BOOGIE DOWN PRODUCTIONS

2  YO! MTV RAPS CARDS

1991 USA 1^st Edition

35 YEARS OLD

(Card Size: 3.5x2.5 in / 9x6.5 cm)

Boogie Down Productions (aka BDP) was a hip-hop group, originally composed of KRS-One, D-Nice, Lee Smith & DJ Scott La Rock.  Criminal Minded. The name Boogie Down is from a nickname for the South Bronx of New York City. They pioneered the fusion of dancehall reggae & hip-hop music & their debut LP Criminal Minded ('87) described life in the South Bronx during the '80s, setting the stage for what would eventually become gangsta rap & eventually drill music.The Jamaican influence present on the album is illustrated with the "Mad Mad"/"Diseases" riddim (started in '81 with reggae star Yellowman's song Zunguzung). BDP used this riff in the song Remix for P is Free. As an album regarded by many as the start of the gangsta rap movement, it played an important role in reaffirming the social acceptance of having Jamaican roots & helped solidify Jamaica's place in modern hip-hop culture. La Rock was murdered in '87, after the release the album. A conflict arose in the late ‘80s about the origins of hip-hop & BDP made efforts in its early work to establish it to be from the Bronx. Rival hip-hop collective Juice Crew’s lyrics were misunderstood to contain a claim in the song The Bridge, that hip-hop was a result of artists from Queensbridge. Boogie Down retorted with songs The Bridge is Over, & South Bronx which started the 1st notable hip-hop war. The Bridge Wars were short-lived & after the death of La Rock, KRS began to concentrate on creating politically & socially conscious hip-hop. KRS-One went on to release 4 more albums under BDP & each 1 was increasingly innovative & expanded from thuggish imagery to explore themes like black-on-black crime & black radicalism. By All Means Necessary (’88) remains 1 of the most political hip-hop albums to date. In association with BDP, KRS-One joined with other rappers to create the Stop the Violence Movement, which addressed many of the issues brought about through BDP's music. The movement created the single Self-Destruction (’89) through the collaboration of hip-hop artists (BDP, Stetsasonic, Kool Moe Dee, MC Lyte, Doug E. Fresh, Just-Ice, Heavy D, Biz Markie, & Public Enemy) with the aim of spreading awareness about violence throughout African-American & hip-hop communities. Their final album Sex and Violence was released in '92.

Studio Albums

Criminal Minded (1987)

By All Means Necessary (1988)

Ghetto Music: The Blueprint of Hip Hop (1989)

Edutainment (1990)

Sex and Violence (1992)