Geoff Harkness is associate professor at Rhode Island College, and the author of the 2014 book Chicago Hustle and Flow: Gangs, Gangsta Rap and Social Class. As it turns out, back in the late ‘90s, while working as a music journalist in Lawrence, Kansas, he came across a group of four emcees from Topeka called DVS Mindz, and he not only documented them in his writing, but also filmed some music videos and a documentary about the group. Now he has gone back and revisited the groups rise, their struggle to break through, and all the trials and tribulations along the way in his new book, DVS Mindz: The Twenty-Year Saga of the Greatest Rap Group to Almost Make it Outta Kansas.

Right up front, we have to acknowledge two things about this book. One, is that Geoff Harkness needs to get his props for realizing that there was a story worth telling about a group that most people haven’t heard of, unless you happen to live in the Topeka/Lawrence/Kansas City area in the late ‘90s or early ‘00s. The second is that Columbia University Press also needs to get their props for trusting that there is an audience for a book like this, that people can be curious and encouraged to read about a rap group that never broke through to mainstream success. With that said, let’s get into all the ways in which this book makes for a compelling read. One is that Harkness was there for a lot of it, and he has a unique understanding of the socio-political geography that is built into a story that mostly all takes place between three cities, with Kansas City overshadowing the rest as the biggest city with a rich history of music, then Lawrence existing as the cool college town where young people can come out and support artists trying to make cool things happen in the heartland, and Topeka, which despite being the capital of Kansas, remains extremely overlooked and neglected by most people in the country who aren’t from the immediate area. Another is that Harkness does a great job of documenting their story with a lot of empathy for the four emcees in DVS Mindz and all the people in their immediate circle. He takes the time to go back and show you all the ups and downs of each emcee’s back story, and how race, class, drugs, guns, and the criminal justice system effected each one in different ways, and then how they all found hip hop and each other as a way to give their lives purpose and direction. Harkness then does a beautiful job of giving a really balanced look of the groups heyday, and letting you see all of the different ways in which the music industry prevented them from getting over, but then also how individual and group actions also led to moments of self-sabotage. The real key to this section of the book, which is the real meat of the story, is that Harkness never lets it slip into Spinal Tap moments – he’s never laughing at the group, but he is honest about when they made decisions that hurt their chances of breaking through, such as when they devote a lot of their energy going after a local journalist that they felt disrespected them in a concert review. He also points out all the different ways in which the industry itself failed the group, such as all the ways in which they didn’t get paid for performances, and how songs they sent out to people went ignored or just got overlooked, and also how they had to live in the shadow of the success of Tech N9ne. Harkness then takes you through their breakup, follows each individual through the next phase of their lives, all the way to their reunion, which happened in early 2020. Even then, Harkness doesn’t sugarcoat things, because the reunion is not a fairytale ending, just four emcees trying to reconnect and remember what they loved about the music in the first place.

DVS Mindz is a book that we need a lot more of, in hip hop and other genres. Yes, we need to document and discuss the huge musical acts in big cities who reach millions of people and become part of the pop lexicon that we all share, but we also need to document the overlooked stories in pop music in smaller cities. People put their heart and soul into the music in scenes all across the country, and maybe it never crosses over, but it means a whole hell of a lot to those who were there at the time. There’s a lot to be learned from this book, and I’m glad that Harkness was given a chance to tell this story.