Boogie Down Productions - Sex And Violence LP

Get On Down (2015, Reissue)

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for twenty-five plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

Sex And Violence was the final Boogie Down Productions full length album.  It came out in 1992 and I vividly remember when it was released.  The video for "Duck Sown" had started playing on Yo MTV Raps and I just adored that song.  Even today it would rank quite high if I was making a list of my favorite BDP songs.  I acquired my copy of the CD through one of those BMG Music Club 8 CDs for a penny gimmicks.  My CD copy still has that little BMG barcode type thing on it.

I have read over the years that there are some who do not think this particular BDP album rates as highly as some of their prior releases.  And while I will be the first to admit that there's nothing at the level of say "My Philosophy," it's a bit unfair to try to compare this album to one of the all time great songs in the history of hip hop.

I think Sex And Violence is solid from start to finish.  The songs, while maybe a bit rougher than those on Edutainment, have the same sort of high IQ lyrics that really tell stories and make some salient points.  The beats are much harder hitting and part of me thinks that's why the record took some by surprise when it came out.  I actually like the production on this a lot and think the beats use clever samples and memorable hooks.  "Duck Down" is still the highlight for me, but "The Original Way," "Like A Throttle," "Drug Dealer" and "How Not To Get Jerked" are bubbling right underneath and can hold their own with anything in the Boogie Down Productions catalog.

With this LP, I have all of the BDP full length albums on vinyl.  I don't have the Live Hardcore Worldwide live album, but I'm honestly not sure I need to get that one.  I haven't listed to my CD version of that since I finally tracked down a copy Criminal Minded and had better versions of that album's songs.  I also never enjoyed the KRS-One solo albums anywhere near as much as Boogie Down Productions.  I bought Return of the Boom Bap right when it came out, but it never hooked me and that was the last KRS-One album that I bought.  If I've missed anything important, let me know, but I'm pretty confident that by having all of the BDP albums, I have the best songs covered.

Boogie Down Productions - Sex And Violence (YouTube music full album playlist):
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mRwYXQqvm2pxlfuEyWgoCySVf8Nu8P2R0