Search - Boogie Down Productions :: Criminal Minded

An Unexpected Classic

capaBILLity | Somewhere Out There, NJ USA | 10/24/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"You know,in 1986 I thought diss records went out with UTFO and SHANTE. Then I heard "South Bronx" an anthem to where hip-hop really started also an unexpected answer to MC SHAN's classic hit "The Bridge". I felt "The Bridge","South Bronx" didn't move me at first,it sounded like a demo,didn't seem real to me. Then SHAN answered back with "Kill That Noise",it didn't hit me at first whom he was feuding with. Next,"The Bridge Is Over" hits the airwaves like crazy. I had no choice but to give it a listen and damn,KRS-ONE's dissing the whole JUICE CREW (SHAN,MARLEY MARL,MR. MAGIC and SHANTE)except BIZ MARKIE & BIG DADDY KANE,kinda put SHAN in his place on the dissing part. Still it didn't get me into them. But it gave me a buzz. I had to hear what's next by BDP.



Then "Poetry" hit the airwaves. I'm like 'oh my God,that's dope'. Then "The 'P' Is Free" and then "Dope Beat" and then "Criminal Minded" and I'm like,what a record. I scooped up two copies to mix right away. I became a fan so quickly,I bought tickets to the Dope Jam concert in the summer of 1987 to see both KRS-ONE and SCOTT LA ROCK live in New York at Madison Square Garden. It never happened.



SCOTT LA ROCK was killed like a week before that concert.



KRS-ONE attended that concert,opening for WHODINI and L.L. COOL J and he did his thang. No lip syncing (like the headliner UNCLE L) and turntables spinning alone as a tribue to the late SCOTT LA ROCK. Performing them hits I just named that made BDP a major comeback force in underground rap music since SCHOOLLY D's THE ADVENTURES OF SCHOOLLY D in 1985. This album went commercial on an independent label,almost impossible.



The other songs "9mm Goes Bang","A Word From Our Sponser","Elementary" and "Scott La Rock Had 'Em All (Super Hoe)" makes noise but not like those I've named in the beginning. Then they released the instrumental album of all 10 songs from the original. I'm like 'that's great man',scooped up another pair. Any release was a must have at this point,even if I had it from this album already.



Some beats were done by CED-GEE of the ULTRAMAGNETIC MC'S but he gets no credit for it (he got jerked by BDP's label at that time). Nonetheless,this is the classic of the late 80's. No album before or after by any rap duo can touch this album.



I must add though,the first 10 original songs total about 50 minutes of the CD,so how can another 10 songs (instrumentals) fit on an 80 minute disc? Each of the 10 instrumental songs are shorten to 2:15. Too cheap to double the album I guess. Oh well,enjoy!



RIP SCOTT LA ROCK,we miss you,bra."

One of the best rap albums of all time

Matthew | Seattle | 11/29/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"KRS-One's first album (along with Scott LaRock) was no doubt his finest. He was SO tight on the mic and he made other rappers look stupid. The track "The Bridge is Over" was one of the first hip hop diss tracks and it's cool to hear how diss tracks were back in the 80s.Anyways, this is an essential hip hop album, it's up to you whether you want the instumentals also which are included on this version, but at least buy some type of copy of this album."

No doubt BDP is old school but they ain't goin out

liveon14887 | 10/31/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Criminal Minded, the first and last album from BDP DJ Scott La Rock appeared on, stands as a precursor to gangsta rap. Though KRS would later go ahead with the Stop the Violence Movement, it's a testimony to the violent politics at the time. Producing not only comes from Scott La Rock but Ced Gee (of Ultramagnetic MC's) but was never credited for it. KRS guns down "Peter" the drug dealer in the gang related 9mm Goes Bang. The Bridge is Over, one of the first diss records in rap history, delivers the body blows to the Juice Crew (excluding Big Daddy Kane, Biz Markie and Kool G Rap). Acting as the East Coast model for N.W.A.'s Straight Outta Compton was the bad boy anthem South Bronx, a record which would soon initiate the battle between KRS-One and MC Shan.

But inside KRS lurked a socially conscious individual fighting to come out. Poetry found KRS overcasting his edutainment doctrine. And for the record, BDP ended up becoming the winners for the BDP vs. Juice Crew battle.



R.I.P. DJ Scott La Rock



Best moments= South Bronx, The Bridge is Over and Criminal Minded"