20. Boogie Down Productions, By All Means Necessary
One of the most amazing albums ever to drop on wax, By All Means Necessary shook the music industry to its core as KRS-One took shots at everyone. Just look at the title, inspired by Malcolm X’s 1965 speech, “By Any Means Necessary” delivered at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, New York. The album cover spoke to this also. The cover was modeled after the 1964 image of the civil rights leader who was first seen in Life magazine (later Ebony) standing with an M1 Carbine in his right hand and pulling the blinds of the window of his Queens, NY home to the side with his left hand. By All Means Necessary pictures the rapper with an Uzi in the exact same pose.
No longer Criminal Minded, the Blast Master walked into his purpose as a philosopher, social disrupter, and intellectual freedom fighter.