LOS ANGELES (Lightyear/Warner
Brother Records) - Bushwick Bill of the multi-platinum Houston-based rap group, The Geto Boys, knows what it's like to feel suicidal, and as a result, to lose an eye. Upon hearing that Capitol Records hiphop artist
Houston gouged his eye out during a suicide bid on Thursday, Bushwick felt compelled to speak out. After all, while hoping for death, himself, one fateful evening in 1991, Bushwick Bill forced his girlfriend to assist his suicide attempt, and she shot him in the eye, but miraculously, he survived. That night, June 19, 1991, would become immortalized on the cover of the group's platinum-selling album, 'We Can't Be Stopped,' which pictures a graphic photo of
Geto Boys members
Scarface and Willie D pushing a bandaged, incoherent Bushwick Bill on a hospital gurney. 'I wouldn't wish that on anyone else, to force the hand of death,' he contends.
'Fame will make you crazy,' states Bushwick. 'Fame isn't for everybody. There are people who have a fear of fame, those who want fame, and those who don't understand fame. It drives them crazy, because it is a lot of responsibility to be all things to all people, and you can lose yourself in the shuffle, where there are no longer fifty-two cards in the deck.' He notes that contributing to the stress of fame is that things are often not as they appear. He explains, 'There is the added insanity of having a big selling record and fame, yet somehow, you don't have any money to match what you have accomplished. You are going through that misery with your label, and it makes utterly no sense.'
Bill adds, 'The advice I would give to Houston or to any other artists who are either up and coming, or who are already established, and are going through mental storms right now, is this. You need to be rooted and grounded with the same love you have your family and God to yourself.
Since God wanted you to be an entertainer, you need to look to God more and less to yourself, because we as artists are confused as human beings, and then lack of knowledge pulls us into different directions. You are put in the position where you have to smile when you are sad and be gracious when you are depressed, and not everybody knows how to play the roles that fame requires. Some people wear their life on their sleeves, and they wear their emotional life on their face, which broadcasts their situation like a news station. When some people can't handle that, can't cope, they start to fall apart.'
Bushwick Bill has clearly given such matters deep thought. On his solo album, 'Little Big Man,' he raps on the track, 'Ever So Clear,' the highly self-analytical lyric, 'I had to lose an eye to see clearly.' Media outlets, including the 'New York Post,' reported that MTV banned the end of that track's music video, in which the expressive rapper took out his glass eye and dropped it into a glass of Everclear.
Bushwick elaborates, 'I want Houston to know that he is in my prayers, and that I will ask God to give him peace of mind and peace of heart, and I hope his eye heals as well as his mind and his emotions.'
A new Geto Boys album, 'The Foundation,' was recently released, and Bushwick is also in the spotlight, as he has also signed a joint venture deal with Adex Records, which will release a solo project, 'Gutta Mixx' through Lightyear/Warner Brother Records on March 29.
