Ching Rock ( TMCR )

Gang Starr - “DWYCK” feat. Nice & Smooth This is one of those rare classic hip hop/rap songs that tells more of a story than at first sight. Revisionist history has tried to all but deform what “underground” means and what it once was. Jay-Z, Nas, Biggie: All were underground; all stood on the shoulders of Gang Starr; and all sought to have DJ Premier produce for them *because of* their reverence for Gang Starr. This is just one example of how Gang Starr helped to shape ‘90s hip hop/rap music in ways not immediately seen. And one song that personified Gang Starr’s impact, especially on New York, was “DWYCK.” (Mobb Deep would follow the same playbook with “Shook Ones, Pt. II”: A headknod hip hop/rap song that doubled as a club banger.) In 1992, Gang Starr was *underground. But they were LOVED throughout New York. I was there. It was my last year as a teenager in NYC; and I was in the clubs in Brooklyn, the Bronx, Manhattan, and Queens. Everywhere. And Gang Starr’s “DWYCK” feat. Nice & Smooth was a banger that everybody recognized. “DWYCK” wasn’t some obscure song that accidentally caught on in the clubs, it was an *intentional club masterpiece. (When I interviewed DJ Premier years later, he was clear about his goal in making the song: “We wanted to do something that hit in the club, some real hip hop shit.”) Even 4, 5 years after its release, “DWYCK” was still one of the songs that sent club goers into a frenzy. From The Tunnel to Home Base to Palladium to Club 2000, same reaction. Headknod music or not, “DWYCK” was also a *dance song. The dance floor was never empty when “DWYCK” came on… And everybody rapped along while they were dancing. Good times