LP Thoughts: Camp Lo- Uptown Saturday Night (1997)

Just another regular day of me coming home from school and flippin the channel straight to BET to watch Rap City, then a new video comes on and im likin the vibe right away. The year was mid '96, and this video does has some early visions of Big Williezms in the infant stages but im feelin it tho. The beat to the track is real laid back and its knockin! And this group's flow is very complimentary to each other. "Coolie High" was my introductory to the duo known as Camp Lo and ill never forget it.

Now my mission was that i have to find this song! By any means neccessary! I bugged my friends at school to see if anybody had the single or somethin and nothin came up. But really it did and one of my close friends had the single but told me he didnt have it! Why? Cause he got tired of people borrowing his singles and not givin it back. And he had a point cause guess what? Right after he told me that, a friend of his stole the "Coolie High" single he had. So now im back at square one, but the word got out that this track is on the Great White Hype Soundtrack! It was just my luck cause a another friend of mine had the joint right down the street from me! Man once I got the track, I was jammin that joint like 10x straight a day! It was that real!

Fast forward to beginning of '97, it was another day back from school and im watching Rap City and again a new video is playing. It has a 70's ish vibe to it and im like whats this? But then that beat strikes outta nowhere and the sample is knockin! By this point im jammin my ass off and once again this same duo is killin the track wit exquisite rhymes! It dont hurt that the other track in the video is jammin too wit Ish (from Digable Planets), he had the ill line "I play my cards shark style: kings, queens and aces, welcome to New York the illest of all places!" I was like Yo!!! he ripped that joint!! Its safe to say "Luchini" & "Swing" had me amped man! I was ready for Camp Lo LP to drop!! Also it was brought to my attention that the same person who produced "Dead Presidents" by Jigga also did "Luchini" and the majority of the LP, he go by the name of Ski! So i ready to hear some new flava.

Later on that January of '97 the LP drops. Now at this time i wasnt buying LPs like that, i had to find a friend to borrow it from. And if my memory serves me correctly, my boy Nate let me borrow the joint in our Home Economics class! Once i took it home and got my jam on, I was like wow this LP was on some other shit!! It was melodical, the samples was great and it all flowed together! "Killin'em Softly" was a hard joint. "Sparkle" was a very melodical joint. "Black Connection" had a sample that i never even heard before or even thought of. "Say Word" is a hard joint as well with a little swing to it. And "Sparkle (Mr Midnight Mix)" had somethin i never knew that could rock, all it was is a bass line & the sample!! No beat or hi-hat or none of that, and joint jammed!! It tripped me out but it was live tho! Thats a couple joints that i was rockin on the regular on this LP. Yall better be glad that Jay Z didnt rape all these beats on this LP cause he wanted alot of them! Matter of fact, he did take some for his 1st LP. The beats that was done by Ski on Jay's 1st LP was for Camp Lo except "Dead Presidents" (i think). Jay even wanted "Luchini"!!! But Ski had to draw the line somewhere!

So this album is a 5-star classic in my book. They introduced a new vibe to hip-hop, which was a 70s style even down to the clothes they wore and the old vintage samples they used on they records! Its called being innovative and coming up wit ur own style and not biting off something else and re-using it. Back then everybody was innovative and creative! I still remember that feeling I felt when I 1st heard Luchini and dying to get the single! Its times like that u dont forget man!

So, Whats ur thoughts on this LP??