Uncut Dope

Album Review

When Uncut Dope was released in 1992, the Geto Boys had four records behind them, and they were riding high on the success of We Can't Be Stopped. This was thanks in large part to the touching "Mind Playing Tricks on Me," a song clean enough to be played on mainstream radio that managed to be almost as psychologically grim as the horrifying "Mind of a Lunatic." This is a lean collection of a dozen tracks, most of which are pulled from The Geto Boys and We Can't Be Stopped, which makes perfect sense. Making Trouble was a debut that barely hinted at the group's potential, and 10/12ths of Grip It! On That Other Level was altered and/or re-sequenced for release as The Geto Boys. With the addition of a few at-the-time new tracks — including "Damn It Feels Good to Be a Gangsta" — this provided a decent look at a group that hadn't released a full-blown masterpiece. However, the two albums that immediately predated this disc had plenty of strong material to make for a called-for overview, including "My Mind Playing Tricks on Me," "Assassins," "Mind of a Lunatic," and "Do It Like It G.O." Though 2002's Greatest Hits covers the group's last three albums of the '90s, it has its career-spanning scope going for it, but none of the material from those albums stack up to the scattered greatness that came before it.