DVS Mindz - Million Dolla Broke Niggaz

In May, 2000, the group released its debut album, Million Dolla Broke Niggaz, which contained tracks that dated back as far as 1994. The album spawned two popular songs, "Niggaz" and "Tired of Talking," both of which were nominated for song of the year by The Pitch. These and other songs showcased a much harder sound than the previous DVS Mindz recordings, surprising some of the group’s long-time fans. The group was also singled out by members of the local rap-music elite, who claimed that DVS Mindz was posturing and boring. Kansas City music writer JJ Hensley noted that “There are two schools of thought on the Mindz: those who think DVS Mindz is the area's tightest rap group and those who think their rhymes are unoriginal and their beats add nothing to the songs. There's some merit to both arguments."

Demencha Magazine weighed in with a review that compared the CD to "classic West Coast underground artists like Living Legends and Heiroglyphics come to mind as far as comparisons when you listen through these choice tracks featured off DVS’ Million Dolla Broke Niggaz album. They don’t pay much attention to choruses on this CD, in favor of just spitting flames back and forth for 15 tracks. More than half the album’s songs go for between 6–8 minutes in duration, and to hear these guys just trade verses (a’la Wu-Tang on 'Triumph') is amazing. Simply, Million Dolla Broke Niggaz is some old-school, local, underground shit in it’s rawest form." Str8jakkett explained the group's approach to recording this way: "It’s not that we didn’t know about counting bars, we just didn’t give a shit about counting bars. We wanted to spit. We come from a different era, as opposed to a lot of the younger guys coming into the game. They do a 16 and a chorus and a 16 and a chorus. We came up in the tundra. Spit. Give it your all. What was on that album, Million Dolla Broke Niggaz, was what I like to call 'off the corner rap.' Ain’t nobody trying to hear no chorus man, you know what I’m saying?"