Milestones: Wanted: Dead or Alive by Kool G Rap & DJ Polo

Wanted: Dead or Alive is still very much alive—a gritty, brilliant slice of hip-hop history that reminds us why Kool G Rap’s name will forever be spoken with reverence in rap circles.

Hip-hop was entering a new golden era. The previous year had seen Kool G Rap & DJ Polo explode out of Queens with their debut Road to the Riches, a Marley Marl-produced showcase of battle rhymes and Juice Crew braggadocio. On the posse cut “The Symphony” alongside Big Daddy Kane and others, G Rap had already proven he could steal any show with rapid-fire bars. Now, as the new decade dawned, the duo set out to up the ante. Their sophomore album, Wanted: Dead or Alive, arrived from the Juice Crew’s shadow as a bold evolution, a darker, more focused masterpiece that stands as one of the 1990s’ finest hip-hop records. In a year crowded with lyrical heavyweights, Kool G Rap’s performance on Wanted was virtually peerless, cementing his status as, in many eyes, “your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper.”

One of the biggest shifts between Road to the Riches and Wanted: Dead or Alive was behind the boards. Departing from Marley Marl’s full-service production approach on the debut, G Rap enlisted his friend Eric B., of Eric B. & Rakim fame, as the album’s nominal producer and executive overseer. But while Eric B.’s name appeared on the credits for six tracks, G Rap has long maintained that Eric’s role was mostly supervisory. The real beat-making firepower came from a then-18-year-old prodigy: Paul “Large Professor” Mitchell. Brought into the project by Eric B., Large Professor infused Wanted with a new sonic identity, essentially ghost-producing the majority of the album’s tracks. Years later, Large Pro would point out that Eric B. was a “fake producer telling lies” on the Main Source song “Snake Eyes,” referencing how credit was handled. (Eric B., for his part, has consistently insisted he produced everything he’s credited for.) Regardless of credit disputes, Kool G Rap himself has repeatedly given full credit to Large Professor for crafting the album’s signature sound, even those tracks officially credited to Eric B. or G Rap.

Another behind-the-scenes figure elevated Wanted’s sound, and his name is Andrew “Dr. Butcher” Venable. Though DJ Polo’s name is on the cover, the majority of the furious scratches on the album are actually executed by Dr. Butcher. G Rap had shouted out a mysterious “Butcher” on the first album; this time he literally brought in the Butcher. Dr. Butcher’s turntable work is relentless yet precise, slicing up cuts that match G Rap’s intensity bar for bar. (He even doubled as chauffeur for the teenage Large Pro, driving him to high school after all-night studio sessions.) Together, Large Professor’s and Dr. Butcher’s contributions gave Wanted a unified, cinematic feel that differed from the eclectic Marley Marl formula of the debut. The beats here ride on ominously filtered basslines and fractured funk loops, punctuated by blaring horn stabs and gritty guitar riffs that add dramatic texture. Scratches swirl in like action scene sound effects—sirens, screeches, and breakbeat cuts accentuating the drama. The result is a darker, harder-edged soundscape that channels Kool G Rap’s raw aggression into something almost cinematic—a sonic underworld of crime, streets, and swagger. While Road to the Riches was a collection of dazzling routines, Wanted is a front-to-back crime epic on wax.

From declaring itself a storytelling tour de force, “Streets of New York” opens the album and immediately stakes its claim as one of the greatest hip-hop narrative tracks ever recorded. Over a haunting Large Professor beat built from the Fatback Band’s “Gotta Learn How to Dance” (with its guitar riff looping like a weary urban blues) and accented by plaintive saxophone wails, Kool G Rap becomes a one-man newsreel for Gotham’s underbelly. He wields detail “like a scalpel”, slicing into verse after verse of gritty vignettes: stick-up kids, junkies, bag ladies in the subway, dealers and desperate folks “living on the edges of existence”. “It gets tiring, the sound of a gun firing,” G Rap laments, before sketching a cityscape where every corner holds another casualty or predator. The city itself becomes a character, corrupt and chaotic, yet vividly alive in G Rap’s telling. The song was justly celebrated; it received heavy Yo! MTV Raps rotation and later would be cited by Nas as a direct inspiration for his classic “N.Y. State of Mind.”

The title track finds G Rap assuming the persona of a high-octane outlaw, narrating from the front seat of a getaway car as he flees a bank heist gone bloody. Large Professor and co. match the storytelling with pure adrenaline on wax: siren-like horn loops rise and fall in the beat, and shards of Dennis Coffey’s funk-rock guitar from “Ride Sally Ride” screech like tires around corners. You can practically see the blue-and-red lights in the rearview mirror as G Rap barrels through verses, describing shootouts with rival crews and crooked cops in visceral detail. The hook even weaves in radio chatter from a mock police bulletin (“suspect seen approaching West Side Highway...roadblock is now being set up...over and out!”), heightening the cinematic feel. In a few breathless minutes, G Rap transitions from the observational realism of “Streets of New York” to full-tilt crime drama, showcasing his ability to shift perspective and tone without missing a step. This one-two punch of tracks perfectly encapsulates Wanted’s range – part grim reportage, part explosive pulp fiction.

Throughout Wanted, Kool G Rap revels in the underworld narratives that would earn him a reputation as the godfather of “mafioso rap.” Take “Bad to the Bone,” where he dons the swaggering persona of a street Don, oozing braggadocio and criminal cool. The production (officially credited to Eric B., but almost certainly crafted by Large Professor) is thick and menacing—all deep, filtered bass thump and intermittent horn blasts that sound like stabs of danger around every corner. G Rap uses the beat as a backdrop to bask in mob boss indulgences: gold teeth glinting, fine suits, cigars, and women on his arm. “Big spender, ’cause I’m a winner like Bruce Jenner,” he boasts with a sly smirk, “I burn all beginners and let ‘em simmer like a TV dinner”. With his gravelly voice laying down threats and flaunting in equal measure, G Rap makes the performance dripping with mafia bravado – no hook needed, just the occasional scratched-in vocal sample and those ominous horns answering his every punchline. The song’s unflinching confidence and underworld flair were a sign of things to come; as critics have noted, the album’s embrace of organized-crime themes helped pave the way for the mafioso subgenre that later defined mid-’90s New York rap.

Yet G Rap was careful to balance the album’s bloodlust and bravado with pure displays of lyrical skill. One area where he had already made his mark on the debut was in high-velocity “fast rap” exhibitions; “Men at Work” where he’d barrel through complex rhymes at breakneck speed. On Wanted, he one-ups himself with a handful of jaw-dropping technical showcases. The prime example is “Kool Is Back,” an electrifying two-and-a-half-minute whirlwind of wordplay. Over an uptempo Large Professor beat (built on the funky bassline breakdown of Little Royal & The Swingmasters’ “Razor Blade”), G Rap just goes off, spitting one long, breathless verse that leaves the listener punch-drunk on internal rhymes and alliterations. “MCs are grounded, pounded down, astounded,” he raps in a barrage of tightly woven syllables, “Rounded up, pounds of sounds when I drowned ’em… I demonstrate fate.” The rhymes layer on top of each other so rapidly that it’s hard to keep count, yet G Rap’s breath control never falters.

Not every high-octane track on Wanted is purely about style; some come with heavy doses of grit. “Death Wish” is a prime example. Riding a chaotic track laced with a wild electric guitar sample and the furious cuts of Dr. Butcher, G Rap unleashes one of his most aggressive performances. The beat is anchored by the classic break from Bob James’s “Take Me to the Mardi Gras,” a staple scratch sample, which Butcher slices into the mix, giving the song a relentless momentum. Over this backdrop, G Rap is in full-on menace mode, practically foaming at the mouth with violent braggadocio. “G’s a madman, came from the Badlands,” he snarls, claiming he’ll crush his opponents in his bare hands like beer cans. Every bar is delivered with a venomous bite, and you can hear G Rap’s voice straining with intensity, pushing into a hoarser register as he emphasizes each threat. It’s the kind of performance that makes you believe every word, no matter how over-the-top the violence gets. With the turntable cuts screeching behind him and a hard rock guitar riff looping, “Death Wish” feels like the closest thing to a hardcore thrash metal track that hip-hop had produced at that point. and it only underscores how far ahead of the curve G Rap was in bringing that level of ferocity and dark storytelling to the East Coast rap table.

For all its cohesive sound, Wanted is not a one-note album. Kool G Rap was unafraid to veer into unexpected territory, even at the risk of courting controversy. Even on an album filled with shootouts and gangland tales, it was this brazenly raunchy “Talk Like Sex” was an ode to carnal pleasure that many found most shocking. Over a throbbing, bass-heavy flip of Syl Johnson’s “Different Strokes” (courtesy of Large Professor’s deft sampling), Kool G Rap throws subtlety out the window and embarks on what can only be described as an X-rated lyrical rampage. At a time when East Coast rappers rarely got too graphic, leaving that territory to 2 Live Crew down South or Too $hort out West, G Rap went all-in. The song is essentially a vivid verbal pornography, with G Rap reveling in outrageously lewd boasts. “I’m pounding you down until your eyeballs pop out,” he boasts, followed by the immortal closer: “I bust a nut, then get up and wipe my dick on your curtain.”

Perhaps sensing the need for balance, Kool G Rap swings to the opposite extreme two tracks later with “Erase Racism.” Inspired by the 1989 killing of Yusef Hawkins, a Black teenager murdered in a racially charged incident in Brooklyn, this finds G Rap teaming up with Big Daddy Kane and the late Biz Markie to address racial unity. Over a simple, understated beat (produced by Biz and Cool V, built on muted keys and a soft bass groove), the three Juice Crew alums take turns urging an end to bigotry and divisions. G Rap’s verse stresses understanding between people “from Siberians and Nigerians to Jamaicans and Haitians,” while Big Daddy Kane drops a smoothly righteous couplet: “We got to better this world of prejudice/People, make peace and learn to live equal.” Biz Markie, known more for humor than heavy messages, contributes an earnest (if off-key) chorus by singing a bit of the song “Black and White” in only-the-Biz-could-do-it fashion. The whole track has a heartfelt, almost gentle tone, a far cry from the aggression elsewhere on the album. Wanted also makes room for some crew camaraderie and one curious throwback. “Money in the Bank” is the album’s obligatory posse cut, and it’s a joyous one. G Rap invites a few friends to trade verses. Large Professor himself grabs the mic alongside Freddie Foxxx (aka Bumpy Knuckles) and Ant Live (who happens to be Eric B.’s brother). There’s a celebratory, cipher-like energy as each MC tries to outdo the last. Large Pro and Foxxx, both near the start of their careers, drop solid braggadocio bars. Large Professor raps with the eager hunger of a rookie producer showing he can spit, and Freddie Foxxx brings his roughneck charisma. But naturally, it’s Kool G Rap who steals the show the moment he jumps in at the anchor leg.

The second LP captures Kool G Rap at the apex of his powers, a “near-perfect storyteller, verbal technician, and lyrical brawler” all in one. When you listen to the album today, much of it still sounds astonishingly ahead of its time. G Rap’s multisyllabic rhyme schemes and double-time flows prefigured the complex deliveries that would become standard for elite MCs in the decades to follow. His mafioso narratives and gritty crime rhymes laid the blueprint that artists like Nas, Notorious B.I.G., Raekwon, and Jay-Z would build on in the mid-‘90s. Indeed, many of those legends openly acknowledge Kool G Rap’s influence; he’s cited as an inspiration by everyone from the Queensbridge poets (Nas, Mobb Deep) to West Coast icon Tupac and the Wu-Tang Clan. As G Rap himself once noted, “This whole gangster shit I started influenced others, and that’s a good thing.” You can draw a straight line from Wanted’s cinematic street tales to the storytelling on albums like Illmatic or Only Built 4 Cuban Linx. Even the production techniques on Wanted, the filtered basslines, layered samples, and jazz-infused loops that Large Professor helped pioneer, would become hallmarks of East Coast hip-hop in the early ‘90s. In many respects, Wanted: Dead or Alive was planting seeds that would blossom in the years after its release.

Of course, the album also bears a few unmistakable marks of its era. The occasional dated moment (like the clubby Polo Club track or the inclusion of the mid-‘80s “Riker’s Island”) reminds us we’re listening to a late-80s/early-90s product. The mix of having a dedicated DJ scratch track and a token radio-friendly experiment was common in that period. But these are minor blemishes on an otherwise outstanding record. The core of Wanted, its best songs, and overall tone, remains remarkably fresh. If anything, the album’s focused cohesiveness gives it a timeless quality; it’s tightly edited and themed, avoiding filler (a rarity for 1990 rap LPs). Kool G Rap’s relentless delivery and Dr. Butcher’s razor-sharp cuts inject an energy that still hits hard, while Large Professor’s sample craft hasn’t lost its luster.

As a 1990 release, Wanted: Dead or Alive is a landmark in hip-hop’s pantheon, the moment Kool G Rap & DJ Polo perfected their formula. Many consider it the duo’s crowning achievement, even above their also-excellent debut and the later Live and Let Die. Its influence resonates through the generations of MCs who built on its foundation of high-caliber wordplay and street narrative. But beyond influence, the album endures because it’s flat-out great. From the bleak alleys of “Streets of New York” to the extravagant violence of the title track, from the raunch of “Talk Like Sex” to the uplift of “Erase Racism,” the record takes the listener on a journey through the full spectrum of urban life—unvarnished, unflinching, yet endlessly creative. It’s this cohesion of theme, skill, and sound that makes Wanted feel classic. Wanted is still very much alive—a gritty, brilliant slice of hip-hop history that reminds us why Kool G Rap’s name will forever be spoken with reverence in rap circles.

Standout (★★★★½)