After nearly 20 years of rapping about drugs, murder and the outer reaches of paranoia and psychosis, Houston rapper Scarface has a new vice: Golf.
"I've played every day for the last three or four months," says 'Face, who was in town last week hosting a listening party for his new album, "M.A.D.E.," at downtown Detroit's The Woodward. "I play damn near everywhere I go. I would have brought my clubs up here, but it's too cold outside."
The golf course isn't the first place you'd expect to find the hardcore rap legend, whose subject matter tends to be as ice-cold as the Michigan winter that won't allow him to hit the links. But then there's little that's typical about Scarface, the one-time Geto Boy and online poker junkie -- he plays high-stakes games for play money on his BlackBerry -- who openly professes his fanfare of Pink Floyd, old Van Halen and alt-rockers the Smashing Pumpkins and Radiohead.
"I'm a musician, man. I'm like a dictionary of music," 'Face boasts, later proving it by rotating between guitar, bass guitar, drums and keyboard in a jam session with the house band at The Woodward in front of around 100 invited guests. The freestyle session included improvised riffs on old Crusaders songs and Scarface and Geto Boys material such as "Mary Jane" and "Mind Playing Tricks On Me."
When asked if he'd ever tour with a live band, 'Face blew off the proposition. "There's no market for that, man," he says.
He might be surprised.
Scarface -- born Brad Jordan 37 years ago -- is one of the most imposing figures in rap music. He has long rapped about the dark side of street life, commenting on suicide and depression almost as much as delivering over-the-top homicidal fantasies.
"M.A.D.E." is typically hard-hitting and unrelenting, indicative of the music he's made for two decades. "Boy Meets Girl" is not about two young lovers, but rather is a metaphor for the mixture of heroin and cocaine.
"M.A.D.E." -- 'Face's eighth solo effort, recorded in his home studio in Houston -- marks Scarface's first studio album since 2002's highly acclaimed "The Fix." Following that record, his label released several unauthorized albums under the Scarface banner, which soured 'Face to the business end of the rap game.
"Legally, they can do that, but morally, it's wrong to me," says 'Face of his long-time label, Houston-based Rap-A-Lot Records. "That was one of the breaking points for me. So I just started playing poker, coaching little league football and hanging out."
Once he mastered poker -- "I have an impeccable read on people; I don't even have to look at my cards to play poker, I play people," he says -- golf followed. His 13-year-old daughter got him into the game several months ago after he wrapped "M.A.D.E.," and now he craves the game like the junkies he raps about crave a fix.
"Golf sounds like the stupidest game ever invented, until you're out there, and you try to stop that little ball and put it where you want it to go -- you know what I mean?" he says, adding that his golfing buddies include ex-pro athletes Nick Van Exel, Lamar Lathan and Ken Burrow, and the Houston Rockets' Bonzi Wells. He says he's serious about the game, and doesn't use it as an excuse to get out and drink in the open air. "I'm opposed to having a drink on the golf course. We drink when we get back to the clubhouse."
In the clubhouse that is the Houston rap scene, "M.A.D.E." is being released two years after Houston became the epicenter of the rap world -- 2005 saw Paul Wall, Slim Thug, Mike Jones and Chamillionaire all burst out of H-town -- and at the same time those artists' follow-up efforts have stalled.
"If I would have released an album in '05," Scarface says, "the rest of those artists wouldn't have gotten any. Know what I mean? I'm not being arrogant; I'm just being real. My subject matter and what I do is way different from what everybody else do. It's not a cut down to what the scene is in Houston, but I love the streets, and I make my music for the streets. That's my life, that's where I am."
When he's not on the green putting for birdie, that is.
"I've played every day for the last three or four months," says 'Face, who was in town last week hosting a listening party for his new album, "M.A.D.E.," at downtown Detroit's The Woodward. "I play damn near everywhere I go. I would have brought my clubs up here, but it's too cold outside."
The golf course isn't the first place you'd expect to find the hardcore rap legend, whose subject matter tends to be as ice-cold as the Michigan winter that won't allow him to hit the links. But then there's little that's typical about Scarface, the one-time Geto Boy and online poker junkie -- he plays high-stakes games for play money on his BlackBerry -- who openly professes his fanfare of Pink Floyd, old Van Halen and alt-rockers the Smashing Pumpkins and Radiohead.
"I'm a musician, man. I'm like a dictionary of music," 'Face boasts, later proving it by rotating between guitar, bass guitar, drums and keyboard in a jam session with the house band at The Woodward in front of around 100 invited guests. The freestyle session included improvised riffs on old Crusaders songs and Scarface and Geto Boys material such as "Mary Jane" and "Mind Playing Tricks On Me."
When asked if he'd ever tour with a live band, 'Face blew off the proposition. "There's no market for that, man," he says.
He might be surprised.
Scarface -- born Brad Jordan 37 years ago -- is one of the most imposing figures in rap music. He has long rapped about the dark side of street life, commenting on suicide and depression almost as much as delivering over-the-top homicidal fantasies.
"M.A.D.E." is typically hard-hitting and unrelenting, indicative of the music he's made for two decades. "Boy Meets Girl" is not about two young lovers, but rather is a metaphor for the mixture of heroin and cocaine.
"M.A.D.E." -- 'Face's eighth solo effort, recorded in his home studio in Houston -- marks Scarface's first studio album since 2002's highly acclaimed "The Fix." Following that record, his label released several unauthorized albums under the Scarface banner, which soured 'Face to the business end of the rap game.
"Legally, they can do that, but morally, it's wrong to me," says 'Face of his long-time label, Houston-based Rap-A-Lot Records. "That was one of the breaking points for me. So I just started playing poker, coaching little league football and hanging out."
Once he mastered poker -- "I have an impeccable read on people; I don't even have to look at my cards to play poker, I play people," he says -- golf followed. His 13-year-old daughter got him into the game several months ago after he wrapped "M.A.D.E.," and now he craves the game like the junkies he raps about crave a fix.
"Golf sounds like the stupidest game ever invented, until you're out there, and you try to stop that little ball and put it where you want it to go -- you know what I mean?" he says, adding that his golfing buddies include ex-pro athletes Nick Van Exel, Lamar Lathan and Ken Burrow, and the Houston Rockets' Bonzi Wells. He says he's serious about the game, and doesn't use it as an excuse to get out and drink in the open air. "I'm opposed to having a drink on the golf course. We drink when we get back to the clubhouse."
In the clubhouse that is the Houston rap scene, "M.A.D.E." is being released two years after Houston became the epicenter of the rap world -- 2005 saw Paul Wall, Slim Thug, Mike Jones and Chamillionaire all burst out of H-town -- and at the same time those artists' follow-up efforts have stalled.
"If I would have released an album in '05," Scarface says, "the rest of those artists wouldn't have gotten any. Know what I mean? I'm not being arrogant; I'm just being real. My subject matter and what I do is way different from what everybody else do. It's not a cut down to what the scene is in Houston, but I love the streets, and I make my music for the streets. That's my life, that's where I am."
When he's not on the green putting for birdie, that is.
