The Comedy of Errors: Anthony Red Rose - Gangster (29 May 1992)

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Over late May/early June ‘92,  Peel gave a number of plays to a remix of Anthony Red Rose’s signature cut, Tempo - originally recorded in 1985.  All being well, this will turn up on this blog when it covers Peel’s June 1992 shows.  On this night though, he gave a taster of what was to come by playing Gangster, a contemporary team-up between Anthony and the producer, Captain Sinbad.

I like the track a lot, although it does play up the questionable notion of the “noble criminal” - unaffiliated with any particular gang (“the petty robbery and the chain robbery/Not my style”) and seemingly only threatening violence on fellow criminals.  Indeed, it feels at times like the track would have been better off being called The Enforcer.  There’s a swagger about the whole enterprise which could have been off-putting in lesser skilled hands, but the track doesn’t pass the buck or put blame on others for where Red Rose finds himself.  It’s a way of life, with conventions and rules like any other.  Indeed, at one fanciful stage, I thought Red Rose was writing it from the perspective of an everyday working man, who is an exception in that he doesn’t follow a criminal path, “Fighting for love and fighting for freedom” etc.  But with Ice-T’s iconic Original Gangster sample popping up throughout, I have to concede that this is set in the mindset of a character for whom murder pays the rent and the clothes bill.  There are no regrets and a constantly ringing phone with customers on the end of it.  It sounds way more seductive than it should, probably because singjays like Red Rose can sweeten the bullet in a way that US gangsta rappers never could.
Dangerous but nice...

Video courtesy of bobbyculture100.