Criminal Minded - Boogie Down Productions (1987)

Ideated from: a Black History Month reminder that black artists largely built the modern world of music

KRS-One would make lots of waves over the years with politically involved rap. This first record isn’t quite that yet, but it’s a noisy, raw debut that got a lot of attention.

There’s a lot of proto-gangsta posing here, but the flow and the ability to tell a coherent story through a song are already in place.

Tracks I Liked

South Bronx - if there’s one thing NYC rap is good at, it recommuning with the sacrament and mystery of its creation myth. And like a lot of creation myths, you’ll get differing views: in this case, whether it started in Queens or the Bronx

9mm Goes Bang - some electro flavor

Remix For P Is Free - top notch