Black Moon - Enta Da Stage
In 1993 the multi-layered world of edgy ghetto-speak had only just started to hijack the minds of the New York ghetto proletariat. Wu Tang Clan were in the course of being propelled to the apex of rap music and the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn was ablaze with whispers about the razor-sharp lyricism of a little known rapper labelled Biggy Smalls.
Perhaps it is because of the aforementioned reasons that upon the release of Enta Da Stage at the tail end of the 93' summer, Buckshot Shorty, 5Ft. Excellerator and DJ Evil Dee were overlooked by hip hop critics desperately searching for something to make the New York scene relevant again. Maybe those same critics just weren’t aware of quite how influential the album would prove to be but one way or another Enta Da Stage didn’t fully procure the props it was deserving of which is a shame since it’s one of the dopest hip hop Lp’s that will ever come out of New York
The uncompromisingly raw production is handled by The Beatminerz whose multi-layered swaths of vintage samples and deep drums propel Buckshot’s virtuosic yet freeform vocals. The beats drift languidly from sharp dissonance to pastel consonance, tethered with effortlessly altering inflection and ever changing internal rhyming structures with Kool G Rap inspired nihilism.
From the unruffled dropped tunings on the excellent Act like U Want It through to the dense low-end textured sampling on Shit iz real and the base heavy climatic finale of U Da Man, the tempo is arrested throughout. Each joint lurches along with a sparring cohesiveness complimented by tales of criminal adventurism and unfeigned street narratives demonstrating that many elements which purportedly made Illmatic original were in fact pre cursed by the lurid street imagery already prevalent on Enta Da Stage.
Unfortunately Black Moon will probably never again make an album to replicate the excellence of Enta The Stage. Their three subsequent efforts suffer from being too prosaic and straightforward, MC 5ft is under lockdown for the next seven years and the Boot Camp Clik show signs of stifling Buckshot’s creativity. Nonetheless, this does nothing to change the fact that Enta The Stage is pure fuego and should be remembered as being one of the most highly influential hip hop albums made.
Discuss.
In 1993 the multi-layered world of edgy ghetto-speak had only just started to hijack the minds of the New York ghetto proletariat. Wu Tang Clan were in the course of being propelled to the apex of rap music and the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn was ablaze with whispers about the razor-sharp lyricism of a little known rapper labelled Biggy Smalls.
Perhaps it is because of the aforementioned reasons that upon the release of Enta Da Stage at the tail end of the 93' summer, Buckshot Shorty, 5Ft. Excellerator and DJ Evil Dee were overlooked by hip hop critics desperately searching for something to make the New York scene relevant again. Maybe those same critics just weren’t aware of quite how influential the album would prove to be but one way or another Enta Da Stage didn’t fully procure the props it was deserving of which is a shame since it’s one of the dopest hip hop Lp’s that will ever come out of New York
The uncompromisingly raw production is handled by The Beatminerz whose multi-layered swaths of vintage samples and deep drums propel Buckshot’s virtuosic yet freeform vocals. The beats drift languidly from sharp dissonance to pastel consonance, tethered with effortlessly altering inflection and ever changing internal rhyming structures with Kool G Rap inspired nihilism.
From the unruffled dropped tunings on the excellent Act like U Want It through to the dense low-end textured sampling on Shit iz real and the base heavy climatic finale of U Da Man, the tempo is arrested throughout. Each joint lurches along with a sparring cohesiveness complimented by tales of criminal adventurism and unfeigned street narratives demonstrating that many elements which purportedly made Illmatic original were in fact pre cursed by the lurid street imagery already prevalent on Enta Da Stage.
Unfortunately Black Moon will probably never again make an album to replicate the excellence of Enta The Stage. Their three subsequent efforts suffer from being too prosaic and straightforward, MC 5ft is under lockdown for the next seven years and the Boot Camp Clik show signs of stifling Buckshot’s creativity. Nonetheless, this does nothing to change the fact that Enta The Stage is pure fuego and should be remembered as being one of the most highly influential hip hop albums made.
Discuss.
