And that’s not that bad he concludes as if talking about stubbing his toe

And that’s not that bad,” he concludes, as if talking about stubbing his toe. “We try not to disassociate our music from ourselves, so it really comes from us, it’s how we feel. It’s facets of how we are.”The diversity on Come Find Yourself may have something to do with the Criminals’ backgrounds. What’s he gonna do? Is he gonna kill us? Big deal, that’s the worst he could do. We’ll laugh in the face of a cop pulling a gun on us because that shit is funny. “It’s obvious that we’re just poking fun, but that’s our outlook on life, that’s how we look at shit.

If you’re in a world that you created and you’re the mask, but outside that world you’re just a regular punk who thinks he’s a badass, then you’re gonna get shot. That’s what happens.” The Fun Lovin’ Criminals have deliberately taken a step back from such excess Their image may be as cartoon rappers Huey sees that as evidence of their realism. A lot of people get killed over it, just because they don’t understand reality in its truest sense. Huey sees the recent deaths of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls (both big Mob fans) as evidence of an unfortunate loss of perspective. “They go for this fantasy vibe, and it ends up being their downfall. It’s an attitude that until recently prevailed in gangsta-rap, too.

“When you grow up in a neighbourhood like that you see how society works,” Huey considers “You have the municipality, and you have the boys. The boys seem to run it better, a lot of the time.”It’s their insistence on seeing the ludicrous side of such monsters that, once again, saves the Criminals. They’ve clearly got a sneaking admiration for Scorsese’s models, too. We wanna throw him a beating.”
Scorsese still gets their vote GoodFellas and Casino are on their tour bus at all times. Typically, their attitude to him blurs admiration with absurdity. “When we go the video store, my girlfriend says, `I wanna see a comedy’,” says Huey.

“I say, `Let’s get Raging Bull’; she says, `That’s not funny.’ When you walk the walk, you can look at his films and go, that is kind of funny, because it borders on reality.” “From loving Little Italy and being round bosses at clubs who are mad straight-out-of-the- movies Italians, we all see the humour in Scorsese, we all admire him,” agrees Fast. “He’s like the Milli Vanilli of movies, stealing plots from Hong Kong,” Huey steams “We’re pissed off at him. Tarantino’s insistence on a 40 per cent cut of the royalties from “Scooby Snacks” for its samples, though, has cooled their admiration. In its undercurrents of real criminality and cackling cool, it’s the Criminals’ screen equivalent. Reservoir Dogs was just out on video, and was rented religiously. They watched TV, too, including stylish British shows like The Avengers (John Steed is namechecked on the album, James Bond is adored, and the band’s on-stage suits suggest hours spent ingesting Swingin’ London cool). When the trio moved in together in 1993, movies completed the pastiche-crazed picture.

But they loved the music their mothers played as well, on New York’s equivalents of Radio 2 “We got cheese from our parents,” Huey says proudly. They all brought a love of hip hop to the band, sucked in from the New York air. Some guy at EMI saw us at a club and thought he could make money out of us. That’s why we’re here.”

It’s a mixture of satire and straight talk, machismo and modesty, which was inevitable from the minute the Criminals met.