Smif-N-Wessun Vinyl, CD & Tape

To the outrage of a weapons manufacturer

The Brooklyn duo known as Smif-N-Wessun hails from an East Coast era that produced so much talent that it’s almost treated as a shrine among fans today: In the early ‘90s, MCs Tek and Steele came together under their duo name, which was based on U.S. gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson – along with rapper Buckshot and local rap groups Heltah Skeltah and Originoo Gunn Clappaz, they united shortly thereafter to form a supergroup called Boot Camp Clik. With thus ample backing, Tek and Steele could be heard for the first time on *Black Moon’s* infamous debut record Enta da Stage – there they already gathered a fanbase with their rough flow, and the fans also didn‘t have to wait long for their first own singles: Bucktown, slang for Brooklyn, was celebrated in the underground, the first long-player Da Shinin’ followed in 1995. In the heyday of East Coast rap, the hardcore record soon rose to become a scene classic: it represented Brooklyn in its rawness, on boom-bap beats and between scratch interludes Tek and Steele, together with Boot Camp Clik, described their growing up in the borough. The duo was now getting attention not only from the scene, however, but also from the gun manufacturer whose name they borrowed: Smith & Wesson saw itself rather unrepresented in the lyrically brutal tracks and admonished the two MCs – in the following they had to rename themselves, and from now on they were the Cocoa Brovaz.

An invaluable force in the underground

Although this was a setback, it hardly threw Tek and Steele off track: in 1997 they teamed up with the whole Boot Camp Clik to finally record a joint record: For the People entered the Top 20. Their usual gloomy sound, produced by the producer collective Da Beatminerz, was exchanged here for acoustic guitars and dragging beat samples – this met with divided opinions among fans and made the album a rather controversial work. That same year, Tek and Steele contributed a few tracks to the local basketball documentary Soul in the Hole and then delivered their first record as the Cocoa Brovaz in 1998 with The Rude Awakening: the release slipped just shy of the Top 20, but with the help of production by Da Beatminerz, Sean C and many other producers, they managed to make another solid record that continued the style of their debut work and further established the duo as an invaluable force in the East Coast underground. On the track Black Trump, they even rapped alongside Wu-Tang great Raekwon.

True to their style

Using a sample from the video game Super Mario Bros, Tek and Steele released the single Super Brooklyn, but only unofficially, as they could barely afford the sampling license – but the track went around the underground and generated hype anyway. In the following years it became quiet around the duo, only isolated singles appeared. Only in 2005 they came back with the record Smif ‘n’ Wessun: Reloaded – their original name had survived. And also their style was still the old one – in the first song, they explained their absence: “Mr. Smif and Mr. Wessun, where you been at lately? / On the grind gettin’ mine / You know this business is shady”. Two more records followed with the Boot Camp Clik, and with Smif-n-Wessun: The Album the next duo work, on which they dealed with time-critical topics such as the Iraq War and Black poverty in the U.S. in addition to the usual street rap. For the record Monumental, they teamed up with producer Pete Rock in 2011 for a collaboratively rich record, and several years passed again until the duo released their latest work The All in 2019: the diverse but gritty album shows us Smif-N-Wesson as we know them – true to their style.