Tek & Steele Recall Street Origins Smif-n-Wessun, Decepticon Ties, Making Dah Shinin’ (Audio)

Within the Boot Camp Clik, it often feels like Smif-n-Wessun are massively under-sung. Whether it was the fact that General Steele and Tek followed Black Moon’s Enta Da Stage with Dah Shinin’ (before Heltah Skeltah, O.G.C., and the Clik compilations), or the unfortunate forced name-change (to Cocoa Brovas) and subsequent change back, it never makes sense why these 20-plus-year veterans of verse don’t get more props.

The “You Must Learn” podcast (really, that word underplays the efforts too much) by industry veteran Peter Oasis and journalist/radio host Dharmic X gives Tek and Steele the polished presentation that their extensive career deserves. This episode of “You Must Learn” plays like an O.G. version of Vh1’s “Behind The Music,” letting the vivid images of bygone Brooklyn, stick-ups in the staircases, the Palladium (R.I.P), and just how tight the B.C.C. was (and is), spanning the whole borough of BK.

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In here, you’ll get the duo to open up about the Decepticons (the rarely-discussed ’80s and ’90s violent street crew out of Brooklyn), the street antics playing into Hip-Hop, running in school with guys like ONYX (with alums like Craig G and Rakim), learning the ropes by being Buckshot’s under-studies, recording outdoors in the park so they could burn “mad ism,” the Roy Ayers influence (on the cover and the sound of Dah Shinin’), and the under-played ties to The Notorious B.I.G. and Junior M.A.F.I.A., in addition to One Nation, with 2Pac and Tha Outlawz.

This segment is edited beautifully, sounding like a true intimate conversation, produced by guys who aren’t out to interject themselves into the interview. So much Heads will love about this…just maybe the best Smif-n-Wessun interview since the ’90s.

Related: Smif-n-Wessun Attack Street Violence & Police Brutality In Shots In The Dark (Video)