“See I became underground like the life in the street
The love of the beat, large is the fleet
That will remain underground for all my boys who souls sleep
Six feet deeper than the soles of my feet”

Hindsight’s twenty-twenty. Tell that to the execs at Elektra Records. Having cancelled the release of KMD’s second album Black Bastards in 1993 – reportedly over it’s hanging black sambo cover art – Elektra probably didn’t envisage the non-release becoming the topic of outraged hip-hop fans’ ire almost a decade later. What they failed to predict was that ex-KMD band member Zev Love X would go on to become possibly the most critically acclaimed underground rap artist of the noughties under the name MF Doom. Having only been available on rare bootlegs until Metal Face Records re-released it in 2008 the album aquired a certain mystique amongst fans.

Over a decade and a half on from it’s anticipated release it’s easy to see why. Black Bastards still sounds fresh. This is early nineties hip-hop at it’s head-bouncing best. Sweet jazzy saxophone and piano samples, all underpinned by hooky, up-tempo bass lines that keep the album rumbling along for the entirety of its 15 tracks. When Zev raps “Play some jams with some motherfucking bass in it!” over the insanely catchy bass line of the criminally short ‘Suspended Animation‘, you know he means it.

The lyrics are delivered with an infectious enthusiasm with sampled speech and sounds cutting in at times, adding to the busy, fast paced, energetic feel of the tracks. In keeping with the cover art KMD seem eager to confront racial stereotypes, with frequent references to derogatory racist names such as on the song ‘What A Niggy Know‘, which sounds like they’ve sampled a happier, less haunting version of the X-Files theme tune. Stand out tracks include ‘Sweet Premium Wine‘ and ‘Stop Smoking That Shit‘ but the whole album flows with a catchiness that’ll have you rapping along to the hooks. Avoid making the same mistake as Elektra: don’t miss this classic album.

Words Fred Carnegy