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Anyone judging the book of Boogie Down Productions solely by the cover
and title of "Criminal Minded" completely missed the point. In fact to
openly dispute the fact that music historians have referred to this as
a seminal gangster rap record. If you want to find the origins of the
gangster rap movement, you'd be much better served by listening to the
early records of Schoolly D and Ice-T. "Criminal Minded" undoubtedly
exists within the same world of violence and poverty that KRS-One &
Scott LaRock grew up in, but theirs is not an album devoted solely to
that bleak urban life. In fact songs like "9mm Goes Bang" are the
EXCEPTION on this album, not the rule. That's not to imply "9mm" is not
a hip-hop classic in its own right, nor that it couldn't be claimed as
an ideal narrative example of the gangster rap genre, but the song is a
classice precisely due to the cinematic scope of the story it tells. In
this reggae-influenced tale of a drug deal gone bad, KRS portrays a man
forced to protect his own life by any means necessary:
"Puffin sensemilla I heard KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK
But the way that they knocked it did not sound like any cop
And if it were a customer they'd ask me for a nick
So suddenly I realized it had to be a trick
I dropped down to the floor and they did not waste no time
They shot right through the door so I had to go for mine
They pumped and shot again but the suckas kept on missin
Cause I was on the floor by now, I crawled into the kitchen
Thirty seconds later, boy, they bust the door down
The money and the sensemi' was lyin all around
But just as they put their pistols down to take a cut
Me jumped out the kitchen went BUCK BUCK BUCK!"
While there's some matter of dispute even to the present day over who
the true musical architect of "Criminal Minded" was (Ced Gee of the
Ultramagnetic M.C.'s has been credited by many as a "ghost producer")
there's no disputing the strong music backing this cut. Stripped down
to only a snappy drum track for most of the lyrics, the song builds up
and comes back down between verses with a slow-winding bassline groove
perfect for any dancehall. High pitched sounds punctuate the bassline
in places for a minimalistic melody, particularly at the end as the
song winds down, and vocal samples of KRS-One sing-song chanting "la la
la la la la la" are interspersed throughout. It's textbook 1980's
hip-hop which still pumps in any soundsystem to the present day, as
does the powerful lyrics KRS-One penned for "Poetry":
"You seem to be the type that only understand
The annihilation and destruction of the next man
That's not poetry, that is insanity
It's simply fantasy far from reality
Poetry is the language of imagination
Poetry is a form of positive creation
Difficult, isn't it? The point? You're missin it
Your face is in front of my hand so I'm dissin it!"
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