"This is it, what!" The utterance of those four words with the proper articulation and rhythm can prompt many hip hop enthusiasts into a united chorus. Camp Lo's 1997 debut Uptown Saturday Night is one of the most beloved albums in 1990s hip hop. That anthemic call, "Luchini pourin' from the sky, let's get rich, what!" still emanates from nightclubs and car speakers alike. From the outset, the group's sound was distinct, filled with secretive slang and intense nostalgia. Camp Lo's language and style set them apart from other rappers, which was no simple feat considering the incredible diversity of 1990s hip hop. While other rappers were making noise, bragging about bling and bringing ruckus, Geechi Suede and Sonny Cheeba were on the "Lo," whispering and rapping with an argot all their own. The album wove a tapestry of retro culture that combined uniquely Camp Lo elements: the youthful memories of Cooley High characters and the late-night crime world of Sidney Poitier and Bill Cosby's film trilogy. While Wu-Tang were drawing inspiration from kung fu films and Chinese martial arts aesthetics, Camp Lo were bringing 1970s black culture back to public consciousness. Sure, other rappers' music sampled that era too, but Camp Lo re-envisioned it on their own terms, both acknowledging the ways in which the present pays homage to the past and reinterpreting the past to offer something fresh to the present. The songs on Uptown Saturday Night are aural films that fluidly juxtapose late-night diamond heist narratives with free association rhymes of exotic locales and luxury cars, creating a world that was both gritty and glamorous. It was fantastic and fantasy: music that reintroduced an unfiltered '80s black masculine cool--a cool all the more complex in that it had already been absorbed and exploited by mainstream pop culture.
Accessible and appealing as Uptown Saturday Night and "Luchini" were, they were lyrically crafted to speak to a small number of friends in the Bronx. It was insider slang, a hyperlocal regionalism that challenged listeners. Their distinct terminology (money was "Luchini," girls' posteriors were "Ox," guns were "istols," and "Hollywood" meant fly) was fascinating to listeners in that it presented a mysterious world entirely of its own. Even within the hip hop community, no one outside of the Lo could truly decipher the complexities of their secretive language--not even in one-on-one conversations. To Geechi Suede and Sonny Cheeba of Camp Lo, however, they represented a profound aesthetic concept of cool and a nostalgic vision of an outmoded black cultural look and identity. At a time when hip hop fashion was dominated by Timberlands, hockey jerseys, and designer labels like Tommy Hilfiger, Karl Kani, and Polo, Camp Lo donned satin and polyester, flat caps, and brown leather coats: vintage clothes ("vines") to match their personas ("diamond crooks"). But while their slang and vines were "nostaljack" (nostalgic), their flows were far from derivative retrospectives. Although the jazzy flows of Digable Planets and the earthy vibes of the late '80/'90s Native Tongues collective certainly provided inspiration, Camp Lo occupied a vanguard lyrical space of their own. Arriving at a time when lyrical innovation and vocal charisma were of the utmost importance for MCs even in the mainstream, they showed/proved with staggering wordplay.
Accessible and appealing as Uptown Saturday Night and "Luchini" were, they were lyrically crafted to speak to a small number of friends in the Bronx. It was insider slang, a hyperlocal regionalism that challenged listeners. Their distinct terminology (money was "Luchini," girls' posteriors were "Ox," guns were "istols," and "Hollywood" meant fly) was fascinating to listeners in that it presented a mysterious world entirely of its own. Even within the hip hop community, no one outside of the Lo could truly decipher the complexities of their secretive language--not even in one-on-one conversations. To Geechi Suede and Sonny Cheeba of Camp Lo, however, they represented a profound aesthetic concept of cool and a nostalgic vision of an outmoded black cultural look and identity. At a time when hip hop fashion was dominated by Timberlands, hockey jerseys, and designer labels like Tommy Hilfiger, Karl Kani, and Polo, Camp Lo donned satin and polyester, flat caps, and brown leather coats: vintage clothes ("vines") to match their personas ("diamond crooks"). But while their slang and vines were "nostaljack" (nostalgic), their flows were far from derivative retrospectives. Although the jazzy flows of Digable Planets and the earthy vibes of the late '80/'90s Native Tongues collective certainly provided inspiration, Camp Lo occupied a vanguard lyrical space of their own. Arriving at a time when lyrical innovation and vocal charisma were of the utmost importance for MCs even in the mainstream, they showed/proved with staggering wordplay.
The music on Uptown Saturday Night stems from a complex tapestry of black popular culture. The album owes its title to the 1973 film directed by Sidney Poitier, but the phrase "Uptown Saturday Night" also represented an ideal: a place, time, and culturally black space in which good times and hijinks prevailed, the (black) hero wins, gets the diamonds, and speeds off with the shapely heroine. Of course, adopted personas had long been prevalent in hip hop culture, yet the personas created by Camp Lo and the way in which they combined 1970s imagery and "good times" ethos with hip hop hardness was undeniably out of step with the growing mid-1990s commerciality of hip hop culture and mainstreamed gangsta. Their money was "Luchini," not "Benjamins," and coveted diamonds were, well... diamonds, to steal and unload for cash, not to wear as "bling." As hip hop grew more successful (and more lucrative), raps became increasingly about buying, not heisting, and the new trope of hip hop became an ostentatious display of real money or wealth, rather than wild stories about fantastic capers. In many ways, under the influence of commercialism, practical street tales and consumer fantasies had begun to overshadow imagination in hip hop. Camp Lo intended to be out of step with this (real) world, and preferred a flyer place. - 33 1/3 Uptown Saturday Night by Patrick Rivers and Will Fulton. Lego art by Adnan Lotia. Props to Geechi and Sonny, they made a classic!
