rad “Scarface” Jordan is, without a doubt, a hip-hop legend. After growing up in Houston’s dangerous ghettos more than 30 years ago, he went on to work with the talented Willie D and eccentric midget Bushwick Bill in the seminal group the Geto Boys. Even then, ‘Face always stood out -- his talent was obvious -- and his solo career has been no different. Since the Geto Boys disbanded, he has made some great music, including two bona fide classics: The Diary and Last of a Dying Breed, which contain song after song of future greatest hits material. (But ignore his recently-released Greatest Hits -- he still has plenty of hits left in him.) So why isn’t Scarface mentioned in the same breath as Dr. Dre, Slick Rick, Rakim, or his other hip-hop contemporaries? It might be a bias toward the South or maybe, it just might be that Mr. Scarface is too real for the masses. Of course, you might not ever know that listening to The Fix.


Which isn’t to say that The Fix is bad. In a few places, it’s better than his past classics. It starts off amazingly strong with a Scarface staple -- a dark and foreboding intro -- which leads into the surprising track “Safe”. Produced by Rocafella regular Kanye West, “Safe” sounds like a country-western outlaw’s theme song, lacking only tumbleweed and gunshots, while Scarface tells his usual tales of the mechanics of life in the hood. Strangely, “Safe” isn’t the album’s only foray into country-western, as Scarface again goes to that well on “Keep Me Down”. Although that track doesn’t succeed as well as “Safe”, the change of pace is more than welcome. Too many albums today feature the same “change of pace”, mostly club with a few slow or gritty songs, and it’s nice to see someone actually trying something new. Both tracks are pretty damn good, and even if they had failed, ‘Face would still deserve some credit for trying.


Most good albums have what I like to call a “Big Three”: two singles and one just-as-good album cut. The Fix’s Big Three are better than any hip-hop album’s in a long, long time. The first track that leaked, “Guess Who’s Back” featuring Beanie Sigel and Jay-Z, also with production by Kanye West, is nearly perfect. Sigel’s guest appearance is one of his better verses and Jay-Z is above average for his skill. Of course, they both pale in comparison to Scarface’s, who sounds wonderful over Kanye West’s trademark tiny bells and new-age funk, as he declares “From the womb to the tomb - a hot pot of joy and a spoon / Tryna make me forty thousand and move / Motels, star-studded, rock stars and goons / Plain clothes wanna run in my room”.


Even nicer is the first single, “On My Block”, which features a sample of Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway’s “Be Real Black for Me”, a wonderful piano loop and a lot of classic flavor and soul. The video, featured on my “Top Ten Hip-Hop Videos” list, just adds to the Scarface’s emotion by actually putting you right there, on his block. However, neither of those tracks quite meets one of the best songs I’ve ever heard, “In Between Us”. I may be overrating this because it has Nas and Scarface -- two of my favorites -- but Nas delivers his best-post-Illmatic performance, soliloquizing “Circumstances are like my first fight I lost / It was swinging, my arms bugging, adrenaline pumping / Oh shit, this little nigga’s thugging / I mean, I was thirteen, I was nursing a knot on my face / But chose another time and a place / That I would avenge my last fight cuz the same shit / Ain’t gonna happen that just happened last night / Knuckle game changed quicker than lightning / Hit ’em or slice ’em / Either stick ’em or blast pipes, it’s the fastlife / I try to give another nigga advice, shoot dice / Do plenty of shit cuz this life, how many you get? / How many niggas do you know get two / Besides a nigga who snitch to skip a life-bid, be one a’ your crew”. Backed by an awesome production featuring some really romantic and dramatic keys and well-timed guitar strings -- as well as a semi-crazed T-Boz signing bridging Nas and Scarface’s classic verses -- “In Between Us” is one of the best songs of all time.


The reason this isn’t Scarface’s third classic is that after “In Between Us”, the album slows down. His much-anticipated first collaboration with the Neptunes, “Heaven”, featuring Kelly Price, and “Someday”, featuring Faith Evans, fall way short of expectations. Unfortunately, during one of their hottest streaks, the Neptunes gave two cookie-cutter beats to a legend, both eerily reminiscent of “You Don’t Have to Call” (one may even employ the same sample). While ’Face and both of the singers try their damndest to save the tracks, they just can’t do it. “Sellout” is also a cookie-cutter track that doesn’t belong next to some of the nigh-perfect tracks on this album. Even worse is “I Ain’t the One”, where a meeting of two of my favorite MCs -- Scarface and W.C. -- is ruined by a slow, generic “West-meets-South” track that is almost painful to listen to. If only Scarface could channel the greatness of some of the earlier tracks into some of the painful later ones. If he could, this album would be a guaranteed 10.0, because it seriously has three perfect songs. It’s too bad a lot of the rest of it is filler, because The Fix could have been Scarface’s magnum opus.