The Album (Mantronix album)

The Album is the debut album by the group Mantronix. The group was a New York-based duo composed of MC Tee and Kurtis Mantronik. Following some live performances together, they recorded a demo tape version of the song "Fresh is the Word" which was noticed by Will Socolov of Sleeping Bag Records. The label released the single and signed the duo to record an album.

From contemporary reviews, American critics J. D. Considine and Ken Tucker predominantly complemented the hip hop production of the album in lukewarm reviews, while it received greater praise from British press magazines Melody Maker and the NME, which included it in their top-10 albums of 1986. A later review, from Pitchfork and AllMusic, predominantly commented again on the production, with AllMusic finding it being closer related to club music than hip hop while Pitchfork noting the album’s production seeming to be a forbearer of Southern bounce and hyphy scenes.