In ‘96, I was still riding the high of the strength from the hip hop releases from ‘95. Just look at the pic below to get an idea of what all dropped that year. These 9 albums below only scratch the surface of what dropped because missing here are E-40’s In a Major Way, Smif-N-Wessun’s Dah Shinin’, DJ Quik’s Safe & Sound, Tha Dogg Pound’s Dogg Food, Aceyalone’s All Balls Don’t Bounce, and Brotha Lynch Hung’s Season of Da Siccness. 1995 packed heat on the rap scene that helped shape who I was back then.
what’s your fav here?
While I was born and raised on west coast gangsta rap music, in the mid-90’s I really gravitated toward the more grimier hip hop coming out of New York. I loved all this Wu (who didn’t?) and their debut as a group followed by the first solo albums from Ghost, Rae, Meth, ODB, and GZA were all smashes. Wu was a force regardless if you lived in NYC or all the way out in Cali. Peep Meth and Ghost from Stretch & Bobbito’s show.
Then you had the Boot Camp Clik who I felt were a bit more raw than the Wu-Tang Clan in the best way possible. Black Moon, Smif-N-Wessun, Originoo Gunn Clappaz (aka O.G.C.), and Heltah Skeltah all had debut albums that dropped between ‘93 - ‘96. I really liked Boot Camp’s production which mostly came from Evil Dee and Mr. Walt from Da Beatminerz. Like the Wu, the members of the Boot Camp Clik all brought different styles and personalities on the mic. Wu and Boot Camp’s sound was just what I was feeling in the Mid90s.
Nas and Mobb Deep were doing their thing without having supergroups like Wu and the BCC. Illmatic and The Infamous are absolute classics and if you’re looking at 90’s grimey and raw hip hop out of New York, you really have to start with them. Kids today really don’t understand how rap albums in the 90’s were talked about on campus and shared through mixtapes back in these days. The word of mouth travelled fast and you always had to have a good crew of hip hop heads that knew their sh*t. This way you didn’t miss much. Rap City and Yo! MTV Raps also helped me stay on my game just like all of the record stores around at the that time. Some of the favorite times in my life were getting dropped off at Tower Records and spending hours there looking at rap magazines, cassettes, CD’s, vinyl, and different portable music players.
While all of these albums stayed in my Sony Walkman, in 1996, there was one rapper who had a great debut album in ‘94 and was prepping to drop his follow up to it in ‘96. I first heard this rapper in ‘92 when he was on the intro for the track, “No Shame in My Game” from Gang Starr’s album Daily Operation. “No Shame in My Game” was a track that I kept in rotation back then because of its smooth beat by DJ Premier with Guru lacing it with his signature vocals. But on that intro, an unknown emcee named Jeru the Damaja joins Guru as the cohost on the track and he just stood out to me. He doesn’t even have a verse either. Just some words and he grabbed my eardrums and made me wonder, who was this guy called Jeru the Damaja?
On that same Daily Operation album, Jeru the Damaja had his debut verse on the track “I’m the Man” along with Lil’ Dap from Group Home. While I will always be a fan of Gang Starr and the legendary group that they will forever be, I really liked this young cat named Jeru over a grimey beat from Premier. The Daily Operation album is a classic and this verse from Jeru might be my favorite on the album? Start at 2:51 if you want to hear the Premier interlude to Guru intro and then right into the Jeru verse. Such a great verse on a great album.
Jeru toured with Gang Starr and gained another guest verse on “Speak Ya Clout” on the album, Hard to Earn. The track once again featured Lil’ Dap and it was cool to see this crew on another track together after what they did on “I’m the Man”. Jeru was tight with Gang Starr and it was only right that Preemo would stay lacing beats for him. Jeru dropped his debut single, “Come Clean” in late 1993 which was produced by DJ Premier and is one of he best hip hop tracks ever created.
Jeru’s debut album, The Sun Rises in the East dropped in 1994 entirely produced by DJ Premier. The album fits so perfectly within that mid-90’s Wu, Boot Camp, Mobb Deep, and Nas feel. It’s that gritty NYC hip hop lane that I loved so much during junior high school where I’d run home to catch Rap City after school. The Sun Rises in the East album is a classic which officially put Jeru on the map in the rap world.
While I was a fan of Jeru off of the strength of “Come Clean” and his debut album, it was actually one of his music videos off of his second album that really got me. Jeru dropped his follow up album, Wrath of the Math in ‘96 and the video for first single, “Ya Playin’ Yaself” caught me. I always loved the old kung fu samples that RZA cooked up on his production with his Wu cohorts and also was a big fan of Bruce Lee’s classic films. “Ya Playin’ Yaself” ran with that same vibe mixed with some mid-90’s NYC hip hop and I was all in on the visuals. That video alone made me become way more of a fan of Jeru than I was before. Watching this video conjures up so many memories for me of this grimey era which I hold so dear to my heart. If you haven’t watched the video before or it’s been a long time, do yourself a favor and run it back. Might as well spin those first 2 Jeru and Preemo albums too because they were nasty with each other. Not sure what their relationship is now but I’d surely welcome a 3rd album from the duo. I’m sure a lot of old hip hop heads would be right along with me.
Here’s the Tiny Desk performance from Jeru. This was recorded during the pandemic so it’s not the same look and feel that you know from Tiny Desk but you can catch a vibe on this one. Give it a peep!