In the fall of 1993, Black Moon blessed the hip-hop world with one of the genre’s most underappreciated classic albums, Enta Da Stage. You could blame it on timing, as the following month, The Wu-Tang Clan would drop their debut album (Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)) on the same day as A Tribe Called Quest’s Midnight Marauders. And if that wasn’t a big enough whammy, just two weeks later, Snoop would unleash his phenomenal debut album, Doggystyle, into the universe. All three of these mammoth releases may have overshadowed Enta Da Stage, but there was no denying the winning combination of Da Beatminerz dusted jazzy hardcore boom-bap production, paired with Buckshot’s versatile rhyming style. Black Moon would also use Enta Da Stage to introduce the first leg of their extended crew, Boot Camp Clik, with the eponymous track “Black Smif-N-Wessun.” Steele-N-Tek would build on that opportunity, releasing their phenomenal debut album, Dah Shinin’, at the beginning of ‘95. The Clik would continue to grow in ‘96 with debuts from Heltah Skeltah and Originoo Gunn Clappaz, and they would help birth the rap career of the Representativz, who would make cameos on both groups’ albums. It would only be a matter of time before the Boot Camp Clik would form like Voltron for a full-length crew album, releasing the first one in 1997, For The People.

Da Beatminerz were completely responsible for the brilliant production on Enta Da Stage and Dah Shinin’ and contributed to both Nocturnal and Da Storm. Their name is nowhere to be found in the For The People liner notes. Instead, a handful of guest producers handle the music for the album’s fourteen tracks. For The People received mediocre reviews (including a 3 1/2 mic rating from The Source) and peaked at 15 on the US Billboard 200.

I walked into this review completely blind. I bought a used CD copy of For The People many moons ago without being familiar with any of the album’s tracks. But if Buckshot, Smif-N-Wessun, and Heltah Skeltah are involved, there’s gotta be some heat on it.

1-900 Get Da Boot – Over the instrumental from O.G.C.’s “Da Storm,” K.I.M. Tha Original leads off a series of voicemails left by fans showering Boot Camp Clik with love, praise, and appreciation. In return, they get a production credit in the liner notes (“Produced by the People”). How cute. The album is full of fan voicemails placed between tracks, which I won’t mention each time they pop up. Just know that they exist.

Down By Law – Tony Touch joins Smif-N-Wessun, Buckshot, Heltah Skeltah, Dru Ha, Starang, and Top Dog (which the liner notes hi-lariously credit as “Everyone & their mother”) for this warm-up session. It was refreshing to hear them temporarily park their hardcore personas, letting their guards down to have genuine fun, which you can’t help but do over Fab Five Freddy’s classic “Down By Law” instrumental that has party vibes dripping all over it.

Night Riders – Buckshot, Tek, and Steele give their interpretation of midnight marauding as they discuss the jackers looking for someone to victimize after dark. The criminal mood is set by eerie flute notes and silky guitar play, complemented by LaVoice, who gives a solid vocal performance on the hook. LaVoice’s record-ending adlibs lose focus on the song’s theme, and Buckshot’s short soliloquy on change was super random, but I still enjoyed this one. Those closing guitar licks from an uncredited someone are fire.

Headz Are Reddee Pt. II – Technically, this isn’t a sequel, as its predecessor, originally released on the New Jersey Drive Soundtrack, was titled “Headz Ain’t Redee,” but you get their drift. All the participants from “Headz Ain’t Ready” (OGC, Smif-N-Wessun, Heltah Skeltah, and Buckshot, also known as The Great 8) return to participate on this record, and everyone sounds motivated and, um, ready. BJ Swan and Mark “Boogie” Brown provide a hard instrumental intertwined with ill-key riffs that make the bars sound tougher.

Watch Your Step – The Representativz (Supreme The Eloheem and Lidu Rock) show up for the first time on For The People. The two emcees take turns punching at the string-laden backdrop while Lidu Rock’s big brother, Rock, and Louieville Sluggah take care of hook duties. I wasn’t crazy about this one, but still, a decent record.

Illa Noyz – Illa Noyz is the little brother to Sean Price, aka Ruck, and one of the lesser-known members of the BCC. Based on the song title, you’d think this would be an Illa Noyz solo record, but big bro and his partner in crime, Rock, bogart their way onto the track, which ends up being a blessing. Illa Noyz sounds decent on the mic, but Ruck and Rock were much more seasoned at this emcee thing, and they sound great rhyming over the odd bass line and quirky synth chords.

Rag Time – Ragtime is a heavily piano-driven musical style popular in the States in the early 1900s (if you need a reference point, Google Scott Joplin’s “The Entertainer.” It’s probably the most recognizable rag record). On this record, Steele, Mada Rocka, Buckshot, and LS attempt to revive the genre and fail, epically. It’s not their fault, as all four put their best foot (or feet) forward. But there’s only so much you can do with the drab backing music that Boogie Brown provides on this track.

Blackout – This one is dedicated to the art of getting so high and drunk that you blackout. BJ Swan, Rock, Starang, Louieville, Supreme, Steele, and Illa Noyz are the participants in this low vibrational affair that did nothing for me.

Ohkeedoke – This record features MS (short for Man Slaughter, not multiple sclerosis), Starang, and Tek getting their tough guy rah-rah on and letting all opposition know they’re not for play-play. Starang takes what sounds like a subtle shot at Ice Cube during his last verse (“Niggas say, “Starang smooth,” just like ice without cubes, I’m nice without dude, on my muthafuckin’ track), which left me wondering where the potential beef stemmed from. All three emcees spit quality verses, but EZ Elpee’s militant bass line, paired with tribal drums, sounds phenomenal. This is definitely one of the highlights of For The People.

Rugged Terrain – Top Dog, Twanie Ranks, and Smif-N-Wessun use this rugged terrain to get off their dancehall shit. Unless something thick is whining her body to it, I never need to hear this song again.

The Dugout – Louisville Sluggah gets the first and only solo record on For The People with this one (Illa Noyz made us believe his eponymous record earlier in the sequencing was a solo joint until Heltah Skeltah showed up on it). Louieville slings his Shakespearean-esque cadenced rhymes all over the slow rolling but very hard instrumental that makes me one to do the Biz Dance. Clever song title and Buckshot’s flip of Richard Berry’s “Louie Louie” for the hook was catchy.

Go For Yours – I’ll be honest with y’all. This song is the first time I’ve ever heard of The B.T.J.’s. The three-man crew, comprised of D. Real, El Sha, and Lil Knock, get blessed with a delectable instrumental, courtesy of Shawn J. Period, that sounds like melodic drops of audio manna falling from heaven.

Likkle Youth Man Dem (Bonus Track) – Tek-N-Steele share their perspective as the seasoned O.G.s dropping gems on the young boys, O.G.C., who rebuttal their mentors’ wisdom from the youth’s point of view. I enjoyed their exchange, but it’s the warm Caribbean vibes in the Buckshot/Boogie Brown-produced instrumental that make this a bonafide feel-good groove.

Last Time – BCC closes For The People with a contrived song of encouragement. Buckshot, BJ Swan, and Steele each get off a verse sharing their struggles and disappointments, vowing to never go through either again, which is completely detached from reality, but whatever. A group called FLOW harmonizes on the hook over cute guitar plucks and tender strings that all sound way too soft for Buckshot and Steele to rap over. The album ends with one last fan voicemail from a dude who claims to be “the nicest nigga in Nebraska” and clearly thinks Sean Price is the nicest member in the BCC.

I’ll be honest. During my first few listens to For The People, I missed Da Beatminerz’s rugged production that soundtracked some of my favorite records on Enta Da Stage, Dah Shinin’, and some of the records they produced for the rest of the Clik. But the more I listened to the album, I began to appreciate the new direction they were taking things sonically. A handful of the instrumentals on For The People fall flat on their faces, but a sizable chunk of the production works. The music is more layered, cleaner, and includes more live instrumentation and singing than BCC fans may have been accustomed to, but it still maintains some of the grime and grit that came with Da Beatminerz’s dusty boom-bap sound. The subtle musical changes feel more like natural evolution than chasing the current trends and waves of time.

The music may have changed a bit, but Buckshot and the team keep the content hardcore and raw for the most part. Buckshot doesn’t sound nearly as impressive as he did on Enta Da Stage (or the more recent 60 Minutes Of Funk two-piece, “No Joke/Follow Me”), but he, Heltah Skeltah, and Smif-N-Wessun make sure to maintain the lyrical integrity that the Boot Camp brand is known for. Even the B and C-tier BCC soldiers put their best feet forward, some faring better than others, but none embarrass themselves.

When the conversation of legendary crews comes up, you often hear the same names mentioned: Juice Crew. N.W.A. Hit Squad. Native Tongue. Wu-Tang Clan. Death Row. Bad Boy. You rarely hear Boot Camp Clik’s name mentioned in the discussion, and there might be some merit to that. None of the BCC groups have had great commercial success or massive hit records that crossed over to a pop audience. I don’t think that was ever their goal. The BCC might not be a top-tier hip-hop collective, but they’ve gained the respect of their peers and the heads, aka the people, and that’s who they do it for. For The People is far from classic, but there’s enough entertaining material to make it a worthy listen.

-Deedub
Follow me on Instagram @damontimeisillmatic