Public Enemy, Eric B. & Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Ice T, EPMD, NWA, Boogie Down Productions and a host of other artists released some of their best material that year, the epicenter of rap music's "Golden Era." Though Stet's debut album, 1986's On Fire, was a solid release that was well received, it dropped at the end of one era and the start of another. Recording techniques, equipment and rhyme cadences were all just changing. In Full Gear saw the group on the cutting edge of production, subject matter, concepts and live performance.

Although it wasn't included on the album, the song and video for the anti-apartheid anthem "A.F.R.I.C.A." was released in 1987, giving us a small sample of the level of maturity that we could expect on In Full Gear in a few months. "A.F.R.I.C.A.," with its infectious chanted hook, taught listeners more about the South African system of apartheid in its four minutes and eleven seconds than public school ever did. This single and Stet's expanded world outlook, (which would soon be revealed on In Full Gear), could be attributed to the band's world travels.

"With 'On Fire' we hadn't gone on tour," frontman Daddy-O told ROCK THE BELLS. "The first tour that Stetsasonic ever went on was overseas. Dave Funkenklein, God bless the dead, took us overseas. So by the time we did In Full Gear, we had done three overseas runs. There was this plethora of things to talk and rap about on that album."

The lead single from In Full Gear was the power-packed "Sally"/"DBC Let The Music Play." "Sally," which has become one of the group's signature songs, was produced by group member Fruitkwan and began as a track that featured "vocal only" breakbeats like "Heaven & Hell," "Keep Your Distance" and "Let A Woman Be A Woman." Daddy-O planned to write a song where those vocal pieces of the breakbeats completed the rhymes, and he explained how the song morphed into what it became.

"We learned from [engineer] Bob Power to give our ears a break when recording," he says. "During one of those ear breaks, we left the studio and Fruitkwan got on the drum machine. When we came back, the beat for 'Sally' was playing. It sounded so good with the Dyke & The Blazers ['Let A Woman Be A Woman'] sample, that we wrote a whole song to that—and abandoned the idea to use the other vocal samples."

In addition to their subject matter, Stet matured musically on In Full Gear. According to Daddy-O, their world travels were also responsible for the funkier sound on the project.

"We were a seven-man group, with four producers, and we were sample-based," he recalled. "Prince Paul, DBC, me and Bobby were diggin' in the crates heavy when we were overseas. We really got into a real groove on this album, where On Fire was all drum machines. We really got into a synchronicity with Paul from all the touring that we did, and it really came through on the album. Stetsasonic are scientists, and we had a bigger budget on this album—so we explored more sounds."

Songs that tackle current issues don't always turn out to be hits, but "Talkin' All That Jazz" is, not only the biggest song on In Full Gear, it's one of Stets' biggest period. Over a sample of Lonnie Liston Smith's "Expansions," the band defended the practice of sampling, which is at the core of Hip-Hop production, and has always been the process by which rap records were made, in some form or fashion. The song was actually a response to the late jazz artist James Mtume and his critiques of the technique at the time. Ironically, the group sampled a small portion of Mtume's 1983 hit "Juicy Fruit" on the song. The video for "All That Jazz" was a hit on the newly-formed Yo! MTV Raps, catapulting the single and album to even further success.

Tommy Boy Records President Monica Lynch shared with ROCK THE BELLS the experience of shooting the album cover for In Full Gear.

"I remember going out to Fulton Street in Brooklyn on a quiet Sunday morning with photographer Janette Beckman," says Lynch. " Who I'd hired to shoot the album cover. The guys were all rocking matching white tracksuits and fresh white kicks. I can't make out the brand. I think the tracksuits were Troop—they repped hard for Troop back then. One of the most fun shots, which appears on the back cover, was taken in front of the Stetson hat store. The cover shot was taken in East New York."

Like many full-length rap albums at the time, In Full Gear checked many boxes. Socially, there was "Freedom or Death," a Daddy-O solo track, which was very reminiscent of a Last Poets track; complete with bongos and Daddy-O's spoken word cadence and call to war in response to the racial strife of the time. "Float On," a ballad featuring their labelmates The Force MDs, was essentially a remake of "Float On" by The Floaters. Like the Floaters, Stet's version was a favorite on urban radios quiet storm format. Miami bass music had made its mark around the nation in 1988, and Stet's "Miami Bass" served as a homage to the genre.

"Stet Troop 88," "Pen And Paper," "In Full Gear" and "This Is it Y'all" encapsulate the energy that is Stet as a collective. "Music for the Stetfully Insane" gave a preview of the demented greatness that Prince Paul was cooking up with De La Soul. "Who Daddy-O turned me on to," Monica Lynch revealed.

If 1988 is recorded rap's greatest year, then Stetsasonic delivered a project that contributed to its greatness.