Published: Monday - October 29, 2007
Words by Mayumi Jones
Smif-N-Wessun (Photo: Duckdown Records)
After being dropped from Priority Records, enduring a drawn out courtroom battle, and lackluster sales from their last albums, Brooklyn natives Tek and Steele appear armed and ready to finally bring to the masses that same raw energy that made Smif-N-Wessun and the Boot Camp Click one of the most influential rap groups in music history. While lending their vocals to numerous collaborative efforts as well as maintaining Bucktown USA, an internet radio show which Steele fervently hosts himself, they have managed to remain fixtures on the underground rap circuit for many years. However, many fans cannot be wronged for wondering why these same artists who showed such earlier promise seemed to just slip right off the scene. After all, it was these same self proclaimed "nappy headz" that brought us the time tested hit "Bucktown" with its infectious hardcore riff, as well as the unapologetic rude-boy anthem "Sound Bwoy Bureill."
Truth be told, they weren't exactly missing in action as much as they were caught up in a mess of copyright red tape. When Smif-N-Wessun were served with a "cease and desist" order by the firearms company of the same name in 1996, the duo began referring to themselves as "Cocoa Brovas" in an attempt to avoid a costly lawsuit.
With their fourth album, Smif-N-Wessun: The Album, the duo is truly ready to get it on, and keep heads bopping and reminiscing to a time where the hip-hop mantle was undisputedly the sole property of New York City.
Ballerstatus.com: Now, initially when you first came out and debuted in '93, what do you think the masses were so receptive to your particular sound?
Tek: They gravitated to us because we had a sound like EPMD and the next best thing after that which we was handed the torch for Smif-N-Wessun. At that time we had Black Moon also who had a great song, but who got the props. They had no choice but to accept it right then and there.
Ballerstatus.com: The way you see hip-hop going, what do you feel about the comparison of the state of hip-hop today as to when you first arrived on the scene?
Steele: Well, I mean it's really hard to compare the two because the opportunities that are around now wasn't around when we came into the game. One thing that is important is what we learned from then to now -- which is how to apply ourselves as business men without losing our creative edge. You have a lot of cats that are coming out in the whole light of all of the accessory phase... I like to say, "this is an accessory phase." You can take a cat and put a chain on him, put some bling on him, put all kinds of hip-hop gear on him and you have someone that you might be able to promote as an artist, but it takes them a couple of... You gotta go through some sh-- to withstand this game.
As far as I see now, I'm not saying that some of the dudes out now, making music, haven't put in work, but in a couple of years we'll soon see. Smif-N-Wessun has been in the game for over ten years. Like I said, this is our fourth album and we've been able to maintain a certain consistency, being able to endure the times, being able to change with the times and not let the times change you. That's the point of what's necessary in the game. I mean there is a few people who are conscious of that. Make sure that the music they put out isn't this theme that is one hit wonders, or studio gangsters, or I like to say "ring tone records" and sh-- like that. There are actually a handful of people who are conscious and they understand the importance of making sure that the legacy is solidified.
Ballerstatus.com: I look back and I see hip-hop back in the day, when you were on the scene, hip-hop was more conscious and people respected conscious hip-hop...
Steele: I think that, let me just say that I don't think a lot of the hip-hop that was coming out in the 90s was conscious. I just think that the energy was a conscious energy and I think that we just kind of embraced what was going on entirely. It wasn't until later on that cats began to now break into a new ground, like each time you go around in a circle, you make a new ground. In making that new ground, you have new things to conquer. So now, we got people who are coming into this game as teenagers and they gotta learn how to be business men and business women, and the only roles they have to follow are the artists they followed before them. So we can even say "Y'all ain't doing it right" or we can go to them and be like "What kinda sh-- was with that first song you put out?" But like I said most of these cats be paying attention and they studied the game and grew up on the side of salvation. Just like, you know, a lot of us before we grew up on the Public Enemies, the EPMD's, the Ice-T's, the Too Shorts... just embracing all forms from coast to coast and being able to take that and spew it back out, but still have your own identity within all of that. I mean, like now, it's all out more and it's kind of confusing. When you are conscious you won't be misled because you will know that's for you.
Ballerstatus.com: Where does the Jamaican or Patois reference in your music derive from?
Tek: Oh that's family.
Ballerstatus.com: So are you of Jamaican descent?
Tek: Yup, we're Jamaican mon!
Ballerstatus.com: Seeing the recent success of songs like "One Blood" and collaborations with Barrington Levy and Capleton, would you say that you were one of the first to incorporate Jamaican styles of music into hip-hop music itself?
Tek: I mean we definitely had a hand in it, one of the first. We have to go back to the teacher being KRS-One and people like Just Ice. From there, we was definitely leading the way of doing it once we dropped our thing.
Ballerstatus.com: Being that you as a group were one of the first to collaborate reggae into hip-hop, do you feel that you paved the road for artists who use it today?
Steele: Yeah, we definitely paved the road with a lot of things that we had set before, Buckshot with his flow... Just having the flow in the rhyme, instead of just having a hard core rap style and us with the Caribbean influence and a lot of different things. That is something that we all get from hip-hop. We're all able to get something from it, take it back home, have our little rendition of it and bring it back in. Then you have another mixture, another phase of the game. Ever going, ever flowing baby.
Ballerstatus.com: Do you believe that artists have a responsibility to the public as far as education and leading the people who do look up to them in a positive direction or do you think that music is more so simply an outlet or expression?
Tek: Well, I mean it's definitely a form or outlet or expression, but it's also each one teach one. So I guess us being the artist or whatever, the artist is can give a person a message, which a lot of people don't want to hear a message in their music, some want to hear substance, some want to hear certain things... but the artist can relay that message across in a way that they are not being fogly mugley or preacher type, than I think it's appreciated. The people as a whole or as the masses itself or as community should always have beyond each one teach one to uplift the community and keep it reproducing and doing what it does.
Steele: I think that we are all accountable; we are the voice of the voices. I think that's why so many people across the world embrace hip-hop and it has so much power and so much influence over our youth over the urban communities across the world. I think that each individual involved who touches the mic has accountability to the words they say. What Kanye's doing on MTV, he had to come back and now he can't, so to speak there have been a lot of others who have done the same thing. Through all our travels, we might make statements or make songs about it, but at the same time, this is where our heart lies if there is something that we feel that is the reason for our expression. Yeah, truth says we have responsibilities, but the most responsibility comes to always express the truth, always express the real, the sh-- that nobody wants to hear. We say these things that may seem unorthodox or strike a certain cord and we start to get a dialogue going on about why you feel that way or why is it like this in particular areas or why do people think like this.
I'll say that music is known throughout the people to be a natural healer and it's also a way that we communicate with our ancestors and not to get too deep, but just to show the parallel side where we communicate with people across the world that we are in tune with. In a universal sense, we are all related, because we may go through a particular struggle -- we may not be from the same background, the same ethnic background, or the same religious background or bloodline -- but the certain thing is we alive and we together and through the music we find that.
Ballerstatus.com: Back in '96 when all the legalities were going on with the name Smif-N-Wessun and you changed your name to Cocoa Brovaz and regained the right to hold that name in 2005. Was there a large fight to get the name back?
Tek: It was a constant fight, a long drawn out fight, headaches involved and tempers flaring and everything. But we are Smif-N-Wessun, so it has to be.
Ballerstatus.com: Did that last all the way from 1996-2005?
Tek: Yeah, it lasted up to the exact last moment on the clock when we had the name Smif-N-Wessun.
Ballerstatus.com: What is it that gives you the drive to succeed and survive through those types of hard times and through those types of fights?
Tek: I would say we're each others driving force to do what we do, and just to be able to be in the position to do what we're doing. The most high and our families is what keep us grounded and keep us moving and keep that driving force behind us. Each other is the battery in the back, from the hood to the moms and pops stores and everything else that's around that are like "Yo, we love Smif-N-Wessun and what you do, we need you." That's what keeps us going... and the money is good.
Steele: Family, friends and the hunger never died... the fire never went out. You have a love for what you do. If you have a love for what you love, you never let that love die and I think having a love for the craft and having family support, always keeping our ear to the street. Having people come to us in whatever scenario, letting us know that we are necessary and we are appreciated and just taking that and using that for strength.
Ballerstatus.com: What became of and will there be any more Boot Camp Click collaborations?
Tek: Oh yeah, of course. We just finished the album. The Smif-N-Wessun album is released on Duck Down Records, which is out now. We got our boy Rock from Heltah Skeltah on there. So collaborations are always being done together.
Ballerstatus.com: What are your hopes for the album?
Tek: Our hopes for the album is just that people will accept it with open mind and open heart and appreciate the art/craft for the art work and the hard work and time that we put into it.
Ballerstatus.com: What direction do you see your new album going, or what direction is it coming from in your eyes?
Steele: Well, the direction as a new album is our experience of hip-hop, the past decade and two decades or a decade and a half before that and just observing the game before. The direction we're trying to put it in leads, or is initially our contribution, to the things that we've experienced and the young cats that's listening to music and wondering what's going on with the legacy of hip-hop.
Ballerstatus.com: Much of your early songs utilized a slow flow delivery. Is this something we should be expecting for the new album?
Steele: I mean, we always kind of step to the similar methods that we use, but me and my partner, we are swift and changeable. We've kinda always had the ability to switch up our styles. But when you listen to this album, it will just show you the growth and development as far as lyrical content, delivery, just our appreciation illustrated. Everything that we do now is an addition to what we was doing before, so it's not really that different. It's just taking what we've learned from before, in all our travels going across the world, coming from Brooklyn, a small little borough in a big city, and moving all through States, moving all across the globe and just trying to show our appreciation for the craft. So when you listen to the songs, the lyrical content, you definitely have to identify with our consciousness that you have to have some skill in your deliveries and things of that nature. So people know that you mean what you say, and gotta make the people feel the sh--, you know? That's always been a key point for us.
Ballerstatus.com: Do you have a personal favorite song off your new CD?
Steele: Well, I got a couple, but I would say that one of my favorites right now is the first song on the album. It's called "I See The Light," which is one of my favorites because it's a song about determination, you know, never giving up, continuing to push forward in the things that you believe in.
Ballerstatus.com: Is there one song that best represents Smif-N-Wessun or you as an individual from all the songs you've made in your career?
Steele: One song that we made in all our history... I would have to say, if I had to pick one song, it would be a feature that we did with Mary J Blige. The I love you song, "I Shine You Shine," that would be the one that best describes in an overall perspective.
Ballerstatus.com: What are your goals for future endeavors? Tek said you all would be touring the US, Canada and Japan, what are your goals after that? Are you expecting to put out more music?
Steele: Yeah, we gonna definitely put out more music. I have a company that I'm trying to expose to the world, called Bucktown USA Entertainment. I have a television show that I've been doing, this is the third year. We're about to celebrate the third year strong. It's a hip-hop variety show that I've been doing with my partner, Cynical, who used to work with 88 Hip Hop. Also, working with a couple of artists, a couple neighborhood cats. It's like a training course that started for a couple cats who really considering getting into this hip-hop game. One of the things that's missing is the artist development, when a cat comes into the game that development is important. So we got something that we working on in the hood, it's just a baby. Right now we're formulating it. We got a couple of artists that we're running through training and what not. "A Making The Band" kinda situation, but a little different, on some hood sh--.
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