Most people probably think of Brooklyn, NYC, or Queens as soon as the subject of East-coast hip-hop is mentioned. It’s hard to argue that the groups and MCs who’ve come out of New York haven’t dominated as the face of the region. The Boston-based group The Camp looks to change that though with their debut LP, The Campaign.
The Camp consists of five members: Dese, Grime, Tha MC, Excetera, and DJ Hevan. Each member of the group brings a tremendous amount of energy and quick-wordplay to the table. The Campaign is their announcement that they’ve hit the scene and deserve to be reckoned with. The tone is set with the album’s first, and best, song, “The Campaign,” where each member showcases their excellent rhyming skills.
From there the album traces tales of sordid-adventures with women (“Little Story”, “Grab the One”), partying and the chemical life (“So High”, “Number 1”), and the state of hip-hop (“Why”). The album’s never still long enough for the group to over-indulge their interests or opinions on one topic. This is good for The Camp, since each member seems to want to put out as much as possible through the debut. The only negative that can be thrown at The Camp as a whole is that each member complements each other too well, which has the effect of making them blend together too much at times. But this is something minor, considering the skill each member has to offer.
Each track employs top-notch production that keeps the album at a high speed that never relents. Turbz, Apathy, and Teddy Roxpin handle the majority of the production duty, setting the bar high for quality. The tracks effortlessly flow with the boom-bap and rhythm that’s a must-have for any good hip-hop album. The producers also manage to keep things varied by utilizing soul and jazz samples more on the second-half while keeping the first half rather sample-light.
The Campaign provides a great amount of promise for The Camp. It’s a little ironic that the East-coast group is very comparable to another large, talented, regionally based West-coast group, The Outlawz. But that’s quite an impressive feat to accomplish with just one album.
Article comments