“This is it, what
Luchini pourin’ from the sky
Lets get rich, what
The jiggy vines and sugar dimes
Cant quit, what
Now pop the cork and steam the Vega
And get lit, what, what, what’
These lyrics from “Lucini (This is It)” are classic Camp Lo. For the uninitiated, Camp Lo hit the scene with “Uptown Saturday Night” back in 1997 with one of the dopest and original releases of the 1990’s.Camp Lo is Classic Hip Hop for me because they rely heavily on lyrical content, dope beats and groundbreaking originality. Uptown Saturday Night was a theme album that synthesized a 1970’s motif with the bomb production of “Ski” who also produced “Reasonable Doubt” for Jay-Z. The laid back vibe of the flows from “Geechi Suede” and “Sonny Cheeba” combined with the innovative lyrical content that mixed pop culture allusions with slick jive, told the story of a “heist” and then “Making it Rain.” The tracks are true bangers – from “Coolie High” (originally released on the “Great White Hype” soundtrack), to “Krystal Karrington,” to “Swing.” Ski constructs beats that hit hard and support the dynamic lyrical flows of Geechi and Sonny. I still bang this album regularly, loving the smooth beat flava that I crave. Camp Lo never matched the highs of “Uptown Saturday Night” with later releases, but I still recommend checking those releases out; however, the release of the “demo” version of a good number of the “Uptown Saturday Night” tracks in 2016 called “On the Way to Uptown” was another high point. You can feel what they were building up to with the final tracks and then you get another banga “Hollywood At the Disco”, which samples “Rain Dance” by The Jeff Lorber Fusion, just like Lil’ Kim did on her smash “Crush on You.”
My Top 5 from Camp Lo are:
1. Lucini (This is It): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvAqy1i2hEA
2. Coolie High: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJM2PyTQ9kk
3. Rockin It: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vi4W3H7C0U
4. Hollywood at the Disco: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7SskMYFg20 and
5. Black Nostaligia (Come On): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Clp4nmC6z5w (Check Out the “Good Times” theme, with Thela and JJ and all)
