Posted on 09/13/2005

 

The partners in crime Tek and Steele are back on the grind. With their shiny new LP Reloaded strapped down on the side, it's time for another "Sound Bwoy Bureill". Duck down… "Cocoaz Brovaz are dead, murdered by Smif-N-Wessun." In their first full-length appearance since 1998's The Rude Awakening, the Brooklyn duo Tek and Steele have served up the last, and definitely the strongest, of three summer releases from the Boot Camp Clik. To be fair, Boot Camp's 2005 campaign is called the "Triple Threat" for a reason: with Reloaded, Sean Price's Monkeybarz, and the Buckshot-9th Wonder collabo Chemistry, listeners are being given three different takes on the Boot Camp sound. While some listeners might prefer the coherence of Chemistry or the weird, menacing wit of Monkeybarz, Smif-N-Wessun's latest offers the tightest, most interesting package: a team-produced album high on energy and low on filler. Granted, you'll have to accept loads of gun talk and a few skippable tracks, but you'll hear and feel it's worth it.

After a non-descript opener ("Reloaded"), Tek and Steele launch into a series of straight hits. On the dark, deep-stringed "The Truth", the duo rhymes line-for-line over a furious, aggressive track that culminates in a frenzied hook of scratched records and echoed vocals. "My Timbz Do Work" is the BCC's long-overdue ode to their favorite footwear, while "Gunn Rap" is a bluesy exercise in synchronized spitting. These three strong cuts set the listener for one of Reloaded's true gems, "Toolz of the Trade", where the Cocoa Bs flip their opening lines from Talib Kweli's "Gun Music" into the hook for an eerie, muddy gun ode.

Things slow down briefly with the comparatively straightforward "Sick ‘Em Son" and "War", before jumping off again with the dead prez joint, "Warriorz Heart". While the percussion clinks and thumps in the background, Tek and Steele display the political edge that has been cropping up in their recent mixtape work. An element of social protest has always been present in their lyrics; even seemingly lighthearted tracks like "Bucktown" were built around the blunted reflections on the tensions between police and black city dwellers ("pigs look me up and down with a frown / is it because I'm brown or is it because I'm from Bucktown?"). But on Reloaded, Steele lets loose with a verse that outshines even the normally outspoken dpz: "They claim that we thugs bound for incarceration / But brothers' love overcomes oppressive domination / From plantations straight to four-corner hustlers' college / In the projects it's constant revolution and progress."

The frenetic "City of Godz" (featuring Buckshot) and the smooth "U Undastand Me" (with the Originoo Gunn Clappaz's Starang Wondah), more than make up for the average "Here I Stand" and launch listeners into Reloaded's second key track, "Get Back". Alongside Sean Price, Tek and Steele serve up a BCC riff on NaS's "One Mic", conveying real anger and aggression over a trippy, grimy Moss beat. The solid but unspectacular "Hustler's Prayer" and "PNC Boyz" finally lead into the disc's last gem, "Crystal Stair". After an album full of heat, Kweli joins Tek and Steele over a thick, triumphant Beatminerz loop to conclude Reloaded on the perfect note.

While Reloaded sounds great on its own merits, it's earned a special place in the Boot Camp catalog for capturing the excitement and freshness of a Boot Camp live show in ways that other Clik releases haven't. As the album spun, I couldn't help but think back to the park jam the BCC threw in Brooklyn this past July. When Tek and Steele get busy on "Gunn Rap"…

Tek (fast): "And when it's poppin' on the block only option is to pop Barettas

teele (fast): Don't stop ‘til the cops come get us, Won't stop ‘til my pockets' better.

ek (slow): Wear a mask-o / HEEELLL NO we blow at the po-po

nbsp;                40 cal my choice of weapon

teele (slow):                 You already knooooow!"

You can see Tek perched atop a three-foot high stack speaker, rocking it for the hometown crowd; you can hear Steele screaming the intro to "And So". I might have only been one of eight people in the audience who was born in 1982 or later (thanks, Jin), but I knew I was experiencing something major that night. Rustee Juxx brought out his seven-year old son as his hypeman. Heltah Skeltah reunited to kick "Operation Lockdown." When the power cut out, Rock freestyled a capella in the dark.

Quadriplegics were carried to this show on stretchers.

The least YOU can do is put your Timbz to work and pick up Reloaded.