Quote:
Boogie Down Productions was a hip hop group originally comprised of KRS-One, D Nice, and DJ Scott La Rock. DJ Scott La Rock was murdered on August 27, 1987, months after the release of BDP's debut album Criminal Minded. The name of the group, Boogie Down, derives from an alternative name for The Bronx, one of the five boroughs of New York City. The group pioneered the fusion of dancehall reggae and hip hop music and their debut LP Criminal Minded contained frank descriptions of life in the South Bronx of the late 80s thus setting the stage for what would eventually become gangsta rap.
Criminal Minded by Boogie Down Productions is a highly influential hip hop album. Production on the LP is credited to 'Blastmaster' KRS-One (Lawrence Krisna Parker) and DJ Scott La Rock (Scott Sterling), but in future interviews it has been revealed that an uncredited Ced-Gee (Cedric Miller) of The Ultramagnetic MCs had a key role in crafting the sound of the LP. In 1998, the album was selected as one of The Source 100 best Hip-Hop Albums of All Time.[1] In 2003, the album was ranked number 444 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
Released in early 1987, the album sampled records from James Brown and AC/DC, and also flaunted a dancehall reggae influence. The songs “South Bronx” and “The Bridge is Over” (a reference to the Queensbridge Housing Projects) ignited a famous rivalry with the Queens-bred emcee MC Shan (see the The Bridge Wars). The album is also credited with providing a prototype for East Coast gangsta rap from which to develop. For instance, the cover, which showcases Parker and Sterling surrounded by an arsenal of weapons, was hip-hop’s first major release to feature members brandishing firearms. The album also contained several seminal hardcore songs such as “9mm Goes Bang,” one of the first hip-hop songs to be based around a first-person crime narrative, and "P Is Free," which details an encounter with a drug-abusing prostitute for perhaps the first time on record.
Initially, the album sold at least several hundred thousand copies; however, the relationship between the group and B-Boy Records quickly deteriorated when the label (headed by Jack Allen and Bill Kamarra) was allegedly slow to pay royalties. A lawsuit was launched, which was eventually settled out-of-court. Having left B-Boy Records, new friend Ice-T introduced them to a Warner Bros. A&R exec, who promptly signed them to a new record deal. The deal was short-lived, however. By this time, Sterling had befriended a neighborhood teenager, Derek "D-Nice" Jones, who did a human beatbox routine for the group. One evening, Jones was assaulted by some local hoodlums and he later called Sterling to run interference. The next day, Sterling and a group of others came to the stoop where the offending parties lived. Sterling’s intention was to try and mediate things, but one of the hoods pulled out a gun and began shooting at random. In the ensuing confusion, Sterling was hit in the neck. Critically wounded, he died several days later in a hospital, leaving behind an infant son.
Warner Bros. reneged on the new deal in the aftermath of Sterling’s death. Parker, however, decided that the group should continue. A handful of friends were brought into the collective, including Parker’s new wife Ms. Melodie and brother Kenny Parker, with whom he had just recently reunited. Signing with Jive/RCA Records, Parker recorded eight albums for that label in a 10-year period, eventually dropping the Boogie Down Productions moniker and billing himself as a solo performer. REM and others recruited him for collaborations, and he was among the few hip-hop acts at the Beastie Boys’ Tibetan Freedom Concerts. Meanwhile, Criminal Minded has been notoriously hard to find, falling in and out of print every few years, surfacing with a different distributor every time. Currently, the Boston-based independent label LandSpeed Records has landed the distribution rights to Criminal Minded, hence re-release in 2002. An expanded re-release titled The Best of B-Boy Records: Boogie Down Productions includes longer versions of the albums tracks and several 12-inch singles that didn't make Criminal Minded's original pressing. The album was rereleased again in 2006—original art intact—when LandSpeed became Traffic Entertainment Group.
Samples Used
"Poetry" contains samples from the James Brown recordings "Soul Power Pt. 1" & "Don't Tell It".
"South Bronx" contains samples from the James Brown recordings "Get Up Offa That Thing" &
"Get Up, Get Into It, Get Involved". "Dope Beat" contains a sample from the AC/DC recording "Back In Black".
"Remix For P is Free" contains a sample from the Yellowman recording "Zungguzungguguzungguzeng".
"The Bridge Is Over" contains samples from the Sly & Robbie recording "Boops" & the Billy Joel recording "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me".
"Super Hoe" contains samples from the Captain Sky recording "Super Sporm" & the Esther Williams recording "Last Night Changed it All (I Really Had a Ball)".
"Criminal Minded" contains samples from the Syl Johnson recording "Different Strokes", the Trouble Funk recording "Let's Get Small" & The Beatles recording "Hey Jude".
