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Enta da Stage
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Enta da Stage
Enta da Stage is the debut album by American East Coast hip-hop group Black Moon, released on October 19, 1993, through Nervous Records. The album was produced by Black Moon member DJ Evil Dee, along with Mr. Walt of Da Beatminerz. Enta da Stage features the debut of underground hip-hop duo Smif-N-Wessun, as well as appearances from Havoc of Mobb Deep and Dru Ha, the co-founder of Duck Down Records.
Despite being critically acclaimed and having two singles that charted on the Billboard Hot 100 ("Who Got da Props" and "I Got Cha Opin"), the album sold poorly. Enta da Stage served as a precursor to the resurgence of the New York hip-hop scene in the mid-1990s. The album was executive produced by Dru Ha and Mike Weiss.
Black Moon originated in Brooklyn in the late 1980s as a group called Unique Image, which consisted of high school students Ewart "Evil Dee" Dewgrade, Karim "5ft" Reid, Walter "Finsta" Giddens, and Kenyatte "Buckshot" Blake. After briefly changing their name from Unique Image to High Tech, the group settled on Black Moon, which was the name Evil Dee's older brother–Walter "Mr. Walt" Dewgrade–used for his record production company. Initially, all four members rapped, but by 1991 Evil Dee and Finsta stopped rapping and instead focused on production. According to Evil Dee: "Once we did that and got focused, that's when we started getting really serious about it ... 5ft and Buckshot just stepped up their game and got nice on the rhymes."
Black Moon began shopping a five-track demo to various record labels, although they were consistently rejected for a perceived lack of commercial viability. During this period, Finsta left the group. In the spring of 1992, Black Moon performed at a party, and audience member DJ Chuck Chillout arranged for the group to meet with Nervous Records owner Mike Weiss. At the insistence of A&R representative Gladys Pizarro, Weiss signed Black Moon, and gave them enough money to record their first single, "Who Got da Props".
"Who Got da Props" was released in October 1992, and reached number 86 on the Billboard Hot 100. The group members were surprised by the success of the single, and in February 1993, Weiss convinced them to record an album. Buckshot soon formed a close relationship with Nervous employee Drew Friedman, later known as Dru Ha. The two formed a management company named "Duck Down Management", and oversaw the release of Enta da Stage as co-executive producers. The group finished recording Enta da Stage at New York City's D&D Studios between late 1992 and early 1993, and prepared it for a late 1993 release date.
Much of the acclaim the album received was due to the performance of lead MC Buckshot, who originally went by the name Buckshot Shorty. Ten of the fourteen tracks on the album are Buckshot solo tracks, and he appears on every song but "Son Get Wrec". Buck, who was eighteen at the time of the recording, was a young man trying to establish himself and his crew in the hip-hop world. In a 2005 interview with MVRemix, Buckshot described a day in his life while recording his debut:
Enta da Stage was really rough for me. It was a really rough era. A lot of people don't know what I went through personally. I think I had just turned eighteen and I had the pressure of running a management company as an eighteen-year-old shorter than 5'6. I had that problem of people taking my company and my representation seriously. So a day in the life around the Enta da Stage era was based on constant struggle and lettin' people know you respect Duck Down management as a real management company and not just as some little cute thing that Buckshot is doing. Nah, for real, we're management type deal. I was battling keeping Smif-n-Wessun in a good deal, I was battling trying to get Heltah Skeltah a good deal. I was battling trying to bring my record company into existence, so it was a really hard time.
The album's lyrics are filled with violent narratives and braggadocio. AllMusic's Chris Witt stated that "Emcees Buckshot and 5ft Accelerator attack their verses with an aggressive nihilism not heard since Kool G Rap's peak." 5 ft, originally known as 5FT Accelerator, appears on three tracks here, and his lyrical content does not differ from that of Buckshot's. Unlike later work by New York City peers like Nas, the lyrical content found here does not peer deeply into social issues or provide much substance. AllMusic's album review stated that "Theirs is a grim reality, filled with guns, weed and violence. Buckshot displays none of the usual gangster remorse, he is a willful public menace."
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Enta da Stage
Enta da Stage is the debut album by American East Coast hip-hop group Black Moon, released on October 19, 1993, through Nervous Records. The album was produced by Black Moon member DJ Evil Dee, along with Mr. Walt of Da Beatminerz. Enta da Stage features the debut of underground hip-hop duo Smif-N-Wessun, as well as appearances from Havoc of Mobb Deep and Dru Ha, the co-founder of Duck Down Records.
Despite being critically acclaimed and having two singles that charted on the Billboard Hot 100 ("Who Got da Props" and "I Got Cha Opin"), the album sold poorly. Enta da Stage served as a precursor to the resurgence of the New York hip-hop scene in the mid-1990s. The album was executive produced by Dru Ha and Mike Weiss.
Black Moon originated in Brooklyn in the late 1980s as a group called Unique Image, which consisted of high school students Ewart "Evil Dee" Dewgrade, Karim "5ft" Reid, Walter "Finsta" Giddens, and Kenyatte "Buckshot" Blake. After briefly changing their name from Unique Image to High Tech, the group settled on Black Moon, which was the name Evil Dee's older brother–Walter "Mr. Walt" Dewgrade–used for his record production company. Initially, all four members rapped, but by 1991 Evil Dee and Finsta stopped rapping and instead focused on production. According to Evil Dee: "Once we did that and got focused, that's when we started getting really serious about it ... 5ft and Buckshot just stepped up their game and got nice on the rhymes."
Black Moon began shopping a five-track demo to various record labels, although they were consistently rejected for a perceived lack of commercial viability. During this period, Finsta left the group. In the spring of 1992, Black Moon performed at a party, and audience member DJ Chuck Chillout arranged for the group to meet with Nervous Records owner Mike Weiss. At the insistence of A&R representative Gladys Pizarro, Weiss signed Black Moon, and gave them enough money to record their first single, "Who Got da Props".
"Who Got da Props" was released in October 1992, and reached number 86 on the Billboard Hot 100. The group members were surprised by the success of the single, and in February 1993, Weiss convinced them to record an album. Buckshot soon formed a close relationship with Nervous employee Drew Friedman, later known as Dru Ha. The two formed a management company named "Duck Down Management", and oversaw the release of Enta da Stage as co-executive producers. The group finished recording Enta da Stage at New York City's D&D Studios between late 1992 and early 1993, and prepared it for a late 1993 release date.
Much of the acclaim the album received was due to the performance of lead MC Buckshot, who originally went by the name Buckshot Shorty. Ten of the fourteen tracks on the album are Buckshot solo tracks, and he appears on every song but "Son Get Wrec". Buck, who was eighteen at the time of the recording, was a young man trying to establish himself and his crew in the hip-hop world. In a 2005 interview with MVRemix, Buckshot described a day in his life while recording his debut:
Enta da Stage was really rough for me. It was a really rough era. A lot of people don't know what I went through personally. I think I had just turned eighteen and I had the pressure of running a management company as an eighteen-year-old shorter than 5'6. I had that problem of people taking my company and my representation seriously. So a day in the life around the Enta da Stage era was based on constant struggle and lettin' people know you respect Duck Down management as a real management company and not just as some little cute thing that Buckshot is doing. Nah, for real, we're management type deal. I was battling keeping Smif-n-Wessun in a good deal, I was battling trying to get Heltah Skeltah a good deal. I was battling trying to bring my record company into existence, so it was a really hard time.
The album's lyrics are filled with violent narratives and braggadocio. AllMusic's Chris Witt stated that "Emcees Buckshot and 5ft Accelerator attack their verses with an aggressive nihilism not heard since Kool G Rap's peak." 5 ft, originally known as 5FT Accelerator, appears on three tracks here, and his lyrical content does not differ from that of Buckshot's. Unlike later work by New York City peers like Nas, the lyrical content found here does not peer deeply into social issues or provide much substance. AllMusic's album review stated that "Theirs is a grim reality, filled with guns, weed and violence. Buckshot displays none of the usual gangster remorse, he is a willful public menace."