"This is it , WHAT!"

“Luchini AKA This is it”
Camp Lo Uptown Saturday Night

Lately, I’ve been doing some thinking about 90’s hip hop joints and one song kept tugging at me and I hope that some of you remember it. This particular joint was “Luchini” by Camp Lo and that got me thinking…what happened to those dudes? Did they really just drop off the face of the planet or are they still putting out music right now?

This is it, what!!

How many remember this joint when it came out back in 1997 (over ten years ago, now that I think about it). The 2nd single off a pretty dope album, you would be hard pressed to find anyone that can recite this one word for word, let alone understand what they’re talking about. But besides all that, it’s seldom that you see two emcees really enjoying themselves the way that Sonny Cheeba (Salahadeen Wilds) and Geechi Suede (Saladine Wallace) are on this one. The languages they use evoke a feeling of being back in the smoky underground lounges of Harlem and Detroit in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Black folks moving’, jiving’, jooking and shaking’.

The Geechi Geechi, he be sippin’ Amarett-ahhh...

Well, since that joint dropped, needless to say, Camp lo has been pretty quiet. They released an EP overseas in Tokyo entitled Short Eyes following that up with 2002’s aptly titled Let’s Do It Again. Unfortunately, this one wasn’t as critically acclaimed as their debut. This is not to say that the duo hasn’t been on the music scene, however. Shortly after the release of their album, Will Smith saw fit to include them on his top selling Big Willie Style LP while also appearing in a collabo with De La Soul in 2000 on their joint “So Good.” So, it’s safe to say that their very 70’s style has had some influence in the game. Yet, their sound just hasn’t been able to endure the test of time and even though they released an album just last year, no one has been checking for them since the time of their first release. But it’s hard to forget how magical the sounded together on “Luchini.”

The vernacular used throughout this song is very old school, but there is still a lot to be said about the content. For example:

“A happy time quest to the coast of Key Largo/wire The chain gang keep your ears out for our years/Sippin' fountain blue house of bamboo paradise”


The Key Largo reference conveys the sense of a vacation. You can almost see them lounging in some isolated beach with a few nice women surrounding them. The reference to “wire the chain gang” definitely make the ties to a beneath the surface gangster lifestyle the likes of Nicky Barnes. The message: everything that glitters is not gold. The chain gang still has to lookout for them on the streets and in the jail yard while they collect on the borrowed time of a gangster’s lifestyle. “Keep your ears out for our years” Geechi proclaims, no doubt concerned that the Luchini currently falling out of the sky will soon dry up with the prospects of his underground lifestyle.

Bottom line: these brothers were nice when they were out. Maybe the novelty of blaxpoitation-era language and sharp disco threads wore off and the fans of popular music moved on, as they often do, to the next slick cats that jumped up on the scene. Still, singles like “Luchini” and “Black Nostaljack” – their second hottest single off the album – remind me of how far going back in time can take you.