Yo! Bum Rush the Show by Public Enemy

Yo! Bum Rush the Show, Public Enemy's debut, hit the racks on Def Jam in March 1987, cut at Spectrum City Studios in Hempstead, New York, with Rick Rubin and the Bomb Squad at the controls. Chuck D is the lead voice, a booming, righteous baritone that sounds built for addressing a rally, with Flavor Flav riding shotgun, Terminator X on the turntables and Professor Griff rounding out the crew.

The politics came up front, and so did the trouble: Chuck D's black nationalism made plenty of radio programmers and critics squirm, even as the record sold at a pace few rap albums had ever matched. "You're Gonna Get Yours" rides a lean, menacing groove that sounds like a car cruising slowly past your house. It is now counted among the most important and influential rap records ever made, and the next chapter was It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.