Boogie Down Productions

Why they matter

Boogie Down Productions started in the Bronx with KRS-One, DJ Scott La Rock and D-Nice, and took its name from a nickname for the South Bronx. Producer Lee Smith was central to the early tracks, and Ced Gee of Ultramagnetic MC’s got a special thanks on the back cover of the debut. Criminal Minded came out on B-Boy Records in May 1987: hard, sparse beats, reggae and dancehall all through it, and KRS-One talking at length about the South Bronx as it was. It’s widely regarded as one of the first gangsta rap albums.

It was also a fight. “South Bronx” and “The Bridge Is Over” were BDP’s side of the Bridge Wars, the argument with MC Shan and the Juice Crew over where hip-hop came from. That exchange is still the textbook case on the rivalries page.

Scott La Rock died in 1987, a few months after the album came out. KRS-One kept the name, brought in new members, and changed direction. By All Means Necessary (1988), with a title and cover that nod to Malcolm X, went after the drug trade, police corruption and violence inside hip-hop. KRS-One then helped create the Stop the Violence Movement, whose 1989 all-star single “Self-Destruction” sent its proceeds to the National Urban League. Three more BDP albums followed before KRS-One started recording under his own name after 1992’s Sex and Violence.

What a working rapper can take from it

Bring the sound of your house. BDP pulled dancehall straight into New York rap, using Yellowman’s “Zunguzunguzeng” riddim on “Remix for P is Free.” If your family plays something nobody else in your scene is sampling, that’s your edge. The sampling guide covers how to dig into it.

Answer with specifics. “The Bridge Is Over” works because it names names and stays on topic. If you’re responding to somebody, the answer-record guide walks through reading what the original actually said and landing the call-out lines.

You’re allowed to change. The group that put guns on its first cover made a political record a year later, and it reads as growth rather than a costume change because the writing got better too. A new direction lands when the craft goes up with it.