The YMD

Originally titled the Yah Mos Def, before pressure from rapper Mos Def persuaded the boys to change their name, the YMD's music was founded on the idea of rapping over old hardcore punk beats, and trying to see how many ways they could intersect the two worlds. Like the very comparable Beastie Boys before them -- in timbre and attitude -- the YMD consider themselves a punk group first and foremost, with much love for Minor Threat and Ian McKaye's brand of assaulting crowds with explosive 19-minute sets of screaming fury. Before forming the duo in 2004, Bryan Poerner had made a...