Boot Camp Clik

While lesser NYC crews cycled though sounds, styles and ideas, Boot Camp Clik never abandoned the nihilistic, hip-hop formalism that they helped create in the early '90s. The best songs on Causalities of War, their fourth full length, conjure the sort of violent, rotten apple tragedies engrained in hip-hop's DNA: smoky, Section 8 masterpieces of blurry jazz and melancholic lyrical massacres. BCC may not have the commercial cache they once did, but fans of classic NYC hip-hop will cherish every second of this album.