Criminal Minded is the debut studio album by hip-hop group Boogie Down Productions, released on March 3, 1987, by B-Boy Records.

Its samples and direct influences were unusual at the time, ranging from liberal use of dancehall reggae (as well as the more commonly used James Brown) to rock music artists such as AC/DC, the Beatles and Billy Joel.

[3] The songs "South Bronx" and "The Bridge Is Over" ignited the rivalry with the Brooklyn-bred but Queens resident emcee MC Shan and the Juice Crew.

The cover, which showcases Parker and Sterling surrounded by an arsenal of weapons, was hip-hop's first major release to feature members brandishing firearms.

This statement is evidence of BDP's involvement with Toronto's hip hop scene in the 1980s, which produced artists such as Michie Mee, Dream Warriors, and Maestro Fresh Wes.

[5] Initially, the album sold at least several hundred thousand copies; however, the relationship between the group and B-Boy Records quickly deteriorated when the label, headed by Jack Allen and Bill Kamarra, was allegedly slow to pay royalties.

By this time, Sterling had befriended a neighborhood teenager named Derrick "D-Nice" Jones, who did a human beatboxing routine for the group.

An expanded re-release titled The Best of B-Boy Records: Boogie Down Productions includes longer versions of the album's tracks and several 12-inch singles that didn't make Criminal Minded's original pressing.

In 1988, for The Village Voice, Robert Christgau wrote in his "Consumer Guide" column: Though one's moralistic quibbles do recede as history demonstrates how much worse things can get and how little music has to do with it, KRS-One's talk of fucking virgins and blowing brains out will never make him my B-boy of the first resort.

I could do without the turf war, too—from the Lower East Side, not to mention Kingston or Kinshasa (or Podunk), Queens and the South Bronx are both def enough.

Sampling blues metal as well as James Brown, spinning grooves to toast by, blind-siding the beat with grunts and telephones and dim backtalk, he was spare and rich simultaneously.

"Criminal Minded" contains samples from Syl Johnson's "Different Strokes" and Trouble Funk's "Let's Get Small", and begins with a melodic and lyrical interpolation of the Beatles' "Hey Jude".