What the Album Represents

In 1992, Andre Romelle Young, aka Dr. Dre released The Chronic, establishing the modern hip-hop sound and forever demarcating it from the “old school” typified by The Sugarhill Gang and Run-DMC. Dre’s heavy sampling of southern funk records and integrated use of synthesizers continues to characterize the West Coast sound to this day. Moreover, Dre’s lyrical preoccupation with fashionable lifestyles, money, women, and swagger established the template of mainstream hip-hop which virtually every major rap artist followed.

Artis Leon Ivey Jr., known by the stage name Coolio, similarly followed the West Coast template set out by his forebears with infectious funk rhythms that made his songs instantly dance-able. However, those dance-able rhythms masked Coolio’s incisive commentary on the pitfalls and dangers of street life. Rather than outright celebrating the destructive attitudes that entrap many black youth in cyclical community violence, Coolio paints those attitudes in a harsh and reflective light. Coolio, if effect, was a gangster who was attempting to not be a gangster. It Takes a Thief illustrates precisely that contention with it’s opening track “Fantastic Voyage”.

Sharing its title with the 1966 film of the same name which saw a submarine crew shrink to microscopic size and venture into the body of an injured scientist, Coolio similarly aims to take his listeners on a journey into the ghettos most never experience. “Fantastic Voyage” is a hood safari, depicting the exciting highs of ghetto life while never shying away from it’s apocalyptic tendencies. Whereas the 1966 film is an internalization of a traditional adventure narrative, Coolio’s song is an exteriorization of the hood experience.

Coolio’s prison diorama deftly imbues the listener in the horrifying realities of penitentiary life. Coolio expertly jumbles narrative expectations by placing himself within prison almost immediately, cleverly disorienting the listener in order to maximize the song’s lyrical resonance.

Coolio passes the mic to femcee LeShaun who professes her love for a hoodrat who will most certainly not bring about positive change in her life. Coolio’s twisted love song boasts an addictive hook as well as some of the album’s best production next to “Fantastic Voyage”.