Bushwick Bill

It was that first Scarface CD that caught my attention. The track A Minute to Pray, A Second To Die was also the name of a spaghetti western I remember watching on one of those dreamy Sunday afternoons from childhood, after church, homework completed, and PBS airing odd stuff.

Another like that for me was the movie My Name Is Nobody, a hypnotic Italian western, with equally hypnotic and strange soundtrack, from Ennio Morricone.

Thought and still think Scarface’s delivery was unique on that track.

This appeared in my YouTube feed a few days prior to Bushwick left us .... MC Serch reveals story about Bushwick Bill as terrifying and surreal as some of BB’s lyrics:

https://youtu.be/7Wa_TT9xurY

Shared an elevator with Bushwick Bill in the CNN Building in Los Angeles in the late ‘90s. He was grinning and seemed like a shy but happy person wearing a top hat that may have been taller than he was. There was a silence and I said, “My mind’s playing tricks on me.” To my surprise he started laughing. I liked their hits and their videos. Some of their lyrics cracked me up. I only followed Scarface’s solo music. Geto Boys had interesting voices and deliveries. Some of their lyrics were pretty odd. I liked that they seemed unaware of how funny they sounded sometimes. Bushwick Bill was a jester and something very different in pop culture and the contrast between his image and his deep voice drew me in when watching “Mind’s Playing Tricks” for the first time at a friend’s house, on the TV show called “The Box,” whenever that was in the early ‘90s. Willy D was and is cool but also he’s kind of intimidating and his continence is not unlike an Easter Island head 🗿 at times, many times. Scarface reminds me of Pharoah Sanders in the face. He had intriguing solo material with “The Diary.” Cinematic. That term griot was used too often when it was applied to rappers in the ‘90s but Bushwick Bill, for me and probably many others, had that vibe, something old and African and magic, not quite here, a spirit letting loose esoteric things. Three unique individuals and slightly weird. I really liked them and I wondered about Houston, too, because of them. What I liked best though was what was happening below those raps, the surreal, hypnotic music, those beautiful loops some of them had and some great source material therewith. My favorite Rap/Hip-Hop was and still is Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth, Geto Boys, A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul but in the early ‘90s that whole scene was more interesting than at any other time. More atmosphere in the tracks, better contact-high potential for listener.