Happy 30th Anniversary to Leaders of the New School’s debut album A Future Without a Past…, originally released July 30, 1991.
Much of hip-hop’s progression is built on teenage energy. Be it a 17-year-old LL Cool J rapping about how he needs a beat or a 17-year-old Rakim lining up 7 emcees, many of the artists that took the artform to the next level in its formative days weren’t even of the legal age to vote.
The crew Leaders of the New School burst onto the scene with much of this youthful vitality, while armed with designs of changing the hip-hop landscape. Made up of Trevor “Busta Rhymes” Smith, Bryan “Charlie Brown” Higgins, James “Dinco D” Jackson, and their DJ Sheldon “Cut Monitor Milo” Scott, the Long Island, New York-based crew brought a fresh, wild, and energizing presence to the genre. The four had come up under the tutelage of the Bomb Squad production collective. None less than Chuck D had given both Busta Rhymes and Charlie Brown their stage names. Their debut album, A Future Without a Past… is one of hip-hop’s first coming of age albums.
The Bomb Squad’s production had been pushing the boundaries of hip-hop’s sound since the mid-1980s. Their line-up included Chuck D, the Boxley brothers (a.k.a. Hank and Keith Shocklee), Eric Sadler, and Bill Stephney. They were best known for creating Public Enemy’s wall-of-sound musical aesthetic.
The group also sought to develop young talent, and during the late 1980s into the early 1990s, they were in the process of mentoring the four Uniondale teenagers and another young group of aspiring white rappers. Both had a strong love for hip-hop music and culture. And both wanted to be Leaders of the New School.
Over three decades ago, “Leaders of the New School” started as a concept on a bulletin board in the Bomb Squad’s compound. Well, that and “Young Black Teenagers.” The Bomb Squad’s plan was for each of the above groups to take one of the names. They didn’t count on there being two crews coveting the name.
The legend goes that the Bomb Squad decided to have both crews compete for the right to the name. It was a very late ’80s/early ’90s hip-hop thing to do. They told each group to write a song called “Fuck the Old School,” dissing all the rappers who came before them, with the winner earning the title. Busta, Charlie Brown, Dinco, and Milo came out on top.
Leaders of the New School turned out to be a very apt name for the four-person crew. Even though hip-hop was still a relatively nascent artform back in the early 1990s, members of LONS represented a new generation of emcees: they were rappers who spent their teen years listening to artists from hip-hop’s Golden Age. They listened to artists like Public Enemy, De La Soul, LL Cool J, and Rakim while they were in high school, inspiring them to become rappers.
By the time A Future Without a Past was released, none of the members were still in high school, and only Busta Rhymes was still technically a teenager (he was 19). However, LONS bring an infectious exuberance to the album. They’re boisterous bundles of lyrical and stylistic excellence, wild with their deliveries, ad-libs, and other antics.
Anyone who listened to the album 30 years ago wouldn’t be surprised that Busta Rhymes became a huge star. What often gets lost, however, is that both Charlie Brown and Dinco D looked like can’t-miss prospects as well. Charlie Brown contrasted his fairly deep vocal tone with outlandish yelps and shouts. Dinco D was an extremely proficient lyricist, armed with the ability to deliver thoughtful rhymes and tongue-twisting patterns, with a gift for alliteration. All three give command performances throughout the project.
LONS were signed to Elektra Records by the label’s then hip-hop A&R Dante Ross. Ross had long had an amazing ear for talent, and was putting together one of the best hip-hop rosters ever, second only to Def Jam. The song “Mt. Airy Groove” was the group’s initial offering, appearing on Rubiyat (1990), the label’s 40th anniversary compilation. While it’s an entertaining track, it only hinted at what the group was capable of.
The group offered a perspective not often shared by rappers up to that point. LL Cool J and Rakim may have been teenagers when they first got noticed, but their lyrical content made them sound like full-grown men. LONS rapped about subjects like cutting school, chasing girls, and dealing with stress. Rather than fashion themselves as lyrical superheroes, they worked to relate to their audience. LONS position themselves as the loud and rowdy troublemakers, uninterested in what passed for public education in the United States in the early 1990s, and eager to wreak havoc on the student body.
All four members of LONS were solid producers as well, with each working on the album’s production side. In fact, Milo and Busta Rhymes each produce some of the best tracks on A Future Without a Past. They join other beat creators like The Vibe Chemist Backspin, Sadler of The Bomb Squad, and the Stimulated Dummies, whose ranks included Ross. A Future Without a Past works best when the songs move at a frenetic pace. Much of the album is up-tempo, barely contained bedlam with all three emcees flexing their distinctive styles across dense and complex tracks. There are a whole lot of beat switches within each song, adding to the album’s creativity and unpredictability.
“Case of the P.T.A.,” the lead-off single and the opening track, functions as a musical cherry bomb, with all three emcees engaging in various misadventures that land them in detention or get them suspended from school. The track is absolutely vibrant, as Dinco, Busta, and Charlie contend with obnoxious educators and holier-than-thou administrators. While riding a sample of Ramsey Lewis’ version of “The Mighty Quinn,” they express their apathy and disgust toward their educational institution.
Many of the established producers that collaborated with LONS adapt their production styles to mesh best with the pandemonium that LONS creates. For example, during the early 1990s, the Stimulated Dummies where best known for their soul-drenched tracks that borrowed liberally from obscure 45 RPMs. On Future, they frequently play to LONS’ strengths, especially on “International Zone Coaster,” the album’s third single. Busta, Charlie, and Dinco bounce across the energetic track, weaving a story about cutting school in favor of hanging out and partying with their friends. “Transformers” shares the same animated musical approach by the Dummies, as the three emcees deride backstabbers and fake friends.
LONS team with the Rumpletilskinz, the Cracker Jacks, and dancehall artist Kollie Weed on “Sound of the Zeekers @#ˆ**?!”. The raucous posse cut features all of the energy of a lunchroom freestyle cipher, with all ten emcees practically bouncing off the walls. In that respect, it’s a different beast than the aforementioned and far more reserved “Mt. Airy Groove,” which features many of the same guests. Busta Rhymes’ production chops shine here, as the beat continues to shift, keeping things interesting as each of the emcees lend their unique stylings.
A Future Without a Past does occasionally operate at a slower wavelength. Tracks like “Too Much On My Mind” and “Just When You Thought It Was Safe” might not be my personal favorites, but they convey the anxiety that high schoolers can feel when considering the pressures of the world around them. However, “Sobb Story” is a clear home run. Produced by “Vietnam” Sadler, all three members of the group discuss their dreams of driving their own car, which is pretty all-consuming for your average teenager. The trio’s verses share the strong yearning for freedom and status that a fly automobile gives you. The song is bolstered by the mournful beat, which samples Hugo Montenegro’s version of “Aces High.”
Busta Rhymes also channels his teenage thoughts and concerns on his pair of solo tracks. “Feminine Fatt,” his dedication to voluptuous women, is solid and a bit ahead of its time. The stronger of the two songs is the moody “Show Me a Hero.” Here Busta is forced to confront miscreant “Busta Bully,” a 6’9”, 240 lbs. pound monster who’s new in town and keen on terrorizing LONS and their classmates.
Charlie Brown and Dinco D also get their own solo tracks on A Future Without a Past, with both more in keeping with the album’s prevalent production stylings. Charlie Brown wilds out on the chaotic “What’s The Pinocchio’s Theory?” Amidst swinging jazz horns atop a beat-box sample from the Fat Boys, Charlie delivers a suitably madcap exhibition, while also breaking down his own origin story, struggling to make it big as a rapper while still in high school. “I shot for the stars and you know I caught it,” he boasts. “Dinco D and Busta Rhymes, Milo saw it / Two years of hell; now it paid off / To prove my rhymes, that it ain’t soft.”
Fortunately, Dinco D’s solo track, “My Ding-A-Ling” doesn’t have too much in common with the Chuck Berry song of the same name, aside from the hook. Whereas the Berry song is one of the worst pieces of recorded music ever, Dinco D executes verbal somersaults through his version, firing three brief verses off at a rapid pace. “I use words with trained verbs to get my point across,” he raps. “Word is born? Yeah I hope, so is yours.” Honestly, Dinco shouldn’t have bothered using Berry’s hook, as it adds nothing to the song and occasionally overshadows the tracks’ verses.
“Teachers, Don’t Teach Us Nonsense!!” serves as a continuation of “Case of the P.T.A.” The song is heavily influenced by the Fela Kuti track of the same name. While the high school administrators contemplate what to do with the three emcees, each rip the school and public education system in general for not giving them lessons relevant to their lives. “My rep was in effect to keep in step,” Dinco D raps. “So I stopped to drop bombs for a check / ’Cause all I learned was when where why what and who / And then I asked, ‘Do you think this is true?’”
The album ends with the contemplative “Where Do We Go From Here?”, as the crew ponder moving from teenagers to adults, creating goals for themselves and aspiring to enjoy great success. Charlie Brown does an admirable job on production, keeping the grooves slow and soulful. While the backbone of the track is built around a sample from Mike Williams’ “Lonely Soldier,” he switches things up for every emcee. Milo and Busta deliver the strongest verses on the song, with Busta waxing philosophic while rapping, “Busta Rhymes coming, starting, like the question's how far / will I go to meet my destiny? / Will it be activated, or will it be a memory?”
In a strong year for albums, A Future Without a Past ranks among the best releases of 1991. You would have thought that the album would have put everyone involved on the path to super-stardom, but instead, Elektra decided to focus its resources on Busta Rhymes moving forward. In this push contained the seeds of the group’s eventual break-up a little over two years later, following the release of their second and final studio affair T.I.M.E. (The Inner Mind's Eye) (1993).
A Future Without a Past conveys the anarchic totality of the high school experience like few albums did before or since. The album crystallizes the paradox of being young enough to believe you can conquer the world, while still being overwhelmed by the enormity of societal problems. And through it all, still coping with the desire for love and affection. Can it be that it was all so simple then?
LISTEN: