Most Popular Criminals

I was a little torn on what to pick for my first demo review. In reality A&R is sifting through tons of mediocre CDs and MySpace pages hoping to hear one good song. I'd like to just put up that one good song each week, but that isn't an accurate representation of the process. I'm instead planning on doing analysis on bands that have a little bit of traction and giving my honest guess on their success ceiling.

Yesterday on the 6 train my conversation was stopped by the familiar "excuse me ladies and gentleman." I was expecting a man asking for loose change, a kid selling candy for his basketball team, or even a dance troupe. I instead got a man dressed with a light up belt buckle selling CDs for a dollar for his non gangster hip hop group Most Popular Criminals. I find it odd that a so called conscious hip hop group would still use criminals in their moniker. I don't think its supposed to be ironic.
What separates this group from the legions of other hip hop street musicians seems to be business sense. I have been accosted by so many kids saying "do you like hip hop? Buy my CD for 5 or 10 Dollars that you never heard" that it gets old. This man was only selling his for a 1 though and for that I'll take a chance. He had on his groups T Shirt with their website, his belt buckle had their website even his shoes had their website. This man was a walking billboard. Unfortunately when I tried to visit the website it had an error maybe someone else will have luck with www.mostpop.org. With the amount of times I have received a blank CD without any indication of who the group was or contact info, I was impressed that this man was one step away from tattooing his website on his forehead. They also have their own TV show in BronxNet, and a feature done on them for ABC news. This shows not only a real dedication to their career but also the ability to execute their vision.

The other thing that is working for the Most Popular Criminals is timing. Don Imus's recent remarks about the Rutgers Womens Basketball Team have brought a lot of criticism on the current hip hop scene which NAS so eloquently put is dead. The leaders of the Hip Hop industry are all meeting at Lyor Cohens house to try and determine the next step for hip hop. Hip hop albums are not the guaranteed money makers they once were as Diddy's latest album hasn't even gone past 700,000 yet. There needs to be a positive hip hop group that is given a marketing push to show that the industry isn't just guns, ho's, drugs and money. This group already has momentum in that direction with their ABC news story.

Their only problem is their songs. Their beats are jazzy, with kind of a jurrassic 5 feel. Their rapping is fine, but not extraordinary, their hooks are not catchy, and while their songs are certainly not about jacking cats with gats for crack, there is nothing incredibly interesting about the lyrics either. Their is no positive message to back up their backstory. Their is really no message at all. I don't think a good producer could help them improve where they lack, namely compelling material, and I would pass on any major deal for them. They could be profitable on a small independent because of their story and marketing instincts. Without interesting songs though, they are going to have to really build up their fanbase and at their current tally of 1600 MySpace friends they have a long way to go. There are a lot better rappers out there with a positive message, I would pick one of them for the inevitable concsious hip hop marketing blitz.