Heds and Dreds: Smif-n-Wessun and the Caribbean Influence on Hip-Hop

Words by Jesse Serwer, Photos by Fubz

For as long as I’ve been on the LargeUp team, we’ve discussed launching a column that would highlight Caribbean music’s influence on hip-hop. It’s a topic we’ve touched upon in various ways but which still remains an under-documented phenomenon, despite the huge role reggae played in the formation of hip-hop in the ’70s and in then again in its late ’80s and mid ’90s progressions. The name “Heds and Dreds” comes from a little-known album cut from Youngest In Charge, the classic debut album by Brooklyn-Jamaican MC Special Ed. It’s one of the greatest attempts at deejay chatting by an American MC  but it has mostly been forgotten by history, a footnote on an overlooked and very underrated album.

Special Ed aside, there’s perhaps no better place to start our trip through the reggae/rap soundclash than with the music of Smif-n-Wessun, a group who, though not from the Caribbean themselves, have repped the prevailing culture of their native Central Brooklyn for more than a decade and a half with their convincing patois flows, love for dancehall, and collaborations with Bounty Killer, Eek-A-Mouse and more. Tek and Steele drop a new album tomorrow called Monumental (buy it on iTunes) and it’s produced entirely by Pete Rock. A Jamaican himself, the Chocolate Boy Wonder of course slid West Indian spices into “This One,” featuring Jahdan and Top Dog of OGC:

Smif N Wessun—This One feat. Top Dog & Jahdan Blakkamore of Noble Society

Read below for a breakdown of all of Smif-n-Wessun’s most memorable Caribbean-flavored tunes, including “This One,” and visit us again tomorrow for an exclusive interview with Tek and Steele, on their respective introductions to dancehall, the making of the classic “Sound Bwoy Bureill,” working with Pete Rock on the new album, and more. And if you’re in NYC tomorrow, stop by the Monumental release party at Tammany Hall: It also doubles as an exhibition of photos—some of which you can see here—taken during the recording of the album by LargeUp’s own Fubz.

“Sound Bwoy Bureill” (Dah Shinin’, 1995)

From the opener “Timz N Hood Check” to the definitive single “Bucktown,” Smif-n-Wessun’s seminal 1994 debut Dah Shinin’ was stacked with patois , paraphrased dancehall lyrics and other sonic (see producers Da Beatminerz’ dub-influenced filtering on tracks like “K.I.M. [Keep It Movin]”) and lyrical cues that spoke directly to the Brooklyn massive, but also sounded pretty damn cool to hip-hop heads who wouldn’t know a dread from a baldhead. “Sound Bwoy Bureill” was the apotheosis of this aesthetic, employing the terminology of the soundclash (“Sound bwoy you got nuff reason to worry/Comin’ with my troops we about to bury/Better pack your dubs and move off in a hurry/Ease off, seen”) in a way that gave the track a distinctive duality. Those literate in sound system culture recognized this language as figurative, while the vast majority of listeners saw them as literal threats.

Right from the beginning the track sounded like nothing else in hip-hop at the time, starting with high-pitched threats seemingly lifted from a vintage soundclash tape (but was actually an uncredited Beatminerz associate). Making his first appearance on wax, Steele’s younger brother Top Dog (later of Originoo Gunn Clappaz) kicked off the lyrical proceedings by quoting from Buju Banton’s controversial “Boom Bye Bye,” setting the tone for similarly flavored rhymes from Tek, Steele and OGC’s Starang Wondah. The dark, high-energy video featured an alternative mix that added one of the first known appearances of LargeUp family member Jahdan Blakkamoore (who was then going by “The Blakheart Skavenger”), and reconstituted rhymes from Tek, Steele, Top Dog and Starang.

“Off The Wall” feat. Jahdan and Professor X; “Memorial” feat. Eek-A-Mouse; (The Rude Awakening, 1998)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlI_WSm_EFI

A lawsuit from gunmakers Smith and Wesson forced Tek and Steele to re-dub themselves Cocoa Brovaz between the release of Dah Shinin’ and their sophomore LP, The Rude Awakening. To help explain their predicament, the duo enlisted Jahdan Blakkamoore (and Professor X of the X-Clan) to chant down Babylon on album opener “Off The Wall.” More memorably, they scored a multi-layered vocal performance from the colorful Eek-A-Mouse on “Memorial,” a haunting “fallen soldiers”-type track that featured Mouse’s high-pitched whine and Tek and Steele’s memorable hook: “Oh why oh why oh why, it’s always the good ones that have to die/Oh why oh why oh why, Bob Marley die, Jacob Miller die.”

Bounty Killer feat. Cocoa Brovaz, “It’s A Party” (1998)
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFhDuC3gm8I

After working with The Fugees, Busta Rhymes and Jeru tha Damaja on 1995’s My Experience, Bounty Killer recruited Tek and Steele to collaborate on the crossover single from his 1998 album, Next Millenium. The disco-flavored track, produced by Wyclef and Jerry Wonda, didn’t make much of a splash at the time, but the video makes for a fun enough time capsule.

Steele feat. Eek-A-Mouse, “Wanted” (Duck Down Presents, 1999)
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTF5j4XtyLA

Steele, minus Tek, reunited with Eek-A-Mouse for this ganja tune from the 1999 compilation album Duck Down Presents.

“A Hustler’s Prayer” (Reloaded, 2005)

Following a quiet period in the early 2000s, Tek and Steele re-claimed the Smif-n-Wessun moniker for 2005’s Reloaded. While the album as not among their strongest efforts, this Johnny Osbourne-sampling reunion with Dah Shinin’ producers Da Beatminerz was a clear standout.

“Gotta Say It,” feat. Chukki Starr (The Album, 2007)
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aM2oKqwu-g

2007’s The Album saw Tek and Steele working exclusively with producers from Europe. While they left Brooklyn behind to make the album, they stayed representing the BK soundclash with a pair of dancehall-flavored tunes: the single “Gotta Say It” featuring U.K. singjay Chukki Star (of “Goodas Gal” fame) on the hook and “Gangster’s Prayer,” which featured Sweden’s top reggae act, Million Stylez.

“This One” feat. Top Dog and Jahdan (Monumental, 2011)
Smif N Wessun—This One feat. Top Dog & Jahdan Blakkamore of Noble Society

Pete Rock told HipHopDX that he studied Dah Shinin’ before crafting the beats for Monumental. If any tune from the original has a direct counterpart on the new album it’s “Sound Bwoy Bureill” and “This One,” with its dubby, reggae drum-and-bass sample and dubplate-style intro that sounds suspiciously similar to the one on “Sound Bwoy Bureill” (more on that mystery in our upcoming Smif-n-Wessun interview). Top Dog (quoting his OGC partner Starang Wondah’s “Guns, guns, everyday” line from this nugget) and Jahdan reprise their “Sound Bwoy” roles, while Steele delivers choice lyrical shoutouts to fronto leafs, Flatbush Ave. dollar vans and Steelie Bashment. “This One” isn’t the only Monumental tune with reggae flavor: see the samples on lead track “That’s Hard.”