The Camp

If there’s any camp you want to send your kids to this summer it’s this one: the Camp, from Boston. Their debut, The Campaign (executive produced by Apathy, who lends three beats), is a return to the much-missed boom-bap raps. And they’re damn proud of it too (see "Return of the Boom Bap”). There is no shortage of energy from Camp’s four artists, proven by Excetera when he raps, "I’m nice with the writtens/I fight with precision/My psychic prediction is you gonna lose your life if you spittin’” ("Moving Up”). Although the bulk of The Campaign is battle raps, diversions like "Little Story,” an old-school fairy tale too dirty for even Slick Rick, ought to earn plenty of iPod repeats. The Camp do give into a few industry clichés, mostly ad lib-related (seriously, rappers, it’s 2008, do you still need to copyright your songs with dates in the intros?), but they’re redeemed by almost everything that follows them.