A reminder why the Boston-born, Brooklyn-based MC was much more than just the monotone stylist behind DJ Premier’s best beats.

Will Hagle is fully clad and glad. In 1990, Chrysalis Records’s biggest hit was Sinéad O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U.” Although the label was based in England and had found most of its success with artists like Billy Idol and Blondie, it had recently acquired Gang Starr, the then-fledgling hip-hop duo from America’s East Coast. […]