Boogie Down Productions – Criminal Minded
Criminal Minded was like nothing had ever sounded before, apart from maybe Ultramagnetic MCs a little bit because Ced Gee had produced them both. But there was something so sparse, so mean and so authoritative about BDP – and authoritative about KRS One – I just remember being in Brooklyn and that shit just bumping. Personally this record is a huge influence on my production style as one of the first really big records for me where they would sample a kick and a snare from different records... it was a real drum programming record. It was really sparse and used a lot of stabs which was similar to the Rick Rubin/Def Jam aesthetic, but with that they were using a lot of TR 808s, 909s and drum machines so there was a cleaner sound - like on all the LL Cool J stuff - but Boogie Down Productions’ drums were so different at the time. It was dancehall-influenced too, and at the time I didn’t know anything about dancehall so it opened me up to that. One of those records which is always in my DNA in terms of being a producer.