Bo$$ — Born Gangstaz

Lichelle "Bo$$" Laws was born in Detroit, Michigan, she grows up in a middle-class Catholic family, got into hip-hop when she was young, graduates from high school in Detroit and attends college for a few years in Oakland, where she meets her own DJ Irene "Dee" Moore. With Dee, Boss — the artist's name is originally the name of the duo formed by Laws and her friend Moore, an acronym for Bitches On Some Shit; personally, I will use it in reference to the Laws alone for purely practical reasons — she decides to pursue success in her musical career through gangsta rap.

After trying New York City, where girls can't get a good deal to start their careers, she tries her hand at Los Angeles in 1990. Without money or a job, the two start living on the streets in the worst neighborhoods of the city to survive, settling in South Central, living in public parks, sleeping on bus station benches, drinking alcohol and smoking all day, subsisting on discount potato chips, selling weed and washing in hotel bathrooms where they deal cocaine. All this for two years. Every now and then Boss gets some money from his parents to continue the adventure. Finally, thanks to a common contact, Laws manages to obtain the phone number of Jeffrey "Def Jef" Forston, a famous LA producer, and she convinces him to come listen to her rap at the cheap hotel where she lives in Compton: after listening to the aspiring rappers, Def Jef chooses to host the two girls at his house to collaborate musically, however, Boss appears dissatisfied with the producer's beats and after a few days the two return to the street.

Shortly thereafter, Boss and Dee reach the offices of producers Tracy Kendrick and Courtney Branch, already known for having produced a very successful album for DJ Quik, and manage to get a management agreement with the producers. They will sleep on the floor of those offices in the following days. DJ Quik introduced Boss to the hip-hop circuit in 1991 by having her appear on "Mai Sista Izza Bitch", a track from AMG's album "Bitch Betta Have My Money" which is also featured for the debut of the same Detroit rapper a couple of years later. A battle between labels is born which is won by Def Jam West led by Russell Simmons, who meets female artists: unlike virtually every other executive in hip-hop at the time, Simmons is betting on the fact that the large audience of gangsta rap fans behind NWA's releases and of similar artists it would also be willing to buy the albums of a female artist.

Boss signed to Def Jam West (DJ West) and began recording her debut album in late 1991, in Los Angeles. In the following months, Boss began dating Eazy-E of NWA, a group she takes inspiration from, and his relationship with Dee deteriorates so much that the two stop living under the same roof. Simmons opts for a change and brings Boss and Dee to New York City to record the rest of the album, placing them in a hotel, where in the following months the girls continue to take down bars and causing disasters both inside the hotel and outside, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars. Around the same time, Def Jef listens to Boss again on AMG's song and later meets her, the girl wants the producer to work on her album: "Deeper" is born, one of the first songs recorded, which was chosen as the first single from Boss' album and proved to be a notable success, soaring on a Barry White sample and reaching #1 on Billboard's rap singles chart. The girl gets good radio airplay and appears on major music tv channels. Eventually the album is completed. Production is entrusted to Def Jef, Erick Sermon, AMG, Courtney Branch, Tracy Kendrick, Greg Jessie, Stone tha Lunatic, Jam Master Jay, Chyskillz, Mic Professah, Tracey Waples, T-Ray and MC Serch. Guests are Lillie & Joe Laws, Papa Juggy, Def Jef, Erick Sermon, AMG, Onyx and Admiral D.

The album's title is a mockery of his carefree, privileged upbringing with no real problems. Def Jef produces the album and suggests the inclusion of both of the girl's parents in the product, the mother opens the record, the father closes it, even if no professional critic grasps the irony inherent in the project. After all the effort put into getting this CD, you'd expect it to at least be worth it, but that's not the case. Laws proves he can rap, Dee a little less. The album deals with typical gangsta rap topics such as crime, violence, drugs and shootings, all without being memorable. On the plus side, there are fewer sexual topics than one might expect from a gangsta artist: Boss creates a bold, tough, raunchy and sometimes funny effort, as there are many in the hardcore rap scene of the early nineties. The music is just there, it doesn't really add anything to the lyrics and when it can, it takes away. It's usually a good thing if a disc is full of samples, but this CD doesn't seem to be the case.

Def Jef has never been a good producer and Boss herself realized this early on. The beatmaker later produced for 2Pac (posthumously), Snoop Dogg (post Death Row) and Nas (a censored remix of one of his most famous songs from 1994). Erick Sermon provides two almost identical rhythms that say nothing. The album features a dozen real tracks and is just over three quarters of an hour, this formula composed of generic rhythms and the hardcore playing of the two girls (especially Laws) works for about fifteen minutes, then it starts to get tiring and from the second listen it no longer impresses.

Released by Def Jam West and Chaos Recordings with Sony distribution, the album achieved great commercial success, stopping at number 22 on the Billboard 200 and in third place among hip-hop records, driven by the singles "Deeper" and "Recipe of a Hoe", both reached the top of the rap chart. Boss's debut CD receives an enthusiastic reception from specialized critics and sells 378,000 physical copies in the first months, grinding out mind-boggling numbers for a woman in rap, and being legitimized as the first gangsta rap girl. She seems to be destined for at least a gold record by touring with Dr. Dre, however, in 1994, the album's unstoppable run was suddenly cut short by a Wall Street Journal interview with Boss: the boys discover hot water and write how the rapper is describing facts that you have never experienced, having had a middle class upbringing, which you can hear from Laws' mom in the album's intro, which none of them apparently listened to. In the end, not even Lichelle Laws herself seems to like the album, years later.

After the release of Bo$$'s debut album, Laws decides to separate from Moore, credited as co-writer of half the album and that she subsequently fails to get a contract with Def Jam. Bo$$ moved to Texas to record more songs for Def Jam with Ricardo "Coco Budda" Royal, she goes to live with him in Houston and has a son, Lamar. Bo$$ continues to record songs and sends some demos to Def Jam in order to convince them to release a second LP, but the label rejects the material proposed by the rapper and decides to dump her. In the following period, she lost popularity and stopped focusing on her artistic career, and agrees to work as a co-host on a late-night hip-hop radio show in Dallas, where she moves together with Royal. In 1999, Bo$$ fell ill with kidney failure and separated from Royal, returning to live with their parents and living with kidney problems for years. A few years later she returns to collaborate on some underground records, going as far as releasing an independent mixtape in 2004, "The Six Million Dollar Mixtape", entirely produced by his friend Def Jef: the producer also tries to put the rapper back under contract with both major labels and underground labels, always encountering resistance from managers who were more concerned about the girl's current image than the actual quality of the music offered. A shame, because the girl deserved at least a second album.

Rating: 6/10.