Criminal Minded

Criminal Minded, Boogie Down Productions' groundbreaking debut album, was, arguably, the precursor to gangsta rap due to its gritty tales of the violent side of the South Bronx. The album also dealt heavily with the duo’s ongoing feud over the origins of hip-hop with the Juice Crew, a rap group from Queens, specifically on the tracks “South Bronx” and “The Bridge is Over.”

KRS-One and DJ Scott La Rock, the original BDP crew, were from the South Bronx and crafted their sound to reveal the different musical elements that made up hip-hop: funk, rock, and reggae.

Six months after the album’s release, La Rock was fatally shot outside the Highbridge Garden Homes on University Avenue in the South Bronx. Criminal Minded went on to reach #73 on the Billboard Hip-Hop/R&B chart, was certified Gold, and is now considered an undisputed classic of ’80s hip-hop. Even the album’s cover—the first major rap release to feature guns in the album art—would go on to influence countless artists.

KRS-One went in-depth about the album art in a 2010 interview with MTV:

The idea was revolutionaries. If you look at the cover of Criminal Minded, that’s what we were saying modern-day Black Panthers are. I had the gun belt going over the shoulder, grenades. That wasn’t hood. It wasn’t like [we] had guns on the table like we were drug dealers — we had grenades.

Public Enemy leader Chuck D spoke on the impact of Boogie Down’s debut album:

When [Criminal Minded] emerged in 1987, it was a seismic shift in the way rap records were heard, along with Eric B. & Rakim’s Paid in Full. These albums pushed a new style out of what was previously considered a singles genre. They were strongly independent, fearless, and laced with musical references in sample form, topped with dark street realities.