By Edem Latsu Nukafu
Rap Legend Scarface‘s feature on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series has been lauded profoundly, but Facemob has disclosed that for him, it was important for a very specific reason.
Following the performance, Face and the producer and musician Mike Dean, who supported the rapper during the presentation, conversed with senior producer Bobby Carter at Tiny Desk, where the Texas OG was revealed.
“Let me tell you why this Tiny Desk was such a moment for me,” the Geto Boys rhymer began. “Because Mike Dean actually played the parts in the [original] songs, so he knows the parts. You don’t have to teach him the parts, because those parts came from him.”
Dean, along with Joseph “N.O. Joe” Johnson, assisted create the sound of Southern rap during the 1990s with their work on the Rap-A-Lot Records label.
Houston-hailed Dean, whose first credited work with Scarface was on 1993’s The World Is Yours — as well as the Geto Boys’ Till Death Do Us Part released that same year — decided not to take too much props for his musical contributions to the rapper’s sound.
“Face is the one that was directing me and [N.O.] Joe all the time what he wanted,” Dean uttered.
Even before Scarface’s Tiny Desk Concert was televised on Monday (December 18), Hip Hop enthusiasts were expecting a ‘killer’ stagecraft.
NPR’s Carter tweeted that he had watched an edited version of Scarface’s Tiny Desk one week prior to its release. Yeah…. it’s the best hip-hop tiny desk we’ve ever put out. A new crown holder…. Monday.”
The day after it was released, it received high praise from none other than Q-Tip.
The legendary Tribe Called Quest frontman took to Twitter/X on Tuesday (December 19) to praise Face, sharing a link to the concert and adding: “@BrotherMob we needed this.”
Writer’s email:edemlatsu093@gmail.com
