Smif-n-Wessun — Dah Shinin'

Iconic debut album by Smif-n-Wessun, a Brooklyn duo formed by Bedford-Stuyvesant rapper Tekomin "Tek" Williams and Brownsville rapper Darrell "Steele" Yates. It inaugurates the start of the Boot Camp Clik collective, whose members are all featured on the disc as guests: Heltah Skeltah, O.G.C. and Buckshot.

Each rapper of the collective participates in the posse track "Cession at da Doghillee", which unfortunately does not stand out among the best songs on the LP. The production is entirely handled by the Beatminerz (mainly DJ Evil Dee & Mr. Walt, as well as Rich Black and Baby Paul), one beat is credited to Steele. Tek & Steele are both competent rappers with regular, slow, fluid flow, they don't have too many technical skills and their lyrics mostly include street life, weed, and that's pretty much everything.

It would be a record like any other if it weren't for the fact that Da Beatminerz are a valid underdog to the title of producer of the year. The boys' set is similar to the Black Moon album a couple of years earlier, with dirty, dusty and hard, often dry and rough midtempo drums, deep bass lines, and a wonderful selection of layered samples from the seventies. A dark, dingy, wet, street sound emerges, typical of the East Coast scene in the mid-nineties, in which Smif-n-Wessun are comfortable delivering bars with a velvety and calm style, constantly accompanied by the MCs of Boot Camp Clik arriving every two tracks: Rock and Buckshot rip their cuts with great performances, and even when the guys from O.G.C. arrive, Tek & Steele seem to be rapping with more confidence between laid-back vibes and Jamaican inflections. Among the few defects present, it exceeds in the quantity of material, approaching around seventy total minutes.

On the sidelines, it's to be appreciated that the tracks were all recorded in one-take. The cover is a tribute to Roy Ayers Ubiquity's album "He's Coming". Released by Wreck, it sells 300.000 physical copies and enters the top five of the rap chart, hailed as one of the best records of the decade by fans and critics in retrospect.

Rating: 8.5/10.