One of the most iconic and influential independent labels of all time, Rap-A-Lot Records, officially launches its 40th anniversary campaign today with the start of vinyl pre-orders for two landmark catalog titles: Scarface’s The Diary, available June 19th, 2026 and Geto Boys’ We Can’t Be Stopped, available July 10th, 2026. The catalog will be distributed in partnership with Virgin Music Group, globally.

For those unaware, The Diary by Scarface returns to vinyl for the first time since 2014, now expanded to a 2xLP and featuring the never-before-released bonus track “Ease Up Now.”

Newly remastered, this definitive edition includes the original 1994 artwork, carefully restored for vinyl by acclaimed designer Mr. Krum. Featuring fan favorites like “No Tears” and “I Seen a Man Die”, this platinum-certified classic is presented with upgraded audio and an expanded format, making it the most comprehensive edition to date.

Side A:
1. Intro
2. The White Sheet
3. No Tears
4. Jesse James
5. G’s
6. I Seen a Man Die
7. One

Side B:
1. Goin’ Down
2. One Time
3. Hand of the Dead Body (feat. Ice Cube)
4. Mind Playin’ Tricks 94
5. The Diary
6. Outro
7. Ease Up Now

Scarface has one of the greatest discographies in music history, so it says something that this album, his third, is arguably the best in his extensive catalogue. “The Diary was deeper and broader than anything I’d done before, and wiser too,” he wrote in his autobiography, Diary of a Madman.

The Diary is a different sort of Scarface album, and not necessarily in the way that he described. Since the beginning of his recording career, Scarface has crafted songs about dispensing violence and death without hesitation, but he’s always leavened it with vivid descriptions of deep feelings of guilt and psychological anguish.

For this project, he mostly forgoes the remorse. Maybe it’s a larger statement about how the omnipresence of death has removed any feelings of regret, but he operates through much of The Diary as a killer with single-minded purpose.

Another change came through the album’s production. Like most rappers, Scarface made extensive use of sampling during the late 1980s and early 1990s as both a member of Geto Boys and as a solo artist. With his sophomore release The World Is Yours (1993), he began incorporating more live instrumentation. On The Diary, he makes uses of in-house studio musicians almost entirely. It works well, making it one of his best produced albums of his career.

Including a discernable shift in lyrical approach, that first manifests itself on “The White Sheet,” The Diary’s opening track. He warns all potential enemies that he’s out for blood and will not hesitate in killing anyone who approaches him the wrong way. There’s the tiniest of hints of mental turmoil on “No Tears,” when he asserts, “I’m goin’ off on the deep end / I found myself face-to-face with myself while I’m sleeping.” But the rest of the song is about Scarface hunting down and killing the man who murdered a close friend of his.

More often, Scarface envisions himself as an Old West gunslinger. He adopts this persona quite literally on “Jesse James,” which had first appeared on the Jason’s Lyric soundtrack (1994), released less than a month before The Diary. Face describes operating with ruthless efficiency, with the final verse serving as a testament to the nihilistic philosophy that permeates much of the album, where the impermanence of life has undercut its inherent value. “’Cause life has no meaning, no meaning,” he declares. “We were all born to die, so no screaming.”

I won’t wax lyrical about every track (although I could), but another stand out for me is where death is the focal point of “I Seen a Man Die,” the album’s first single and centerpiece, as well as one of the signature tracks in Scarface’s catalogue. Scarface has said he wrote and recorded the song while stoned out of his gourd and didn’t even remember what he wrote until he got out of the recording booth and listened to what he laid down. Out of that drug-induced haze, Face was able to create one of the most solemn and astute meditations about the end of one’s life.

The Diary also features Scarface going in for a few changes of pace, both literally and figuratively. He’s in full player mode on “Goin Down,” confidently boasting about his sexual prowess and ability to pull anyone else’s girlfriend or wife, including those of his homies, because “if they caught one of my ho’s, they’d do the same to me.” The track features lush and occasionally delicate production, bolstered by solid work on the synthesizers. Scarface crooning the chorus to the tune of Nena’s “99 Luftballoons” is certainly memorable.

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