By Ralo
The legacy that is known as Leaders Of The New School began when founding member C Boogie Brown heard the vocal dexterity of the Cold Crush Brothers back in 1981. Fascinated by the discipline and team work demonstrated by The Cold Crush Brothers, C Boogie Brown decided he had to form a crew, and thus patterned his his first group the Destiny 3, after The Cold Crush Brothers. In 1985, The Destiny 3 included C Boogie Brown (who was then known as CCB), Busta Rhymes (then known as Chill-O-Ski), Dinco D and another local M.C. named Mystery. Their first Dj was Johnny Juice who later became the DJ/ producer for Public Enemy. In 1989 the group was complete when Cut Monitor Milo joined as producer and lyricist.
During the mid to early 80's, Brown travelled with his big brother Higgy Higg who DJed at some of Hip-Hop's earliest events. Carrying records for his brother got him into parties during the infancy of Rap Music.
The three Uniondale Long Island residents known as The Destiny 3 would often meet with neighbour Eric (Vietnam) Sadler to do work at his near by studio. Recording with Sadler would often put the trio in the company of Public Enemys' Hank Shocklee and Chuck D, who came up with the name Leaders Of The New School. "We need a real name" recalls Brown of the groups first name. However, they were told by Chuck D that the name was for another group he was developing. Brown insisted "we got to have that name". At that point Chuck D told them to come to an audition for the group. "We arrived late and missed the audition" recalls Brown. However, as fate would have it, they ended up with the name anyway.
In 1991 Leaders released their first full-length album A Future Without a Past..., which spawned three singles, Case Of The P.T.A. (produced by Milo), Sobb Story and The International Zone Coaster. Their well received debut was followed by T.I.M.E. in 1993. T.I.M.E. singles included Whats Next and Classic Material.
C Boogie Brown and Dinco D have continued to record together and also turned out solo efforts over the years. In 1999 Brown released the underground classic I'll Always Be Around, and in 2012 Dinco D released Dinc-To-The-Dinc. Always busy and always in the lab they have come up with another underground classic, Murder By Numbers.
Murder By Numbers, produced DJ El Rhan Amazin, explores what happens when black men are confronted by the Police. The lyrics bring compassion and insight to the ongoing struggles of being black males in America. It is the raw story of Police oppression and subjugation of black people. They detail the personal struggles of being black in a system that prefers to treat black men as suspects instead of citizens. Lyrically they are coming to terms with the unjust system of police brutality and state sanctioned murder.