Mr. Criminal

Chicano rapper, songwriter, and producer Mr. Criminal takes his name seriously. His tough narratives, told in a lightly gruff deadpan that occasionally breaks into a reflective lilt conveying both languorous ease and gangster fierceness, focus on his coming of age in the Silver Lake section of Los Angeles. Certainly, the MC has been in and out of trouble with the law, most notably a drug-and-weapons charge in Arizona. Nonetheless, he is a gifted performer