| Young Black Teenagers | |
| Type: | studio album |
| Artist: | Young Black Teenagers |
| Cover: | Young Black Teenagers.jpg |
| Released: | 1991 |
| Recorded: | 1990 |
| Genre: | Rap |
| Length: | 45:40 |
| Label: | S.O.U.L. |
| Producer: | The Bomb Squad |
| Next Title: | Dead Enz Kidz Doin' Lifetime Bidz |
| Next Year: | 1993 |
Young Black Teenagers is the debut album by the American rap group Young Black Teenagers, released in 1991.[1] "Loud & Hard to Hit" peaked at No. 25 on the Hot Rap Singles chart. The album cover art is modeled after the Beatles' With the Beatles.[2] After a negative radio response to the track "Proud to Be Black", MCA Records chose not to use its logo on the packaging.[3] The group supported the album by touring with Public Enemy.[4]
The album was produced by Hank Shocklee and the Bomb Squad and released through Shocklee's S.O.U.L Records label; YBT's Kamron grew up in the same neighborhood as some of the production group's members.[5] [6] "To My Donna" is an answer song directed to Madonna's "Justify My Love", which used a backing rhythm track taken by Lenny Kravitz from a Public Enemy instrumental produced by the Bomb Squad.[7] "Daddy Kalled Me Niga Cause I Likeded to Rhyme" is about dealing with racist parents.[8] "Nobody Knows Kelli" is an ode to Married... with Childrens Kelly Bundy.
Q said that "YBT have a enough power, but their songs edge towards monotony." Entertainment Weekly wrote that YBT "rise to the challenge presented by the high-quality production, and rhyme with conviction".[9] Newsday labeled the album "mall rap".[10] The Calgary Herald opined that "the tunes are tighter and tougher than most rap fare". The St. Petersburg Times concluded that YBT "get past racial barriers, smack dab into a clever, creative form of rap that knows neither limits nor boundaries of color."