LEADERS OF THE NEW SCHOOL
Long Island's Leaders Of The New School hit the hip-hop scene just as the 1980s were ending, and the famed alternative hip-hop scene of the early-to-mid 90s was just beginning to take shape. Members Charlie Brown, Dinco D, Cut Monitor Milo, and Busta Rhymes (Who would find massive success and acclaim as a solo act in the mid-to-late 90s) stood out among their Native Tongues peers for their youthful exuberance, their witty, and often satirical songs, which often featured a deeply intellectual, afrocentric bent, their ability to mesh old school rhyming techniques (Such as rhyme tradeoffs and call-and-response lyrics which harkened back to the days of youth crews) with then-modern sensibilities, and their complementary personalities. (The manic and high-strung Charlie Brown, the philosophical and thought-provoking Dinco D, the fast-paced, hard-hitting Busta Rhymes, and the expert production chops of Cut Monitor Milo.)
The Leaders hit their start with a bang, opening for hip-hop powerhouse Public Enemy very early in their career. (Chuck D himself would give Charlie Brown and Busta Rhymes their stage names.) Their first on-record appearance came as a contributor to the Elektra records album Rubáiyát: Elektra's 40th Anniversary, alongside acts like Metallica, Jackson Browne, The Pixies, and others. (They were the only hip-hop group on the compilation.) The group would release their smash debut A Future Without A Past in 1991, and follow it up in 1993 with the album T.I.M.E. Over time the public's attention began to focus more on the rising star Busta Rhymes than the rest of the Leaders, which created friction amongst the rest of the group. They would eventually part ways by 1994, with Busta going on to achieve solo success, periodically reuniting for one-off performances and festivals.
Though the group broke up under mounting tension and in-fighting, they left behind one of the decade's best hip-hop albums, in A Future Without A Past. The album came at a time when the landscape of rap music was turning increasingly dour and moody, and more heavily focused towards the gangsta sub-genre. With "A Future…" Leaders Of The New School provided welcome relief from gangsta's grim outlook, and were considered a breath of fresh air. The Chuck D-produced album's songs swiftly changed moods from nonsensical and light-hearted to insular and deep-thinking with deft ease, bolstered by Cut Monitor Milo's jazzy production, and Brown, Dinco, and Busta's gatling gun-delivery.
"A Future Without A Past" cracked the Billboard 200, and produced three singles, all three of which cracked the Top 10 Rap Charts. In spite of all this, the album was largely unappreciated in its' time, but since occupies an important place in hip-hop history both for its inarguable quality, and for jump-starting the career of Busta Rhymes, and is considered an underrated gem. Recognizing its importance, Traffic Entertainment is proud to reissue it both on compact disc and vinyl for the first time in nearly 10 years. Now shipping!
PRESS FOR A FUTURE WITHOUT A PAST
"…The album portrays a group of young men who are fully emerged in the sometimes less-than-innocent urban life that characterizes hip-hop culture, but are also able to transcend the inherent limits and pitfalls to which that life can lead. In that sense, it is a celebration of all the best aspects of hip-hop culture and youth."
"…A concept album structured around one day of school, A Future Without A Past addressed topics any young listener could relate to—cutting classes, brushes with bullies, that damn P.T.A.—while reviving the barbershop quartet-style group dynamics of early hip-hop crews like the Treacherous 3 and the Cold Crush Brothers…"
– Complex: "The 25 Best Long Island Rap Albums"
"…the natural chemistry of the crew and the funky freshness of the beats they rapped to were totally irresistable…They were the forefront in hip-hop and made an album that is still easy to listen to and enjoy even today."
"…Although this record is rarely mentioned alongside others of its era, the Leaders deserve credit for their tireless innovation; they bring great production, (partly thanks to the likes of the Stimulated Dummies and Bomb Squad member Eric “Vietnam” Sadler) new flows, and captivating personalities to the listener’s attention in a most entertaining manner."
