AMG Review of We Can't Be Stopped

Alex Henderson
All Music Guide

The cover of the Geto Boys' We Can't Be Stopped shows a member with his eye poked out. It's grotesque, but realistic -- a realistic cover for an album whose violent, profane lyrics paint a vivid and accurate picture of life as the Geto Boys knew it growing up in Houston's tough ghetto known as the 5th Ward. This CD isn't as thought-provoking as Ice-T's, N.W.A's, or Ice Cube's can be -- nor is it the Geto Boys' best offering. But it's an engaging, disturbing effort that comes across as much more heartfelt than the numerous gangsta rap albums by the N.W.A and Cube clones and wannabes who jumped on the gangsta bandwagon in the early '90s. We Can't Be Stopped serves as an unsettling reminder of the type of ugly social conditions that were allowed to fester in poor inner-city neighborhoods.