Wanted: Dead or Alive is the second album by the hip hop duo Kool G Rap & DJ Polo, released on August 14, 1990. The album was released a year after the duo's debut, Road to the Riches, and received greater acclaim from most music critics. The singles "Streets of New York" and "Erase Racism" received notable airplay on Yo! MTV Raps and the former is credited by Nas as being influential on his song "N.Y. State of Mind" from his critically acclaimed album Illmatic.
| Wanted: Dead or Alive | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by Kool G Rap & DJ Polo | ||||
| Released | August 14, 1990 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 58:37 | |||
| Label | ||||
| Producer |
| |||
| Kool G Rap & DJ Polo chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Wanted: Dead or Alive | ||||
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| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [1] |
| Chicago Tribune |  [2] |
| Christgau's Consumer Guide |  [3] |
| Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [4] |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [5] |
| The Source | [6] |
Lyrically, the album shows a greater variety of themes, from the battle rap braggadocio that dominated Road to the Riches, to topics of crime, poverty, racism ("Erase Racism"), and raunchy sex rap ("Talk Like Sex"). Perhaps most significantly, there is greater emphasis on vivid descriptions of crime and urban squalor ("Streets of New York") and references to organized crime, gang violence, contract killing, and Mafia films (the title track, "Money in the Bank", "Death Wish"), which helped cement Kool G Rap's reputation as the founder of mafioso rap.
Track listing
edit(*) denotes co-producer
| # | Title | Producer(s) | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Streets of New York" | Kool G Rap, *Large Professor, *Anton |
4:20 |
| 2 | "Wanted: Dead or Alive" | Eric B, *Large Professor, *Kool G Rap |
4:35 |
| 3 | "Money in the Bank" (feat. Large Professor, Freddie Foxxx, Ant Live) | Large Professor | 4:59 |
| 4 | "Bad to the Bone" | Eric B, *Large Professor, *Kool G Rap |
5:22 |
| 5 | "Talk Like Sex" | Kool G Rap | 5:14 |
| 6 | "Play it Again, Polo" | Eric B, *Large Professor, *Kool G Rap |
4:07 |
| 7 | "Erase Racism" (feat. Big Daddy Kane, Biz Markie) | Biz Markie, *Cool V | 4:31 |
| 8 | "Kool is Back" | Eric B, *Large Professor, *Kool G Rap |
3:25 |
| 9 | "Play it Kool" | Eric B, *Large Professor, *Kool G Rap |
4:31 |
| 10 | "Death Wish" | Eric B, *Large Professor, *Kool G Rap |
4:05 |
| 11 | "Jive Talk" | DJ Polo, Anton |
4:35 |
| 12 | "The Polo Club" | DJ Polo, Anton |
4:01 |
| 13 | "Rikers Island" | Marley Marl | 5:33 |
Charts
edit| Chart (1990) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard)[7] | 34 |
Rikers Island (single)
edit| "Rikers Island" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Kool G Rap & DJ Polo | ||||
| from the album Wanted: Dead or Alive | ||||
| A-side | "Rikers Island" | |||
| B-side | "Rhyme Time" | |||
| Released | 1987 1991 (re-release) | |||
| Recorded | 1987 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 5:33 | |||
| Label | ||||
| Songwriter(s) | ||||
| Producer(s) | Marley Marl | |||
| Kool G Rap & DJ Polo singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"Rikers Island" is the second single from American hip hop duo Kool G Rap & DJ Polo, originally released as a non-album single with "Rhyme Time" as a B-side in 1987 and later re-released as the fourth single from the 1990 album "Wanted: Dead or Alive". It was later also featured on the compilation albums Killer Kuts (1994) and The Best of Cold Chillin' (2000).[citation needed]
Background
editProduced by Marley Marl, "Rikers Island" is a hardcore hip hop song that warns of the dangers of living a life of crime and ending up in the Rikers Island jail where violence is a daily occurrence and even the toughest street criminals can be broken down.[8][9]
Samples
edit"Rikers Island" was later sampled on[10]
- "40 Island" by Noreaga featuring Kool G Rap and Mussolini
Track listing
edit- A-side
- "Rikers Island" (5:37)
- B-side
- "Rhyme Time" (6:29)
Videos (added to 2007 Traffic Entertainment reissue)
edit- Streets of New York
- Erase Racism
References
edit- ^ Kellman, Andy. "Wanted: Dead or Alive – Kool G Rap & DJ Polo". AllMusic. Retrieved January 22, 2010.
- ^ Ravissa, Louis (December 13, 1990). "Kool G. Rap & Polo: Wanted: Dead or Alive (Cold Chillin')". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved September 13, 2018.
- ^ Christgau, Robert (2000). "Kool G Rap & DJ Polo: Wanted: Dead or Alive". Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s. Macmillan Publishers. ISBN 0-312-24560-2. Retrieved January 22, 2010.
- ^ Larkin, Colin (2011). "Kool G Rap & DJ Polo". The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th concise ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-85712-595-8.
- ^ Caramanica, Jon (2004). "Kool G Rap & DJ Polo". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 465–66. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
- ^ Tewlow, Rob "Reef" (September 1990). "Kool G Rap & DJ Polo: Wanted: Dead or Alive". The Source. pp. 54–55.
- ^ "Kool G Rap Chart History (Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved March 5, 2017.
- ^ "Kool G Rap Breaks Down His 25 Most Essential Songs". Complex.com. Retrieved August 13, 2024.
- ^ "The 25 Realest Rap Songs About Prison". Complex.com. Retrieved August 13, 2024.
- ^ "Rikers Island by Kool G Rap & DJ Polo - Samples, Covers and Remixes". Whosampled.com. Retrieved August 13, 2024.
External links
edit- "Rikers Island" at Discogs