100 Favorites Reviewed - [1992] Raheem: "The Invincible"

​Raheem
The Invincible
1992
Genre: Hip-Hop

The 12" for 1987’s “Car Freak” on Rap-A-Lot Records features a 15- or 16-year-old Raheem (born Oscar Ceres) standing with two others that made up the original line-up of Houston’s Ghetto Boys. Raheem would be gone by the time the second 12" was released and it wouldn’t be long before the group’s name was now spelled “Geto Boys” and the line-up consisted of what would be the core group of Scarface, Bushwick Bill, Willie D, and DJ Reddy Red. Raheem didn’t disappear after “Car Freak,” however, and went on to release The Vigilante a year later. The album’s lead single, “Dance Floor,” was based on a sample from Eddie Kendrick’s “Keep on Truckin'” and its video featured Bushwick Bill–not yet a Geto Boy–as a dancer.

The Vigilante was a solid, if uneven album. The title track had an undeniable groove to it and there was no doubt that Raheem had pen game and an effortless flow. But, with tracks like the lovey-dovey “You’re the Greatest,” it felt like at times that he was trying a little too hard to be Houston’s L.L.. Nevertheless, I loved the album, especially at the time, and really enjoyed his use of the Batman theme and his occasional forays into ragga-infused tunes.

Raheem release only one song over the next few years, the sharp “Self-Preservation” for the Lost Angels soundtrack.¹ It was four years from The Vigilante before he would release his second and final solo album on Rap-A-Lot, The Invincible. This time around, no love raps and no fucks were given.

From the album’s opener, “5th Ward,” Raheem lays it out in an unusual ABCB rhyme scheme: “Now Jazzie [Redd], that’s my boy and I respect him like a brother, / Anybody try to dis him in some knee deep shit. / I’m the first motherfucker with a record out of Houston, / And last motherfucker you should want to fuck with.” While The Invincible didn’t spawn any videos, “5th Ward” was probably the closest to a single it had, appearing on quite a few compilations over the years, including multiple Rap-A-Lot “best-of"s.

“Kiss the Bride,” a dedication to his anthropomorphized arsenal of guns, features an interesting flip of the same Isaac Hayes sample used on Public Enemy’s “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos.”

The album’s 6 1/2 minute (!!) title track disses not just individuals, but entire other sections of Houston (“Fuck Fourth Ward and every man who defend it, / Fuck East Orange and every man who descended” and “Who and you gonna beat me? The Fourth Ward lynch mob? / Led by a dope fiend with plans to take God?"). Raheem wasn’t making friends here. B2, who was dissed in every verse, recalls walking into the studio he owned and hearing Raheem playing this track (and perhaps “Death in the Arena”) for others. The immediate fallout could have ended very, very badly, but thankfully ended without anyone dead.

Raheem does ragga chatting better than the average MC, as we hear on both “Bumbudclot” and “Badness Again,” but both tracks end up feeling more like filler amongst so many other bangers. Nonetheless, they break up things up nicely and serve their purpose.

On “Death in the Arena,” the gloves are off (though I’m not sure they were ever put back on after “The Invincible”). After a lead-in rendition of “Taps,” ‘heem takes a swing at:

1. NWA
2. Monie Love
3. LL Cool J²
4. 3rd Bass
5. Royal Flush
6. B2 (Born 2wice)³
7. Too $hort
8. KRS-One
9. EPMD
10. Rob Base
11. MC Shan
12. Big Daddy Kane
13. Intelligent Hoodlum
14. Janet Jackson
15. Vanilla Ice
16. King Tee
17. Candyman

Some of the disses were pretty layered, like the shot at former labelmate at A&M Intelligent Hoodlum (aka Tragedy Khadafi), where Raheem also takes aim at the label that dropped him after The Vigilante: “Now who’s this kid they call Intelligent Hoodlum? / Claiming he’s intelligent, A&M must have fooled him, / Put him in a category and washed his brain out, / Couldn’t kill a soldier, so they wounded a cub scout.” ‘92 must have been the year of the comprehensive dis track - Shante’s “Big Mama” and Ultramagnetic’s “Pluckin’ Cards” were released the same year.

Flexing his storytelling chops, Raheem rhymes over some nice Brick and James Brown samples on “Pressing For Time” while “Schooldaze” features my favorite flip of Cymande’s “The Message.” It’s right up there with “Me and the Biz” and The Coup’s “I Ain’t the N-gga.” On “Born Again Christian,” Crazy C rocks a fantastic Aretha Franklin sample as Raheem tells the dangers of messing around with the titular born again Christian.

“Style (You Got It)” has one of those beats that fits Raheem’s voice perfectly. It’s an upbeat guitar loop with funky, busy drums that match his flow. Most amusing/ironic line: “To dis a fellow brother, that ain’t my style…”

“Shade Tree Gangsta” has the only two featured emcees on the album, D-Raider (who seems to have done nothing other than this track) and Houston legend Jazzie Redd. Studio gangsters were a common topic in the early-90s when gangster rap was continuing its spread. It became important for rappers to call out those that were only gangsters on record versus in the street.

“Original Mack Daddy” is the one track I regularly skip when working my way through The Invincible. It’s not terrible or anything, but it just doesn’t grab me and slows things down too much.

“Underground Jugglin’” is also a laid back groove, but in a darker, funkier way that closes out the album nicely.

At 16 tracks long, running almost 70 minutes (four of the songs are over six minutes long, almost unheard of as far as hip-hop of the era), The Invincible was a comeback album that Raheem could be (and apparently was) proud of, despite not making much of a splash in terms of sales. Perhaps it was because Rap-A-Lot had one classic after another during that 1990-1994 period that The Invincible gets overlooked in favor of Mr. Scarface is Back, The South Park Psycho, We Can’t Be Stopped, and Fadanuf Fa Erybody!!, but it remains one of my all-time favorite hip-hop albums for its fearless approach and underrated production. While this was Raheem’s last solo album⁴, after featuring on one track of the first Blac Monks album, he joined the group officially for their second release in 1998. He moved out of Houston and to the northeast. During a brief period in the early 2000s he was on MySpace and recorded a few short tracks to show he still had it. I chatted with him very briefly back then, but quickly lost touch. The most recent thing I heard from Raheem was a fantastic interview he did in 2014 with the Murder Master Music Show podcast. Sadly, it doesn’t seem to be available any longer, aside from this short clip.

(It should be noted that like a good bit of hip-hop from the era, there’s homophobic language on The Invincible. It’s one of those things that is quite noticeable listening with older, more tolerant ears.)

Recommended tracks: “5th Ward, “Kiss The Bride,” “Invincible,” “Death In The Arena,” “Pressing For Time,” “Schooldaze,” “Style (You Got It),” “Shade Tree Gangsta,” “Born Again Christian,” “Badness Again,” “Underground Jugglin'”

Originally published July 3, 2025.