DVS Mindz - Shawn Edwards Controversy

Shawn Edwards Controversy

In July 2000, local writer Shawn Edwards singled out DVS Mindz in a scathing review of a Memorial Day "beach concert" held at the Kansas City International Raceway. Edwards wrote: “20 local rap groups that had paid for the opportunity to perform delivered second-rate sets ... None of the groups, including rap veterans DVS Mindz from Topeka, captured the crowd's attention. They paced the stage, spewing out unintelligible lyrics. The audience wasn't rude -- but it clearly was unimpressed. As they tried to capture the crowd's attention, most of the artists began calling the people in the audience ‘motherfuckers’ and yelling ‘Suck my dick!’ They started talking down to people in the audience, calling them ‘haters’ for not responding to their music, and they invited women to dance explicitly on stage. The crowd briefly got excited as young women flashed their breasts, but the strip-club antics grew tiresome as each group tried the same stunts.”

DVS Mindz felt they had been singled out for ridicule in connection to a concert that had far deeper problems than subpar sets by its performers. "No Respect" then became the unofficial Y2K battle cry for DVS Mindz, which took time out at every show to preach from the pulpit about the evils of the local music bureaucracy. Over time, these diatribes snowballed into full-blown conspiracy theories.

The group addressed the Edwards article from the stage at Lawrence's Liberty Hall on August 7, 2000, when it opened for the Wu Tang Clan. Kansas City music writer Andrew Miller wrote that DVS Mindz, "delivered a fierce set teeming with intensity and emotion. Using stop-and-start beats and group recital in an impressive fashion, the crew spit fire on tracks such as "Tired of Talking," and its DJ showed and proved on the turntables after the set was done. Like Wu-Tang, DVS treated fans to some "real live a cappella hip-hop lyrics," with one rant that blasted the music industry for sleeping on the Midwest and several others that brutally lambasted Pitch writer Shawn Edwards, who the group felt gave it a bum rap in his piece 'One More Chance.' ... This was the group's big-time showcase, and it proved to a tightly packed crowd and two touring bands that it deserves major-label interest."

Edwards eventually apologized for the flap and introduced the group onstage at the Hurricane in the fall of 2000. A few weeks later Million Dolla Broke Niggaz, which was nominated for “best local release” by The Pitch, lost to Shiner’s "Starless," furthering the group’s paranoia that the local press was out to get them. In March 2002, DVS was up for another award from the Pitch, this time for "best rap artist." According to writer Jason Meier, while attending The Pitch awards ceremony, "DVS Mindz provided one of the nights most classless moves. Within seconds of hearing that they lost to Tech 9Nine for another year, the group tossed their chairs high in the air, which made for a thunderous crashing sound as they stormed out of the theater." Perhaps unsurprisingly, the local press soured on DVS Mindz. The group's performances became increasingly erratic around this time, the once ferocious live act turning in the occasional uninspired set. The band continued to perform live, but internal squabbles and a virtual press blackout had pushed DVS Mindz to the breaking point.