Geto Boys: We Can't Be Stopped (2LP, 35th anniversary, indie exclusive, metallic blue vinyl) [RAP-A-LOT]

Why you'll love it

This 35th anniversary 2LP set is remastered and pressed on indie exclusive metallic blue vinyl. It holds "Mind Playing Tricks on Me," which Pitchfork ranked No. 45 of the 1990s and XXL put at No. 14 of the decade's hip-hop songs.

This edition

• 2LP set
• Metallic blue vinyl
• 35th anniversary edition
• Indie exclusive
• Remastered

About the album

Houston had been making noise for a while, but this is the record that made the rest of America listen. Scarface, Willie D and Bushwick Bill knocked out We Can't Be Stopped in just a few weeks in 1991, each taking three solo tracks and joining forces on three more, with DJ Ready Red getting a short verse on the title track before he left the group.

"Mind Playing Tricks on Me" is the masterpiece, a paranoid, haunted confession built on an Isaac Hayes loop, and The Source named it the best song of 1991. The rest of the album leans on deep funk crates: "Rebel Rap Family" opens with Giorgio Moroder's Scarface theme, "Homie Don't Play That" pulls from Funkadelic, Zapp and George Clinton, "I'm Not a Gentleman" borrows Quincy Jones, and "Ain't with Being Broke" rides Fred Wesley & the J.B.'s. James Smith and the Rap-A-Lot team keep it all raw and heavy.

It went platinum early in 1992 and gets a full track-by-track breakdown in Brian Coleman's book Check the Technique. AllMusic called it the group's most visceral work, which, given the competition, is quite the accolade.

Also at Kops: more Geto Boys on vinyl · browse Hip Hop / R&B

Tracklist

Listen

On Rap-A-Lot (cat# RAL2K002), a reissue of the 1991 album.