In it's 29th year, Boogie Down Productions' 'By All Means Necessary' has remained one of the most important albums in hip-hop history. From the death of Scott La Rock to a fundamental misunderstanding behind the messages in their debut, 'Criminal Minded,' KRS-One returned in 1988 to set the record straight handling both lyrics and production on 'By All Means Necessary.' From police corruption, violence, safe sex/AIDS, and heavy themes on government, KRS embodied the teacher he introduced on 'Criminal Minded,' and recreated the iconic photo of Malcolm X to make the image complete. Like many, it took me years (29 years if I'm keeping it a buck) to stop calling the album 'By Any Means Necessary.' With 'My Philosophy,' 'I'm Still #1,' 'Jimmy' and the whole 'Stop The Violence' movement, the social commentary and the minimalist production earned the album a spot on The Source's best 100 rap albums, 10 years after its release. In June of 2005, Vibe Magazine briefly revisited the project in the article above giving more details about the album artwork. And of course, the publicity photo of KRS wearing the BDP jacket and hat, which was sent out by Jive as promo for the album in '88. In 2010, KRS sat down with MTV to discuss the making of 'Criminal Minded,' and said: "After Scott was killed, I clarified the message with [the] Malcolm X [pose] on the [cover of BDP's 1988 album By All Means Necessary]. Trying to clarify, this is not about gangsterism, this is what revolutionaries look like. If you go back to the some of the revolutionary pictures of the Black Panthers, you'll see that same thing on Criminal Minded's album cover. It's just that over time, people didn't look at it for Black Panthers, they saw us in the hood with the gat and people started mimicking that, unfortunately." Read the full article here and more below...
