Smif N Wessun: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

Sept. 17, 2018, Abby O Neill Brooklynbred hiphop duo SmifNWessun consisting of partners in rhyme, Steele and Tek illuminated the Tiny Desk with their signature, 80proof poetry: straight, no chaser. Their music, inspired by their gritty and pregentrified BedfordStuyvesant and Brownsville neighborhoods, offers the vocabulary of veterans who survived the grimy streets. These original members of the Duck Down Records group Boot Camp Click represent quintessential 90s trueschool hiphop from the bedrock, when Timberland boots were standard issue. Backing Steele and Tek for the first time is own Black Alley band. SmifNWessun set things off with their classic debut single Bucktown, an ode to their native Brooklyn, which uses their love for lyrical clapbacks as an allegory for overcoming the violenceridden reality of their wonder years. Their undeniable Gemini chemistry clearly the byproduct of a 20plus year friendship is on full display. Throughout the performance, the two emcees d