Throwback Thursdays: Scarface - Mary Jane (1997)

Who is the King of the South? Is it T.I.? Lil' Wayne? Andre 3000??

Of course, the answer is Scarface. If you didn't know that, shame on you.

This song was actually a topic of conversation a few weeks ago when I was riding in the whip with some of my homegirls. This song came on, and, based on the piano intro, I thought they were about to play "Mary Jane." I was pleasantly surprised that they were about to play throwback Scarface on the radio. But then both of my friends looked at me all stupid like, "Scarface?? This is obviously Ashanti. Duuuuhhhh." How dare they. What really rubbed me the wrong way was that they weren't even familiar with this song when I tried to clear up my mistake. Damn Ashanti, always trying to sample classic hip-hop and make it her own.

This song, if you didn't figure it out, is actually about weed. It's the typical "I'm-talking-about-drugs-but-making-it-sound-like-I'm-talking-about-a-girl-so-they-can-play-it-on-radio" record. For more examples, listen to this or this. One thing about this video that stands out is how much skinnier he was back then. Face Mob has def put on some pounds over the past 10 years. Also, if the chick in the video is supposed to be the embodiment of weed, does that mean the guy who exhales at the end killed her? Or slept with her?? Either way, he smoked the other guy's dro; I don't know what the physical analogy to that would be.

I caught on to Scarface kinda late, as I didn't purchase download The Fix until like 2007. But, boy, was it worth it. I knew it was critically acclaimed, and even got Five Mics in The Source. (They also gave this album Five Mics, though, so what do they know.) But it wasn't until I heard it for myself that I really understood why Scarface is such a legend. Made is pretty good, too, if you're interested. Knock this joint here for a sample.