DVS Mindz : the twenty-year saga of the greatest rap group to almost make it outta Kansas /

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Includes bibliographical references and index."DVS Mindz is the story of an underground Topeka, KS rap group that dreamed of making it and fell just short. It is a story a four friends who shared a dream and pursued it together in one of many small, regional music scenes. It is a story of what it is like to rise in the music business and what happens when a career is over. Geoff Harkness first encountered Str8jakkett, Killa Da Hun, D.O.P.E., and DL when he was an aspiring musician and music journalist. He chronicled their work - he is credited for drawing positive, critical attention to them - and he stayed in contact with them as they released their debut album, opened for the Wu-Tang Clan, and then as they faded from the scene. In telling the stories of the group's four MCs, Harkness draws attention to what he calls the creative underclass-those whose paid labor largely supports other creative professionals. DVS Mindz is divided into three parts covering their childhoods, their rise and career height, and ends with a section on how they come to terms with their lives. This narrative is an unreplicable career history of regional underground rap group, which will interest readers intrigued by music scenes but it is also a case study of the precarity, rewards, and real options and limitations for those pursing artistic careers"--