By shelz.
It is hard to discuss the best of Hip Hop and not bring up an album or two (or maybe even three) from the Boot Camp Clik. Given, some of their earliest offerings were caught up in a whirlwind of amazing releases being produced during the mid 90’s and therefore shorted the full amount of accolade deserved. However, almost 15 years out you can’t deny that both Smif n Wessun’s Da Shinin and Heltah Skeltah’s Nocturnal can knock track for track with some of the strongest LP’s produced during that New York Hip Hop renaissance. However, this is classic clash, so you know one has to reign supreme.
Standing on the foundation Black Moon’s Enta Da Stage built, Smif n Wessun continued the Boot Camp tradition with no nonsense street lyrics wrapped in the dank, dark track styling of Da Beatminerz with Da Shinin. The crime to rhyme and possibly back to crime shtick was nothing new in Hip-Hop, as most of the albums produced during that time had similar themes. However, Smif n Wessun’s crime while I rhyme thought process dismissed the heavy doses of profundity many rappers were trying to insert in between the gun and drug talk. This album was not your average street life chronicle, not a note from the sidelines. It was too hands on for that. It was more like the perpetrators snatched the news remote van and reported on their own exploits as they occurred.
DJ Evil Dee, Baby Paul and Mr. Walt constructed the perfect ground work for the menacing barrage of weed-fueled aggression and paranoia. The haunting bass lines, horns and well-placed samples not only kept the time but also produced the necessary emotion to help draw you into Smif n Wessun’s world full of kidnapping, whistling bullets, and late night ambushes. Thoughts of murder became reality in “Wontime.” Red eyes and the smell of mary jane wafting off the hoodies explain the reckless abandon on “Shinin … Next Ish” and “Hellucination.” And the entirety of the Boot Camp Clik explained in vivid detail why they should not be flucked with on “Cession at Da Doghillee” including the newest arrivals, Heltah Skeltah.
