I am the kind of person that will listen to almost any kind of music. As a student of music history, I pride myself on the diversity of music found on my MP3 player, where classical music, metal and hip-hop tracks all live in harmony. Essentially I will listen to anything-but only if it has a message. And that was the trouble with Most Popular Criminals’ demo Payback-there was no message!
Most Popular Criminals are Driz, Smoke, and Nire, three fellow New Yorkers. Now, my New York pride was trying to support, but the lyrical talent on this demo squelched all such pleasure.
Payback started off with the potential of being something inspired. The jazzy background music with an R&B feel was a nice touch until the Most Popular Criminals began to rap.
From the very first song, it was clear Payback was another case of the 'I’m the best, let me go screw some girls,' type of album. I’m alive like Frankenstein and Jesus of Nazareth from the song Grown Up revealed that Payback was not going to offer lyrics with any kind of depth. Yet, to further prove my point of how meager the lyrics on this demo were, check out this little lyrical snippet from the track Work Out; All I be doin’ is smoking, drinking, f***ing. Point proven. Case closed.
However, Most Popular Criminals managed to show a glimpse of the group’s potential talent with the track What Happened To Dat Girl, and that’s simply because of its commercial appeal. Sadly the only quality lyrics featured on Payback was from the guest artist J. On the track The Ministry, J, talks about overcoming the past and making changes.
Despite those two tracks, Payback was a case of been there, heard that. Maybe with new lyrics, Most Popular Criminals’ fresh beats may have a chance.
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