By All Means Necessary Mount Airy NC

By All Means Necessary

Boogie Down Productions

Jive, 1988

http://www.myspace.com/theboogiedownproductions

REVIEW BY: Ben Ehrenreich

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 02/12/2007

I might be committing blasphemy by not saying this is one of the best hip-hop albums ever made.

Don’t get me wrong, this is a very good album. I just feel like albums such as No One Can Do It Better and Long Live The Kane are more deserving of the accolades commonly associated with By All Means Necessary.

This is the first album issued by Boogie Down Productions after the death of their DJ/producer Scott La Rock, which essentially makes this a KRS-One solo album. There is a distinct difference in the content of this album, which tends to include more positive lyrics than its predecessor, Criminally Minded.

Although Criminally Minded was by no means a negative album, the song title “9mm Goes Bang” would seem out of place next to By All Means Necessary’s “Stop The Violence”. It seemed to be that KRS-One was deeply affected by Scott La Rock’s passing and, consequently, so was his music.