Today in Hip-Hop: Leaders of the New School Drop Debut Album

On this day, July 30, in hip-hop history...

Elektra

1991: Leaders of the New School pull up with their debut album, A Future Without a Past..., a project that introduced the world to the eclectic, colorful clique and, of course, eventual rap legend Busta Rhymes.

Comprised of Dinco D, Charlie Brown, Cut Monitor Milo and, of course, Busta, Leaders of the New School brought juvenility in heavy doses as they hopped on East Coast centric beats and delivered a soundtrack for class clowns. Leaders of the New School's debut single, "Case of the PTA," a track that finds each rapper spitting about their issues in school.

"Busta Rhymes, the mighty infamous/Always misbehaving and mischievous/Causing aggravation, I'll never pause/Pushing out spit balls through plastic straws (in class!)
Until I got caught at last for lighting up the courtyard grass," spits Busta, conjuring images of a playful high school menace.

Elsewhere on the album, which peaked at No. 128 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, Busta and company address their love for voluptuous women ("Feminine Fatt"), school bullies ("Show Me a Hero") and more as they present a collage of adolescent ordeals. With a collection of call and repeat hooks, teenage energy and the varying deliveries of Busta, Dinco D, Charlie Brown and Cut Monitor Milo, the project never gets stale enough for you to lament it's length.

A Future Without a Past...would be the first of two LPs Leaders of the New School would drop as a collective, with their second effort, titled T.I.M.E., dropping in 1993. Although the group never reached the realm of outright rap superstardom, they represented a snapshot of the eccentric brand of early 1990s hip-hop and did so in style.

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