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Photo: Albumism
Tomorrow — October 22 — marks 35 years since Black Sheep released their debut album, A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing. And for one brief, shining moment in late 1991, the Queens duo were the biggest thing in the Native Tongues universe.
Andres “Dres” Titus and William “Mr. Lawnge” McLean arrived as the literal and metaphorical Black Sheep of the Native Tongues family — the collective that had already given the world the Jungle Brothers, De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Queen Latifah, and Monie Love. What nobody expected was that their debut would initially outsell the more critically acclaimed sophomore albums from their legendary brethren: A Tribe Called Quest’s The Low End Theory and De La Soul’s De La Soul Is Dead.
The engine was “The Choice Is Yours (Revisited).” From around Thanksgiving 1991 through the end of the school year in 1992, there was arguably no bigger single in the rap universe — the kind of record that defined a season. By April 1992, A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing was certified Gold.
In retrospect, the album represented the absolute apex of the Native Tongues movement — and it remains the only Black Sheep album to fully permeate pop culture’s collective consciousness. Thirty-five years on, “The Choice Is Yours” is still the call-and-response that fills a room.
Read the anniversary retrospective at Albumism.