dAz's weekly Diggin In The Crates album pick:

In order to christen my new blog page and to begin a column with something that is both interesting to me, and I hope to you... I thought I'd start a weekly review of some music that has inspired me over my 20 year career of diggin' for records. Every week I will be diggin' into my vast 10,000+ collection of Lp's, 12" and 7" records to review some of my favorite music that has inspired me over the years, and what better to start with than an album that wouldn't necessarily be in my all time Top 10, but had an impact on me as powerful as some of the best hip hop being released in the late 80's... Boogie Down Productions "Criminal Minded"

Originally released in 1987 on B BOY Records... I can't tell you much about the history of the record label, but after reading about it's history on Wikipedia Criminal Minded on Wikipedia the usual scenario of the label not paying royalties forced BDP to settle out of court and move to a deal with Warner Bros that didn't work out, then onto Jive Records. On a side note, something that I was unaware of is that CED GEE of ULTRAMAGNETIC MC's fame co-produced a lot of the album.

I can tell you as a 15 year old kid living in the suburbs of England that when albums like BDP's "Criminal Minded", Big Daddy Kane's "The Wrath Of Kane" and Public Enemy's "Yo!, Bum Rush The Show" hit the record stores, radio, and clubs in The UK, it was like a whole new world opened up for me. Music that was revolutionary, poetic, contemporary, and clever. It felt more than just something to listen to... it was a movement. And either you were part of the movement or you were just a part time sucker.

With songs like "The Bridge Is Over", "Poetry", "The South Bronx", "Super Hoe" and the title track "Criminal Minded" the whole CRIMINAL MINDED lp is like a great piece of art where every song is a color making up the canvas of life in The Bronx, Toronto, and Manhattan, with KRS-One painting the vivid reality of street rhymes and the daily operation of what would become a psalm in the book of hip hop history.