---
title: "O.G.C.’s Da Storm turns 30: the Brooklyn album whose ‘No Fear’ line ended up in Beyoncé’s Baby Boy"
url: https://badiyaa.com/ogc-da-storm-no-fear-beyonce/
published: 2026-11-10T20:58:00+00:00
modified: 2026-11-10T20:58:00+00:00
section: Entertainment
publisher: Badiyaa
---

# O.G.C.’s Da Storm turns 30: the Brooklyn album whose ‘No Fear’ line ended up in Beyoncé’s Baby Boy

O.G.C.'s Da Storm, released October 29, 1996, gave Beyoncé's 2003 No. 1 "Baby Boy" its borrowed line from the Brooklyn trio's single "No Fear."

The smallest seller in Brooklyn’s Boot Camp Clik run of the mid-1990s ended up inside one of the biggest pop hits of the next decade. *Da Storm*, the debut album by the trio O.G.C. (Originoo Gunn Clappaz), came out on October 29, 1996, and seven years later a line from its lead single “No Fear” turned up near the end of Beyoncé’s “Baby Boy,” a nine-week No. 1 in the United States.

The borrowed words are short: “We steppin’ in hotter this year.” “Baby Boy,” written by Beyoncé, Sean Paul, Scott Storch, Robert Waller and Jay-Z, carries that lyrical interpolation of “No Fear” toward its close. The song topped the main US singles chart for nine straight weeks in 2003, at the time her longest run at No. 1.

## Who O.G.C. were

O.G.C. was Starang Wondah, Top Dog and Louieville Sluggah, three members of the Boot Camp Clik, the Brooklyn collective built around Buckshot of Black Moon. Most of the crew came from Brownsville. Before *Da Storm*, O.G.C. had teamed with Heltah Skeltah as The Fab 5, whose 1995 B-side “Leflaur Leflah Eshkoshka” reached No. 75 on the Hot 100, the highest-charting single by any Boot Camp act. The two groups then split to make separate records in 1996.

The album arrived through Duck Down, the label Buckshot and business partner Dru Ha set up after leaving Nervous Records, with distribution from Priority.

## The four-album run, in order

- **1993:** Black Moon, *Enta da Stage*

- **1995:** Smif-N-Wessun, *Dah Shinin’*

- **June 1996:** Heltah Skeltah, *Nocturnal*

- **October 1996:** O.G.C., *Da Storm*

*Da Storm* closed that streak and sold the least of the four, just over 200,000 copies in the US. It still reached No. 47 on the main US albums chart and No. 10 on the R&B/hip-hop albums ranking. “No Fear” climbed to No. 13 on the rap songs chart but never cracked the Hot 100, which left O.G.C. as the one Boot Camp group without a Hot 100 single of its own.

## What is on the record

The 15 tracks run 50 minutes and 37 seconds, recorded between 1995 and 1996 at Chung King, D&D, Platinum Island and Unique in New York and at a Washington radio station’s studio. Da Beatminerz members Mr. Walt, DJ Evil Dee and Baby Paul handle much of it; Mr. Walt produced “No Fear,” “Gunn Clapp” and “Hurricane Starang.” The credit list also holds a surprise for crate-diggers: the closing track, “Flappin’,” was produced by E-Swift with a co-production credit for a young Madlib, years before he became one of underground rap’s most revered beatmakers. Sadat X of Brand Nubian guests on “Wild Cowboys in Bucktown,” a title that nods to the crew’s nickname for Brooklyn.

Thirty years on, that is the album’s odd double life. On paper it is the runner-up of a celebrated run, outsold by its siblings. In practice, a single line of Starang Wondah, Top Dog and Louieville Sluggah’s lead single has been heard by millions who never bought a Duck Down record, every time “Baby Boy” plays.

Beyoncé has kept busy in Badiyaa’s pages too, from [her $2 million gift to the Studio Museum in Harlem](https://badiyaa.com/beyonce-2-million-studio-museum-harlem/) to [helping open 31 Houston homes with Kelly Rowland](https://badiyaa.com/beyonce-kelly-rowland-knowles-rowland-house-houston/). Jay-Z, a co-writer on “Baby Boy,” recently set [a $42.3 million box office record at Yankee Stadium](https://badiyaa.com/jay-z-yankee-stadium-42-million-record/).

O.G.C. followed *Da Storm* with *The M-Pire Shrikez Back* in 1999, and has not released a third album since.

## Further reading

- [Wikipedia: Da Storm](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Da_Storm)

- [Wikipedia: Boot Camp Clik](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boot_Camp_Clik)

*Illustrative image. Image: Clyde Charles Brown, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons*

*This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by our Editorial Desk. [How we work](https://badiyaa.com/editorial-policy/).*