up 027: criminal [1994]

''i would be lying if I said I knew a whole lot about the rapper known as scientifik. I'm aware that he passed away a long time ago, and that the specifics of his passing are cloudy at best (I've read conflicting reports about a car crash, a shooting, a domestic disturbance, and combinations of two or more of the above), but I'm not here to judge the man's life: i'm here to judge the music.

'criminal' was a debut album that ended up being the only album in a shortened career for the lawrence, ma emcee. scientifik was blessed with many friendships in the music industry, and was able to secure some instrumentals from some of the best to ever provide that east coast boom-bap sound.

'criminal' was recorded in 1994 for mercury records, a label that was going through some severe financial trouble: shortly before the album's original release date in 1994, the label went bankrupt, so only a few copies of the vinyl were released, and zero cds were pressed. as such, this album has been incredibly elusive, even for me (I'm good, but I'm not that good: the copy I have is burned, just like everyone else's).

i had originally heard of scientifik on one of the early wu-tang forums, since the rza produced the track ''as long as you know'', but everything i read at the time indicated the artist's name was 'criminal scientifik', so it's obvious that there was a lot of mystery surrounding the existence of this guy. a quick mention in ego trip's 'big book of rap lists' sparked up my interest again (and also corrected everyone's errors).

traffic entertainment re-released criminal in 2006, along with a second disc titled 'the most blunted', which, depending on who you ask, is either scientifik's demo tape or his aborted first album. this is very good news for fans of early 1990's hip-hop, with the grimy gutter sounds that were par for the course pre-diddy.''

-hiphopisntdead

tracklist:

lawtown 01

i got planz (ft. diamond d) 02

jungles of da east 03

overnite gangsta 04

yeah daddy 05

still an herb dealer 06

as long as you know (ft. edo g.) 07

fallen star 08

downlo ho 09

criminal 10

your choice: get it easy/get the cd.