Fun Lovin' Criminals biography
The Fun Lovin' Criminals (often referred to by their acronym, FLC) is an American alternative hip hop / alternative rock group from New York City. Their musical style is primarily eclectic, covering styles such as hip hop, rock, funk, blues and jazz. Their songs often deal with life in New York City, as well as urban life in general. As a band, they cover such issues as organized crime, recreational drug use, violence, poverty and politics. Their songs are often gritty or existentialist in nature, but are just as often humorous or satirical. They are best known for their hit "Scooby Snacks" which features samples from films by Quentin Tarantino. According to Huey they sold approximately 10 million albums worldwide.
The band gained a large following internationally, notably in northwest Europe, around the release of their first two albums in the late nineties.
History
Formation and first albums: 1993-1999
The band was formed in 1993 by Huey Morgan, Brian Leiser and Steve Borgovini after Leiser, who was already friends with Borgovini, met Morgan at the club where they both worked. They started playing together and would provide the entertainment for the club when a booked act failed to show up. It was during one of these stand-in gigs that they came to the attention of EMI and they were offered a record deal.
Come Find Yourself, the band's first album, was released in the summer of 1996 by Capitol Records and followed their single, "The Grave And The Constant" (UK#72), which was released a month earlier, into the UK Charts. The album also featured the UK Top 40 hits, "Scooby Snacks" (UK#22), "The Fun Lovin' Criminal" (UK#26) and "King Of New York" (UK#28). The biggest hit, "Scooby Snacks", features samples from films by Quentin Tarantino, interspersed with rap verses and a sung, anthemic, chorus. Come Find Yourself had a slow rise up the UK album charts, finally peaking at #7 (and spending well over a year in the UK Top 100 Album Charts), however it failed to make any impact in the US. The success of the album prompted the re-release of "Scooby Snacks" as a single, alongside a cover of the 10cc classic "I'm Not In Love", which fared better and narrowly missed the UK Top 10 second time around by reaching UK #12.
100% Colombian, released in 1998 by Virgin Records, had a far grittier sound to it tempered by three upbeat songs, and several downtempo tracks, including "Love Unlimited", a tribute to Barry White. However, "Korean Bodega", one of the aforementioned upbeat songs, was the biggest hit from the album, reaching #15, their second highest placing single so far after the re-release of "Scooby Snacks".
Their 1999 album Mimosa, released by EMI was a Lounge album consisting of laid back covers and different versions of earlier released tracks. It sold well enough but was their weakest selling album yet and remained so for some years. It was around this time, in 1999, that Steve Borgovini left the band. He was replaced by Maxwell Jayson aka Mackie, originally just temporarily in case Borgovini returned.
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