Yo! Bum Rush the Show cover

Yo! Bum Rush the Show

Released

Militancy. Radicalism. Pro-blackness. The cacophonous production of the Bomb Squad made for the perfect backdrop to those themes, expressed by these rappers: Chuck D and Flavor Flav introduced themselves with a borderline punk aesthetic on this debut. The regrettably misogynoir “Sophisticated Bitch” centers Living Colour’s Vernon Reid on a guitar solo, an instrument unheard in hip-hop since Run-DMC’s “Rock Box.” Plenty of songs here—“You’re Gonna Get Yours,” “Public Enemy No. 1,” “Miuzi Weighs a Ton”—sound as tightly focused and downright banging as the material on their follow-up album, long lionized as the greatest hip-hop album of all time.

Miles Marshall Lewis

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