"Boogie Down Productions/With Premier we gettin' paid," raps hip-hop legend KRS-One in the raw footage from Smirnoff's Signature Mix Series' revision of "Criminal Minded," one of hip-hop's most timeless classics.
Talk about a tell.
Sure, Boogie Down was KRS-One's band, and sure, their 1987 effort Criminal Minded is one of hip-hop's most influential releases ever. And yes, Gang Starr's DJ Premier is one of the most decorated DJs alive. But this time around, KRS isn't selling beats, rhymes and life, but vodka. And yes, he's getting paid to do it. It might be about time.
But this type of intersection between art and commerce has always felt awkward. The album Criminal Minded ran into enough financial and label problems to give KRS-One headaches to last a lifetime, so it makes sense that he's willing to dish some of its formidable legacy off to Smirnoff vodka in hopes of capturing an elusive payday.
But is something lost in translation? De La Soul's Stakes is High kicks off with a streetwise testimonial to the power and influence of Boogie Down Production's epochal effort. Yet now, it feels weird, if only because a whole new generation might instead kick off De La Soul's homage differently. Something along the lines of "The first time I heard Criminal Minded, I..." was watching KRS-One talk about getting paid on Smirnoff's official website.
Is that weird, or simply inevitable?
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