"Street's disciple, my raps are trifle / I shoot slugs from my brain just like a rifle." Breaking Atoms is the album that introduced Nasty Nas to the world, but the 5-mic (The Source initially had the album at 4.5 but retrospectively awarded it the top honor) debut from Main Source is so much more than that. Toronto's Sir Scratch and K-Cut joined forces with the one-and-only Large Professor for absolute classics like "Looking At The Front Door," "Just A Friendly Game of Baseball," and "Just Hangin' Out," and the trio, with innovative song concepts, fresh-to-death jazz/soul samples, and socially aware bars ("Aww, shit, another young brother hit / I better go over my man's crib and get the pup / Cause to the cops, shootin brothers is like playin baseball") that remain relevant to this day, laid out a blueprint that would heavily influence a vital chapter of hip-hop we look back and reminisce as the Golden Era.

• black vinyl pressing
  
• original release year: 1991
  
• music label: Mr Bongo 2022

reviewed by nakaveli 09/2017