Thursday 3 November 2011

What do Devin The Dude and Boo Rossini share in common?

Apart from both being southern rappers who both debuted in the 90s, the two of them started their careers as single word name rappers who were then forced to adopt the title of one of their albums as a postfix to their Rap monikers; Devin became Devin The Dude after the cover of The Dude confused record store owners and customers alike, and Boo had to become Boo Da Boss Playa/The Boss Player after he retitled, rejigged, repackaged and reissued his Birds Fly South debut as The Boss Player and everybody just assumed that was his name because what sort of dipshit Rapper would call themselves something as unimposing as Boo?

Anyway, I have to confess that I'm barely familiar with any of the music he's released under the name Boo Rossini other than Throw It Up and Immuh from Max Minelli's Me And My Hustle album when he was affiliated with C-Loc's Concentration Camp crew and the odd more recent joint from the C.T.E weed carrier era like All About Me with Z-Ro, but I've been listening to what I can find of his early stuff under his original monikers online this past couple of months and found an underrated masterpiece of melancholy Gangsta-Rap which uses that same damn hitherto-unidentified Part Time Lover cover version sample as AZ's Hustle In My Blood :

"I'm on the block tryna flip it fo' sho
a skinny n*gga searching for the rainbow
I'm on the block in the same clothes
a skinny n*gga searching for the rainbow"


Boo Da Boss Playa ft. King Goldie - Rainbow
(From A Hustla's Prayer; 2000)


If you've ever had the misfortune of hearing the Rolling Stones' pitiful Psychedelic-experiment-period plunder of Love's She Comes In Colors you'll already be aware that songs about rainbows generally can't be trusted in the hands of Rock musicians so, as ever, it's left to Rappers to save an entire sub-genre of songwriting, although it's worth noting that Boo & Goldie should probably be wary of what they might find at the end of their rainbow alongside that pot of gold. Kudos to Boo for this song and for also possessing the uncanny ability of resembling both Rap's Da Capo and A-Wax depending on which direction you squint at him.

Anybody have his Concentration Camp-era CD 601? I can't find any working links online and I'm unsure whether it's worth me shelling out $45 on from Amazon which would end up as over £30 factoring in postage and packing. The album could be a dud, but it's very tempting when it's almost entirely produced by "Happy" Perez and there are appearances by C-Loc, Young Bleed and Lay-Lo on there.

8 comments:

sisilafami said...

this is the sample : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL8HD9jkkrQ

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

Oh shit! Thanks.

That moog is a total rip off of Part Time Lover's melody on the hook, though, right? Or is it just me that's hearing that?

sisilafami said...

I'd say it's close.

That sample is cleared on "how long can it last" from the underground kingz album. That's how i found it.

sisilafami said...

I got to hear boo's pre-rossini discography now.

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

Damn, I always thought How Long Can It Last was just a replay of Part Time Lover too.

I might pull the trigger on one of the copies of 601 later.

brad said...

lovin' this

yoyosucka said...

I love that Boo - Boss playa. Is that birds fly south a tape-only release? Have never seen that one around though. If i remember correctly that boy Freddie Young had some production on boss player like he had on most of them classic Jackson releases. True Jackson legend there. I have been close copping that 601 a few times but never did it. I have not heard it either, and i might think it is a dud. But seeing Freddie Young got some tracks there too i might reconsider it.
You heard that RMC tape? It was recently reissued by the artists and some german guy selling tons of them on ebay. Some real tight Jackson shit there. Classic shit.

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

Not heard of that, but it sounds interesting. Will seek it out.

Yeah, I think Birds Fly South was just a tape only type deal he sold in his 'hood, so when he pressed it up on CD to sell in the whole of Mississippi he retitled it. I can't even find a pic of the o.g 'tape cover online. The track Birds Fly South is great.

The only other Jackson shit I know is the Mellow-T related stuff like Wildliffe Society and Children Of The Cornbread.