To say the Geto Boys upped the ante on violence and misogyny with Grip It! On That Other Level is an understatement. While they were busy doing that, their children were upstairs feverishly listening to the music on cassette tapes, and loving it. The violent lyrics of Ice-T, N.W.A and others and the sexual explicitness of 2 Live Crew had an older generation of white Conservatives calling for this “evil music” to be banned. Rap music was mired in controversy in the late ‘80s. Also credited as a member on the album, DJ Ready Red provides most of the production. There were more lineup changes in the years after Grip It! On That Other Level, but it’s this album that first featured what is considered to be the classic Geto Boys line-up of Scarface, Willie D and Richard “Bushwick Bill” Shaw. Even the name changed, as the original spelling of “Ghetto Boys” was switched to the more stylized “Geto Boys” (although early versions of Grip It! On That Other Level still have the original moniker on the artwork). Hip-hop groups usually form organically, but Prince adopted a business model more akin to a manufactured pop group by molding and tweaking the Geto Boys formula until it was successful.īetween the release of their 1988 debut Making Trouble and Grip It! On That Other Level a year later, the group had gone through personnel changes including the removal of some original members and the addition of Scarface (going by the name Akshen at this point) and William “Willie D” Dennis. Prince who signed them to his Houston-based label, Rap-A-Lot Records. The group was created by the fiercely independent, genius-level entrepreneur J.

Grip It! On That Other Level, though not their best album, is where these elements first began to take shape.

The Geto Boys are renowned for three things: being innovators of Southern gangster rap, pioneering the horrorcore sub-genre, and for introducing the world to the talents of Brad “ Scarface” Jordan. Happy 30th Anniversary to Geto Boys’ second studio album Grip It! On That Other Level, originally released March 12, 1989.

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