Personal tragedies, such as Bushwick Bill losing an eye to a bullet in '91, and numerous public controversies, including being slammed by Bob Dole and Tipper Gore on Capitol Hill, have not affected the group any. It still strikes louder than a bomb over gumbo grooves that throb with an understated terror. As produced by Scarface, N.O. Joe (Mike Dean), tracks like "Timetaker," "Geto Boys & Girls" and first single "The World Is A Ghetto" are some of the freshest soul-hop hybrids ever made.

With its deep urban blues, The Resurrection represents the first time a pioneering rap act has reformed after disbanding. As Bill says, "Tragedy and other things have permanently affected groups like Public Enemy, NWA, EPMD and Eric B. and Rakim. We managed to beat the odds of the business. Now we're here to show the rap world a thing or two about unity." Undoubtedly, the reunion will also reinforce Scarface's contention that "the Geto Boys is the most notorious group in the history of rap."

Originating as a concept in the mind of Rap-A-Lot's CEO James "Lil J" Smith, the Geto Boys have been in the business for ten years, transmitting technicolor postcards from the hellish 'hoods its members once called home.

Introducing itself to the world with 1988's Making Trouble, the first Geto Boys lineup featured Prince Johnny C., The Slim Jukebox and DJ Reddy Red. Over six albums, including Grip It On That Other Level (1989), Geto Boys (1990), We Can't Be Stopped (1991), Uncut Dope (1992), 'Til Death To Us Part (1993), the collective underwent several mutations but Bushwick Bill, Scarface and Willie D. have always connected as the bona fide image of the group in listeners' minds.

In 1991, however, Willie D. broke out. And though the Geto Boys continued--Big Mike was recruited to round out the trio--without all the familiar faces present, fans were upset.

"I couldn't shake the Geto Boys connection, even when I tried," Willie D. says. "Fans would constantly ask me, "Yo, when ya getting back together with Scarface and Bill?"

The first talk about a Geto Boys reunion occurred in 1995, when Willie D. and Scarface met up at a recording studio. According to Scarface, "I was working with my R & B group, Flah, and he was working with one of the artists on his Wize Up label. I was like, 'You know what'll be cool? To do a reunion album...resurrect this s**t.'"

"Face and I discussed Willie coming back to the group," adds Bill. "At first it didn't seem like it was going to happen because of paperwork. But we all sat down, like men, and all the feelings of oneness we shared just came back."

On The Resurrection, the Geto Boys display lyrical maturity and grown-up guts as they cross more passionate lyrics about street survival with words of confession. "We leave no stone unturned emotionally, politically or socially," Bill says.

Throughout the set, the word is that life for poor people left to fester in chocolate cities ain't no joke. It doesn't matter where they are. Like the song says, "The World Is A Ghetto."

In that smooth tune, which flips the 1972 War classic, the Geto Boys link ghetto goings-on around the globe with lines like "Five hundred died in guerilla warfare in a village in Africa but didn't nobody care/Just put 'em in a box--nuthin' crucial/It was business as usual, just like it is in the 5th Ward, Hyde Park, in the Bronx, in Watts."

In these North American black villages, cash rules everything, and life exists against a backdrop of crime and violence. The Geto Boys don't glamorize or moralize, they just state the facts about their surroundings.

After perpetuating poetic villainy, they examine their own thoughts, totally accepting whatever results. On "First Light Of The Day," for instance, Willie D. offers, "My environment taught me how to deal this way/And if I kill this way that's the way I gotta go, 'cuz everything you reap in life you gotta sow."

There are guests on The Resurrection. Face Mob show up on "Hold It Down" to expound on the sentiments from "First Light Of The Day." Says Scarface: "Basically the song is saying that the evil you do while you're here determines how long you're gonna be here." Later, in "Blind Leading The Blind," the Menace Clan appear to point to a possible source of all the inner-city chaos. It begs the question of how can youngstas be expected to lead when their role models spend most of their time sipping forties on streetcorners?

Other songs include "Point Of No Return," which forcefully indicts the government for poisoning inner-city minds, and "Geto Boys & Girls," a rocky pocket groove about coming of age in the 'hood. In the last verse of this jam, Willie puts the Geto Boys contributions to hip-hop in context, then states, "It's GB and Willie D. reunited, sending niggas back to the studio to get they shit tighter." And that's what The Resurrection is all about. As it fulfills the dreams of fans, it delivers a challenge to every crew that ever bragged about being real. Any of them that can't take it is just an illusion.