Yo! Bum Rush the Show

Def Jam and Columbia released the debut in March 1987, with Rick Rubin as executive producer. It was recorded at Spectrum City Studios in Hempstead, New York, and promoted by two singles, Public Enemy No. 1 in March and You're Gonna Get Yours in May. Hank Shocklee and Eric Sadler co-produced and programmed the drums and synthesizers, and Vernon Reid played guitar. The cover shows the group in a dim basement, with Chuck D in white Islamic dress, Professor Griff in a red beret and Flavor Flav's hand over a turntable. It carried the first appearance of the logo, a man in a rifle's crosshairs.

Radio, including most African-American stations, largely ignored it, but it reached 125 on the Billboard Top LPs chart and 28 on Top Black Albums, and it became one of hip hop's fastest-selling records. It went gold in 1994. NME's critics named it the best album of 1987, and it came 14th in Pazz & Jop. Pitchfork's Craig Jenkins later called it a blueprint for what followed, though he noted that it stalled at around 400,000 copies.