I Against I

Album review

There are undoubtedly more hardcore punk bands in more cities throughout the world today than there were in 1986. But even as the genre, fertile as ever, has become more global and stylistically broad, there’s perhaps no other album in its lineage that’s as boldly all-encompassing as Bad Brains’ I Against I. Four years earlier, the New York via DC group had codified the essential elements of hardcore, and on I Against I they showed that it was more than just its corporeal makeup: hardcore was a creative ethos, a spirit, a lifestyle, a reaction, and a revolution all at once.

I Against I brought together reggae, funk, metal, R&B, and filtered it through the electric energy of hardcore punk. In 1986, there was no precedent for that kind of thing. Metal was associated with the likes of Kiss and Metallica, not scrappy street punks who were playing to packed clubs of feisty moshers. Cro-Mags, Madball, and every metallic hardcore band thereafter wouldn’t have had a template to work with if not for this record.

But even outside of hardcore, the record is widely revered. Its influence has been tapped by metal titans like Sepultura and The Dillinger Escape Plan, reggae renegades like Sublime, rap-rockers Rage Against The Machine, and it was an obvious inspiration to alt-metal acts like Faith No More and Primus. And that’s not even scratching the surface of its imprint on hip-hop, which is still felt today: last year, rapper Denzel Curry teamed up with Bad Brains to re-record the iconic "Sacred Love."

In the early '80s Bad Brains virtually invented hardcore punk, and on I Against I they tore up their own blueprints and started again from scratch. It’s unlikely that another rock band will ever have a two-pronged impact on music like that ever again. © Eli Enis/Qobuz