KOTTONMOUTH KINGS
Ten Years Deep DVD
Music Video Distributors 2005
www.kottonmouthkings.com

What’s the 4-1-1?
The Self-professed ‘punk rock-hip hoppers’ celebrate their ten year anniversary with a documentary style DVD. Follow-up to the 2001 DopeumentaryDVD.

Genre
Rap rock / hip hop / (self proclaimed) punk rock-hip hop

The Good
I promised myself that I would say something good about the Kottonmouth King’s latest DVD even if it kills me, because I can’t deny the fact they have a rather large fan base. The Kottonmouth Kings are a rap band for all intensive purposes. They use the punk title because one of the guys has a punk hair do, I think. The DVD starts off with a clip from a huge festival performance that breaks into a video for “Outcast” that was shot either on the streets of New York or Japan. The band interviews consist of each of the seven members giving their side of how the band got together, how they built up the group, their struggles with a major label, and how they really found a home in the underground music scene. Another one of the music videos combines dirt bike wipeouts with a classic car show. I’d tell you the name of the song, but they don’t tell you, and there’s no booklet with the release. Anyway, my favorite line in the song is when the Kottonmouth Kings tell internet critics to fuck off. Why send this DVD to us then?

A club and bar scene sets the stage for the video “Bad Habits”. I must admit that the song was catchy. One of the interesting stories that the band touches upon involves their former label Capitol Records. They claim that they had to release material on their own because Capitol didn’t understand what they were trying to do musically. Their struggles began with their very first album and seemed to get worse after they had a hit song on the Scream 2 soundtrack. Most of the videos that close out the DVD are of live performances. There are only a handful of videos. If the Kottonmouth Kings weren’t trying really hard to connect with the youth of America with the dirt bike video, they hit pay dirt with the skateboarding video. Bonus features include a day in the life of each member.

The Bad
Instant signs that there’s nothing punk rock about your band: 1. You met playing basketball. 2. You found your singer after he sang along with LL Cool J’s “Hey Lover” on the radio. 3. Your band was formerly known as the P-Town Ballers. 4. You have a guy in a mask whose sole purpose is to dance like a robot (oh wait; he’s a dancing visual assassin). I hope they don’t pay Taxman and Pakelika the same amount as the actual singers and instrument players. For a 10 year anniversary DVD, it’s light on material. Maybe they lost that major record deal when according to Pakelika; he lit up his bong and smoked it throughout the entire Capitol Records office building.

The Verdict
For a 10 year anniversary DVD it’s light on material. Kottonmouth Kings are far from a rock act. For an underground band I have to give them credit for maintaining such a strong fan base. They manage to do just fine releasing music on their own and doing things on their own terms.

Did You Know?
The Kottonmouth Kings have released six studio albums that have sold over 1 million copies.

Rating: out of 5

--George Dionne