Rapper Scarface was born Bradley Jordan on November 9, 1970. He is originally from the South Acres neighborhood of Houston, Texas. He was an early member of the Southern rap group The Geto Boys and still maintains ties with them, though he has been a solo artist since 1991. Even if he has never scored any national hits or stormed up the Billboard charts with any of his numerous albums throughout the '90s, no one could question his clout throughout the South. He has managed to define what it meant to be a Southern thug rapper years before anyone even coined the term Dirty South. This became glaringly evident in the late '90s when a massive wave of young MCs arose from Houston, New Orleans, and Memphis emulating his style of hard-boiled, ghetto-bred, straight-up hardcore rapping.

Scarface (at the time recording under the alias of Akshen) began his rap career first as a solo artist in his native Houston during the mid-'80s for James Smith's then fledging Rap-a-Lot label. Smith was trying to launch a group he tagged the Geto Boys, and he eventually asked Akshen to join the group in the late '80s. Smith was trying to launch a group he tagged the Geto Boys, and he eventually asked Akshen to join the group in the late '80s. The Geto Boys' debut album -- Grip It! On That Other Level (1990), later repackaged and re-released that same year simply as The Geto Boys -- shocked many with its vivid depictions of violence and its overall extreme nature. This album featured the song "Scarface," which introduced Akshen's alter ego, a title he would keep from that point onward. He changed his name to Scarface, after the legendary film Scarface, saying he felt that the main character of the movie was like himself in many ways. He even changed his flow from a rapid-fire Kool G Rap-like delivery, to a more normal type flow, but this time with a darker tone. The huge controversy surrounding the group's debut put the Geto Boys on the map and set the stage for the impressive We Can't Be Stopped (1991). In the wake of the group's national success came solo albums, one of which being Scarface's debut album.