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One of the best debuts in the history of hip hop – and one of the most important albums the genre ever produced! Criminal Minded is landmark for a number of reasons. Among the biggest is, of course, that it was recorded with the late great DJ Scott La Rock – and he was soon to fall prey to the very street violence that BDP documented with such raw brilliance, courtesy the lyricism and delivery of KRS-One. Importance aside, though, Criminal Minded is simply a great, timeless record that no true fan of gritty classic hip hop should be without. The track list alone is a full chapter in the hip hop book of legends – with tunes like "Poetry", "Elementary", "South Bronx", "Super-Hoe", "Bridge is Over", and the "P is Free" remix. Also includes "Criminal Minded", "Dope Beat", and "9mm Goes Bang".

Tight!! Lee Fields, one of the great criminally under appreciated funky geniuses of the 70s is back with another pounding, raw funk classic that still finds the man at the peak of his powers, decades after he first made mark on the funk landscape! This is Lee's first full length effort for Soul Fire, a label that we all know goes to painstaking lengths to carefully carry the torch lit by the People Records scene in the 70s into the future, and it's great to see a titan like Lee do amazing work for a great label that does it purely for the love! Lee is absolutely on fire on all 10 of these tracks, with a Godfather like delivery that knocks us out of our chairs every time, whether it's that fiery funk howl that we love so much, or a smooth, soulful glide on the occasional ballad. He's backed up by a bona fide funky orchestra at Soul Fire Studios that includes TONS of hot drums, propulsive percussion, and some driving conga work that steers things into an afro funk groove on several of the tunes. The group MVP, other than Lee himself, could be multi instrumentalist Leon Michels, whose work on flute, keys, tenor and baritone sax, as well guitar and bass not only helps keep the classic 70s feel going, but keeps things crackling at breakneck speed. This isn't newfangled funk revival, this is the real deal from one of the originators – a 33-minute funk maelstrom that will knock you right out of your chair, and have you restarting it the second it ends! Includes "Problems", "The Right Thing", "Rapping With Lee", "I Don't Know Where I'm Going", and "Honey Dove". Oh, if only all of our heroes remained this vital!

A great Morricone soundtrack for a Jean-Paul Belmondo thriller – a score that starts out spare and brooding, then builds nicely as things move on – with lots of cool bottom-end sounds that make the whole thing really move up from the depths! Some tunes echo the sweeter side of Morricone, while others are a bit more brooding – and instrumentation includes some of the same offbeat piano you'd hear in The Burglars, plus light guitar, weird-tuned horns, and other nice bits that are sometimes abstracted beyond recognition! Titles include "Paura Sulla Citta", "Avvertire La Polizia", "La Scorta", "Le Tellier E Helen", and "Maichini". A tremendous package – with 22 tracks in all, and almost 75 minutes of music!

A very cool little record – almost the musical equivalent of pulp paperbacks and b-movie crime films – served up on a host of rare tracks from the 50s and early 60s! Crime is the dominant theme here – as you might guess from the title – but the great thing about the music is the way it's handled – often with a slight sense of humor that offers up a nice contrast to more serious crime-based pop culture of the time – reflecting the postwar fascination with the genre, but offering up its own vision of things as well! Instrumentation and production usually play a big part in the tunes – pretty crafty, with lots of cool twists and turns that make things as vivid as pre-code comic book or True Confessions magazine! Titles include "Cops & Robbers" by Boogaloo & His Gallant Crew, "Dick Tracy" by The Chants, "The Prisoner's Song" by Hylo Brown, "21 Days In Jail" by Magic Sam, "Mr Dillon" by The Delcardos, "Life To Go" by George Jones, "Bad Detective" by The Coasters, "Birmingham Jail" by Warren Storm, "Jail Bird" by Sonny Knight, "Prisoner's Plea" by Billy Boy, "Dragnet" by Ray Anthony, and "Have You Got The Gumption" by Scatman Crothers.

One of the best debuts in the history of hip hop – and one of the most important albums the genre ever produced! Criminal Minded is landmark for a number of reasons. Among the biggest is, of course, that it was recorded with the late great DJ Scott La Rock – and he was soon to fall prey to the very street violence that BDP documented with such raw brilliance, courtesy the lyricism and delivery of KRS-One. Importance aside, though, Criminal Minded is simply a great, timeless record that no true fan of gritty classic hip hop should be without. The track list alone is a full chapter in the hip hop book of legends – with tunes like "Poetry", "Elementary", "South Bronx", "Super-Hoe", "Bridge is Over", and the "P is Free" remix. Also includes "Criminal Minded", "Dope Beat", and "9mm Goes Bang".

Tight!! Lee Fields, one of the great criminally under appreciated funky geniuses of the 70s is back with another pounding, raw funk classic that still finds the man at the peak of his powers, decades after he first made mark on the funk landscape! This is Lee's first full length effort for Soul Fire, a label that we all know goes to painstaking lengths to carefully carry the torch lit by the People Records scene in the 70s into the future, and it's great to see a titan like Lee do amazing work for a great label that does it purely for the love! Lee is absolutely on fire on all 10 of these tracks, with a Godfather like delivery that knocks us out of our chairs every time, whether it's that fiery funk howl that we love so much, or a smooth, soulful glide on the occasional ballad. He's backed up by a bona fide funky orchestra at Soul Fire Studios that includes TONS of hot drums, propulsive percussion, and some driving conga work that steers things into an afro funk groove on several of the tunes. The group MVP, other than Lee himself, could be multi instrumentalist Leon Michels, whose work on flute, keys, tenor and baritone sax, as well guitar and bass not only helps keep the classic 70s feel going, but keeps things crackling at breakneck speed. This isn't newfangled funk revival, this is the real deal from one of the originators – a 33-minute funk maelstrom that will knock you right out of your chair, and have you restarting it the second it ends! Includes "Problems", "The Right Thing", "Rapping With Lee", "I Don't Know Where I'm Going", and "Honey Dove". Oh, if only all of our heroes remained this vital!

Rare tracks from the Flipper Music sound library – a small Italian imprint of the 70s, with a style that's heavy on trippy touches! The work here feels a lot like the kind of sounds you'd get on the best American biker soundtracks of the late 60s – or some of those cool psychedelic exploitation films – but the overall quality's almost even better, too – as the music seems to be captured with real feeling and great instrumentation – not any watered-down studio styles at all! There's plenty of heavy drums, fuzzy guitar, and weird keyboards – and titles include "Tenione Beta" and "Tensione Gama" by Peymont, "Angoscia Universale" by Lamartine, "Il Pozzo E Il Pendolo No 5" by Giorgio E Franco Bracardi, "Effetto Di Tensione" by Amedeo Tommasi, "Occultimso" by Daniela Casa, "Fear" by Fabio Frizzi, "Narvalo" by Sandro Brunolini, "Sensazione Fisiologica" by Joel VDB, and "Zombie" by Gerardo Iacoucci.