Scott Sterling is the son of divorced, raised by his mother, brilliant student and brilliant sportsman, graduate, but when he sets aside his dreams of glory as a basketball player, he decides to invest time and energy on music in the role of hip hop disc jockey in local clubs. And he works, as a social worker in a homeless institution: here, in 1986, he met Lawrence Parker, a young man who had already demonstrated skills in writing and emceeing.
In 1985, DJ Scott "La Rock" Sterling and emcees Lawrence "KRS-One" Parker and Jerry "Levi 167" Levi formed the rap group 12:41 and released the single "$ucce$$ i$ the Word" on the newly formed Fresh Records. The track, mixed by Kurtis Mantronik of Mantronix, was taken to Mr. Magic, who promptly trashed it without much thought. Unhappy, the boys persisted with this rap thing: under the direction of Scott La Rock, the group recruited MC Quality and released the single "Advance" on Street Beat Records under the name Scott La Rock & The Celebrity Three. The track was later included on a remix album released the following year and dedicated to Scott La Rock.
Due to legal troubles, the group left the label, so MC Quality left the group, followed by Levi 167, who tried his hand at solo adventure by releasing the single "Something Fresh to Swing to" for B-Boy Records the following year, whose failure would put an end to his artistic career. The other guys recruit producer Lee Smith and rapper Derrick "D-Nice" Jones and change their name again to Boogie Down Productions (BDP), in homage to one of the names from the South Bronx.
The first single under the new name is "Say No Brother (Crack Attack Don't Do It)", ft. Mark Gibbons, a song that will end up on the deluxe edition of their debut album. In 1986, after the release of the single "The Bridge" by Queensbridge rapper MC Shan, BDP, still angry with Mr. Magic, decide to channel all their anger towards Shan (and the Juice Crew he's part of), guilty according to the Bronx group of having stated in his verses that hip-hop was born in Queensbridge instead of the South Bronx. Boogie Down Productions' response diss track, "South Bronx", is the group's first single released on their new label, B-Boy Records (the same label former member Levi 167 signed to), although the group's name appears only as a producer, with Lee Smith co-producing, and KRS crediting himself as Blastmaster K.R.S. One.
"South Bronx" is a simply iconic cut, among the most famous diss track ever, it launches the career of the entire group, but especially that of KRS-One, which, inspired by the dissing of the previous Roxanne Wars, manages to give away to the Bridge Wars, the second series of dissing just after the Roxanne Wars of a few years before. The joint samples three different songs by James Brown, offering a funky, syncopated and minimal soundscape for the Blastmaster, which after the opening verse, destroys the rival in this first grueling diss.
MC Shan and the Juice Crew's follow-up "Kill That Noise" was followed by BDP's "The Bridge is Over": released in 1987, the second dissing directed to MC Shan and Juice Crew definitively closes the Bridge Wars and proclaims Boogie Down Productions (and therefore KRS) as winners of the Wars and new triumphant on the New York scene («King of New York, King of the Coast»), according to Marley Marl himself, the MC Shan producer who convinced him not to replicate anymore: the bridge was really over. When his "The Bridge" was released, MC Shan didn't expect anyone to respond, much less that the answer would be a vibrant and dizzying dissing. "Kill The Noise" seems to have calmed the spirits, but KRS and his team were very keen to enter the music market and could not be arrested: Shan's counter-response was simply a perfect springboard to enter even more forcefully in the game, going to dissing the whole Juice Crew. Together with the previous dissing, it enjoys the reputation of one of the best diss tracks of all time, for someone the best ever. This time the first verse isn't only an introduction, it's a real attack at all, but as in the previous dissing, the second, lethal verse delivers in a reggae-style, passes over all.
Also in 1987, the group released their debut studio album, entirely produced by KRS-One and Scott La Rock with the collaboration of Ced Gee of Ultramagnetic MCs, who's thanked on the back cover. The cover shows the two authors amidst an arsenal of firearms, this is the first major hip-hop album to show the artists brandishing firearms on the cover. It's a choice that will revolutionize hip hop, nobody in what will be considered the most violent music genre ever had dared so much. This gesture and some verses from "9mm Goes Bang" usually lead to claim that the album facilitated the birth of gangsta rap, especially on the East Coast where it's almost absent.
The album is opened by "Poetry", a cut of KRS on the minimal production of the duo Ced Gee & Scott La Rock who sample two pieces of James Brown, in which the emcee offers three abundant verses of braggadocio, with some first teaching excerpt that KRS will develop and propose with greater intensity in its subsequent albums. "South Bronx" precedes the third song in the tracklist, that is as influential as the previous one: "9mm Goes Bang" shows the first lines in which a rapper describes in detail a series of murders. Not only is it rare in 1987 hip hop, it has hardly ever been seen. Production that interpolates the reggae song "History" by SuperCat, proposing a funky, syncopated and minimal rhythm, in which KRS delivers with a smooth and technically great flow.
"Word From Our Sponsor" is a braggadocio cut that samples First Choice's "Love Thang", well interpreted by the rapper. "Elementary" is one of the weakest tracks on the disc, samples James Brown and has a minimal and simple rhythm, and is still an excellent track which demonstrates the very high quality level of the disc as a whole. "Dope Beat" is another braggadocio tune in which the producers sample Deep Purple and AC/DC, founding a simple, minimal and rhythmic musical carpet for the hardcore delivery of KRS-One. The remix of "The P is Free" is another very influential joint in the history of the genre: during the crack era, this song is delivered in reggae style, talking about a girl who uses sex to get crack. Samples "Zungguzungguguzungguzeng" by Yellowman and is one of the most revealing tracks on the Boogie Down Productions debut album.
The eight choice is the seminal "The Bridge is Over". "Super-Hoe" samples Esther Williams and Captain Sky and returns to braggadocio and Scott La Rock's promiscuity with women. The final cut, which is also the title track, samples Syl Johnson, Trouble Funk and contains interpolations from the Beatles "Hey Jude" and Winston Hussey, and shows KRS intent on bringing out other scattered conscious lines. The minimalist and simple production — consisting of simple drums, sample loops, a few scratches and a few bass lines — offers a hardcore sound and is perfectly suited to the hardcore delivery of KRS-One, which provides a masterpiece performance here.
Published by B-Boy Records with a independent distribution by Sweet Heart and Jam City One Stop, the disk was received positively by critics, although with some reservations, and struggled to make its way in sales, entering the rnb chart with some difficulty. The LP is among the first to detail and try to focus on issues relating to hard life in urban centers, soon becoming one of the most influential albums in the history of hip hop and among the first to give a rough and very solid base for hardcore rap. Destined to change the rules of the game, "Criminal Minded" marks the end of the first era in the new school and leads to the birth of a new style of production and rapping. The album is coherent and strong, it lives on several excellent tracks, pushing the effort towards the status of classic and KRS-One among the most important figures in hip hop: nevertheless, most of the LP is composed of battle rap, a braggadocio made up of intelligent and powerful rhymes, delivered with an excellent technique by KRS-One.
Rating: 9/10.
No comments:
Post a Comment