Ten-Year Itch

Editor’s Note: Ten-Year Itch is a weekly column focusing on a film or album at least ten years old and deserving of a second look.

Smif-N-Wessun could go around the country giving lectures to aspiring emcees on selecting a correct moniker.

Tek and Steele, the two artists making up the New York city rap duo dropped one of the 90s best east coast rap records in 1995 with “Dah Shinin’.” This album however, seems to be forgotten when the decade gets discussed, while artists like Wu-Tang and Biggie normally get all the shine.

The album’s musical content surely is not to blame, but the group being forced to change its name most likely should. Gun manufacturer Smith and Wesson was not too keen on being associated with the crime tales and marijuana fixations of the group, forcing the two emcees to drop the name. The rappers resurfaced two years later as Cocoa Brovaz.

Having a classic album that was no longer able to be on shelves during the rest of the decade it was released hindered its spot in the hip-hop lexicon. Thanks to the Internet and a renewed interest in mid 90s east coast hip-hop sounds infiltrating rap music, it is the right time to revisit this crime-rap masterpiece.

Tek and Steele were and are more than admirable emcees, but it is the production squad of Da Beatminerz and its work here making these tracks legendary.

The album’s production sets itself apart from its contemporaries from the same time by doing a lot of the same things, but with a different vibe. Instead of the kung fu samples favored by Wu-Tang, beat-smith RZA, or Puffy’s use of more modern samples, Da Beatminerz intertwined bottom-scraping bass lines and gloomy jazz samples. The hazy beats give the perfect backdrop to the rhymes about a life of rough and tumble crime. This is midnight music; it just does not sound the same when the sun is shining. The beats are dark, dirty and paved with a blanket of paranoia.

The production of Da Beatminerz should be heralded here, but Tek and Steele do provide the best of work of their careers. Rapping about what the rest of their peers were at the same time, the two give a fresh and at times frightening take on gunplay and drug use. The album is full of warnings to the group’s haters and law enforcement, giving detractors a chance to think before crossing the two emcees.

Another aspect setting the album apart is the sense of unity between the two members. The emcees pepper the tracks with lines about each other, giving a sense they would do anything to ensure each other’s safety, no matter what the consequences are.

Smif-N-Wessun may not have had the mic skills of some Wu-Tang members or the marketing push Biggie had, but “Dah Shinin’” deserves to be mentioned with those two artists’ classic albums.

Luke McCormick can be reached at 536-3311 ext. 275