Boomin' Words from Hell is the debut album of Esham A. Smith

Esham

Rashaam Attica Smith, better known by his stage name Esham , is an American rapper from Detroit, Michigan known for his hallucinogenic style of hip hop which he refers to as "acid rap", which fuses rock-based beats and lyrics involving subjects such as death, drug use, evil, paranoia and...

. It was first released in 1989, when Smith was 13 years old, and was reissued the following year.

Lyrical themes

The lyrics of Boomin' Words from Hell developed from the turmoil of Detroit at the time, including the era's rise in crack

Crack cocaine

Crack cocaine is the freebase form of cocaine that can be smoked. It may also be termed rock, hard, iron, cavvy, base, or just crack; it is the most addictive form of cocaine. Crack rocks offer a short but intense high to smokers...

 use. According to Smith, "It was all an expression about ['70s-'80s drug cartel] Young Boys Incorporated

Young Boys Inc.

Young Boys Incorporated, also known as Y.B.I. was among the first African-American drug cartels that operated on street corners.They controlled 80% of the heroin traffic in Detroit, Michigan from the summer of 1978 through 1982....

, Mayor Coleman Young

Coleman Young

Coleman Alexander Young served as mayor of Detroit in the U.S. state of Michigan from 1974 to 1993. Young became the first African-American mayor of Detroit in the same week that Maynard Jackson became the first African-American mayor of Atlanta.-Pre-Mayoral career:Young was born in Tuscaloosa,...

, the city we lived in and just the turmoil that our city was going through at the time. We referred to the streets of Detroit as 'Hell' on that record. So that's where my ideas came from."

Release

Boomin' Words from Hell was first issued in 1989. At the time, Smith was 13 years old. It was promoted via word of mouth. Following the album's initial release, the album was reissued with an alternate track listing and artwork in 1990.

Reception

According to Smith, the album's lyrical content was so dark that it was the subject of many rumors:

"People got the first album, and they would just make up stories. They'd get into an accident and be like, 'I got into an accident because I was playing that tape.' It wasn't like we helped ourselves when we described what was in people's heads. It wasn't to shock people, though, but to get people involved in what we were doing. We had to get peoples' attention. [...] We said a lot of things that people wanted to say but didn't say. We talked about a lot of political and social [issues] that people didn't want to talk about."

Esham found it difficult to develop a fanbase, because many wrote off the dark content of his lyrics and imagery as shock value

Shock value

Shock value is the potential of an action , image, text, or other form of communication to provoke a reaction of disgust, shock, anger, fear, or similar negative emotions.-Shock value as humor:...

, while hip hop fans did not connect to the album because of Smith's heavy metal

Heavy metal music

Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...

influences. In All Music Guide to Hip-Hop Jason Birchmeier writes that "Many of the songs here are fairly mediocre relative to Esham's later work, but there are a few gems here that foreshadow his subsequent work." Rap Reviews reviewer John-Michael Bond wrote that "the fully realized darkness that surrounds both soundtrack and verses on Boomin Words... stands as a stark reminder that just because someone's a kid doesn't mean he can't have anything to say."

Track listing

Personnel

• Esham – programming, production, engineering, mastering
• Mike E. Clark - engineering, keyboards
• Reginal Nelton – executive producer
• Greg Reilly – mastering
• James H. Smith – executive producer