MF Doom’s first group and their controversial sophomorerelease Bl_ck B_st_rds reissued for Record StoreDay 2015 in the format of a children’s book. Included arethe full album on CD and a second disc of bonusmaterial. The back cover of the book houses a full color7” picture disc featuring the group’s iconic mascot. The words “lost classic” get thrown around from time to time, but KMD’s sophomore album, BlackBastards, truly ts the bill. Originally scheduled for release in the spring of 1994, Elektra Recordsunceremoniously shelved it at the eleventh hour due to controversy over the provocative cover art.Surviving group member MF Doom (then known as Zev Love X) – as fans know, his youngerbrother Subroc was killed in 1993 – tried to release the album on other labels, but met more deadends. Sadly, it languished in hip-hop purgatory until six years later. Even then, the album had onlya limited release via small indie labels.Beyond the fact that the controversy surrounding the cover – featuring the group’s long-standing“Sambo” mascot being hanged by a makeshift gallows – was unfair, the group’s fans being deniedaccess to this album only compounded the injustice. Because musically and lyrically, it was a trulyamazing record, full of youthful creativity, tinged with the stress of growing up as Black men inurban America. Unlike on the group’s 1991 debut, Mr. Hood, Subroc had fully come into his own asboth a producer and an MC on Black Bastards, and his untimely death made the album’s shelvingthat much more tragic.Heavily in uenced by the mind-bending spoken word album Blue Guerrilla by Gylan Kain (from1970), songs like “What A Nigga Know” (the only single released o the album), the slippery,bass-driven “Get U Now” and the album’s title track explore black consciousness viewed throughyoung-but-experienced eyes. Musically alternating between bouncy and raw – many times bothconcurrently – the tracks gave both MCs the springboard they needed to express themselvesclearly, whether on the catchy, more lighthearted “Sweet Premium Wine,” the psychedelic, abstract“Suspended Animation” or the intricate mash-up of television samples heard on the instrumental“Garbage Day #3.” Finally given deluxe treatment more than two decades after its completion (and 15 years after its rst release), this special Record Store Day 2015 set features 2 CDs containing all14 of the album’s original vocal tracks, with a second “bonuses and instrumentals” CD, which features rare cuts and remixes. The set also contains a 7-inch picture disc of the single“What A Nigga Know.” It is all encased in a truly unique hard-page Children’s Book package with pop-up. You have never seen anything like this before!