“Previously on RapReviews” we covered the obscure 1990’s rap album “We All We Gott” by the Gunslinguz. It was exactly the kind of release that fascinates me just because so little has been written about in the 29 years since it dropped, and the mystery only deepened when all of the audio clips were removed from YouTube (leaving the review looking like this). This forced me to go back and edit all of them out, but new ones which are equally as likely to disappear have appeared since. As I said at the time there appears to be no official upload, which may be symptomatic of no chain of ownership to the copyright for a small print run from a long defunct record label. If the full copy of the release seen below suddenly vanishes you shouldn’t be surprised.

Speaking of surprises though Bigg Cy of the Gunslinguz reached out to me personally! For the record anything that follows has been lightly edited for grammar and punctuation, but all of the words are Cy’s starting with his initial message — and he had a few bits of info for me from the jump. “Bigg Cy of Gunslinguz! Just read your review of (the) album. Funny you would bring up Boot Camp, as I was featured on the Cocoa Brovaz album under the name Smack Man as well as the ‘Duck Down Presents’ album. Any questions you can email me.” Finally! We have an official upload of something. Here’s Bigg Cy’s appearance as Smack Man on “The Rude Awakening.”

Since Cy opened the door for me to ask “any questions” I wanted I had no shortage of them. To start out I asked Cy how the Gunslinguz came together and what their ambitions were as a rap group.

Cy: “We met from a friend of mine who had Trigga signed to his label, New Life Records, (his name was) John McFadden. We just wanted to be heard and make good music that was real life. Yes we want(ed) to be our own company.”

Every response was peeling back another layer of the onion. I had seen references to Cy being part of a group called the Coney Island Gankstas on New Life Records, so it was clear to me that the Gunslinguz didn’t spring forth out of nowhere like Athena from the head of Zeus. I asked Cy about both his connections to the Boot Camp Clik and the change of name from the Gankstas to the Gunslinguz.

Cy: “Tek and Steele and I grew up together, as well as Sean Price. We all are part of the Decepticons. The name change was more of a title that Tek use to call me cause of the street life, and Dru (Ha) heard it and ran with it.”

There’s no doubt now that my original supposition about the Gunslinguz being closely tied to Boot Camp were correct. They were all childhood friends and Duck Down Inc. co-founder Andrew “Dru-Ha” Friedman was involved in all of their careers in one way or another. I compared the Gunslinguz to Onyx though and I asked Cy if he felt like that was a fair assessment, and also asked him how he feels about the industry today compared to the 1990’s.

Cy: “I think it was just because of the album title. We don’t sound alike at all, but we was already pushing our album when we heard about theirs. (I) love the fact of being in control (of distribution and publishing) but feel that the sales are unfair (these days). Money for streams just doesn’t add up. As far as the industry (goes) it was better when I came in the game.”

It’s hard not to agree with Cy. Some things have definitely improved in terms of artists having creative control over their careers, but with so many artists in the game now, it’s even harder to stand out or make money off of music. That leaves Cy with a great opportunity to give his wisdom to rappers trying to break in today.

“Just work hard and never give up if you love music — and learn the business side.”

Solid advice, and much love to Cy for taking the time to get back to me. Here’s hoping “We All We Gott” gets an official remaster with some bonus tracks nobody got to hear back when it first came out.