Representing Brownsville, Brooklyn, in hip-hop's golden era, rap duo
Smif-N-Wessun first appeared on tracks by
Black Moon, adding dancehall-informed lyrics to already gritty tracks. Along with work as part of
Boot Camp Clik,
Smif-N-Wessun delivered their classic 1995 debut,
Dah Shinin', before opting to change their name due to legal threats from the Smith & Wesson firearm company. They re-emerged as
Cocoa Brovaz in 1996, their signature flows and East Coast-flavored production still intact.
Made up of emcees
Tek (born
Tekomin Williams) and Steele (Darrell Yates),
Smif-N-Wessun split their energy between work with the Brooklyn hip-hop super-posse
Boot Camp Clik and material as a separate entity. Calling on a blend of
Boot Camp Clik's aggressive, militaristic imagery and a rhyme style influenced by Jamaican culture, the powerful duo first appeared in 1993 on
Black Moon's classic debut album,
Enta da Stage. Adding relentless rhymes to tracks "U da Man" and "Black Smif N' Wessun," the pair paved the way for subsequent singles like 1994's "Bucktown." Their debut LP,
Dah Shinin', followed soon thereafter with a canvas of dark, gluttonous beats provided by the gifted
Beatminerz production squad.
Dah Shinin' saw release during the heyday of one of the most influential independent hip-hop labels of the '90s, Nervous Wreck Records, which many other indies would take direct inspiration from in the years to come.
After receiving a cease and desist letter from the Smith & Wesson firearm company, the duo rebranded themselves
Cocoa Brovaz in 1996. Under this new moniker, they released their second album,
The Rude Awakening, in 1998. The album skewed even darker and more intense than their first, and the duo followed with their single "Super Brooklyn." The song was built around an illegal sample of the Super Mario Bros. video game theme music, so it never saw official release, but the underground buzz surrounding the track was enough to secure them a deal with Rawkus Records. The duo existed mostly in the form of singles and one-off appearances for the first part of the 2000s, appearing on volumes of the Soundbombing and
Lyricist Lounge series as well as contributing to
Frankie Cutlass' Politics & Bullshit.
In late 2005, they reactivated their original moniker and released
Smif-N-Wessun: Reloaded. They followed that with
Smif-N-Wessun: The Album two years later. In 2011, they collaborated with hip-hop legend
Pete Rock on the album
Monumental, which also featured guest spots from
Styles P,
Memphis Bleek,
Raekwon,
Bun B, and many others. In late 2013, they drew on their reggae influences for the Born and Raised mixtape, a brief project that included contributions from
Jahdan Blakkamoore and
Junior Reid, among others. The duo's fifth proper
Smif-N-Wessun album appeared in 2019 in the form of the
9th Wonder-produced The All. ~ Fred Thomas & Michael Di Bella.