On the difficulty of reissues. Link
Then there are records that are bound to open up old wounds. A perfect illustration is provided by what is perhaps the best new rap reissue, Traffic’s triple-disc edition of Criminal Minded, the debut by KRS-One’s Boogie Down Productions. The album was released in 1987 on the independent label B-Boy, whose owner, Ray Allen, later granted a licence to Traffic to be exclusive distributors. Traffic has acted in good faith and entirely legally; but because of his original contract with B-Boy, KRS-One says he has never seen a penny from sales of Criminal Minded.
“I thought they did a really great job,” he says, with evident enthusiasm for Traffic’s new reissue. “It’s beautiful, it’s wonderful, the booklet was great – but no one consulted me about anything. As a matter of fact, I bought my copy of the boxset at a Barnes & Noble in New York while I was doing a book signing. I’m not saying that I was ripped off, or that Traffic has no right to the material. When we first came to B-Boy Records, we had an arrangement: it was a fucked-up arrangement, it was exploitative, but we understood that’s what it was. Now, when you transfer the powers of that relationship on to another label, the only way you can sell that record is by further exploiting KRS-One.”
