map."

Backed by a gutbucket live instrumental sound and forthright lyrics that painted the bleak dirt roads surrounding the 5th Ward to be every bit as dangerous as the back alleys of Compton, the Geto Boys rose to the top of the charts with albums like We Can't Be Stopped and Til Death Do Us Part, moving thousands of units without extensive air or video play, not to mention the success of spin-off albums by Scarface, Bushwick Bill, Willie D. and later Big Mike. But it was one song in particular, "Mind Playing Tricks On Me," from the We Can't Be Stopped LP that made people take them seriously. A three-pronged tale of a paranoid hustler, a manic depressive and a plain psycho, the song had a deliberate poignancy that, to this day, places it among the best rap songs ever recorded. It opened the doors for hardcore rap artists to use their music as a means of reflecting the men behind the masks, to give the world other messages besides venomous nihilism.

The Resurrection does more than reunite the three Geto Boys members that the listening public most readily identifies with. More importantly, the record demonstrates how even the most backward group can develop over a number of years into a unit that is fiercely political and now uses music to educate, not just titillate.

"See, we're talking street shit, but we're being political at the same time," asserts Willie D. He sits behind the mixing board while a song off the new album, "Blind Leading the Blind," booms from the huge monitors facing the room from either side. "The word political scares a lot of people, and it ain't as if we're calling ourselves political soldiers, 'cause people would find that boring. All politics really is a person having knowledge of what makes the world go 'round. Cause and effect. We've got that knowledge. We're not just talking about the causes of the shit, but with this record we think of possible solutions."

From beginning to end, The Resurrection testifies without feeling preachy. Backed by live production rivaled only in quality by Dr. Dre's, Bushwick Bill, Scarface, and Willie D. prove themselves to be effective communicators, convincingly conveying exactly what's going on the wrong side of the tracks. It isn't that they weren't good in the past; they've always been amongst the best. It's just that there seems to be a new energy driving their poetry, something that transcends simply proving how tough they are. Just one listen to their captivating remake of War's "The World Is A Ghetto" reveals that these Boys have grown considerably, having expanded their perspective of poverty and hard times to a Pan-Africanist scale. Just check Bushwick Bill's verse:

"Five hundred niggas died in guerilla warfare/In a village in Africa/But didn't nobody care/They just called up the god-damned grave-digger/And said, 'Come and get these muthafuckin' niggas'/Just like they do in the 5th Ward and the South Park and the South Bronx and Watts/Crooked cops working for the system/Making poor muthafuckas out of victims/'Cause don't nobody give fuck about the po'/It's double jeopardy if your Black or Latino/They got their muthafuckin' drugs in the slums/Got us killin' one another over crumbs."

"Niggas are just more educated about what's going on in the world," explains Willie D., talking about the group's new outlook. "A few albums back you were listening to some 'geto boys,' and now you're listening to some 'geto men.' We've just taken our sound to the next level of maturity. We've had the chance to see the world, actually travel and read more--to use a bigger percentage of our brains."