I-Light Media
B-More's favorite son, BOSSMAN
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- iLight Media
B-More's favorite son, BOSSMAN
I-Light Media
It’s 12:50A.M. and the party ain’t jumping. On a holiday weekend in Harm City, B-More’s favorite son, BOSSMAN, is having a birthday party at a new southside club. In a hot spot meant to comfortably accommodate 1,000 guests, the few hundred there are sparsely scattered throughout the dance floor and VIP. I’ve never met BOSSMAN in person, so I’m trying to locate him based on the cover photo of his breakthrough independent ’04 release, Law & Order. I’m assuming that he’ll be easy to spot in a party like this one. He’ll probably be the one with his head in his hands, wondering why so few have shown support on the day of his birth.
Radio One personality, Rod Mad Flava, hands the microphone to an anxious MC who seems more than happy to get the microphone. Immediately, the DJ spins one of BOSSMAN’s recent releases, “Hand Clap”, to little fanfare. I assume that this must be BOSSMAN, and I’m disappointed. Only at this juncture, I don’t know if I’m more disappointed with him or the city of Baltimore.
It was only a little over a year ago when a young street rapper who was formerly known as Jimmy Hash, emerged in a major way onto the local scene as Boss Man with a smash single called “Land of the O”. This is the land and the home of the O’s/This is the place where we rock them O’s/Eastside/Oh/Westside/Oh…Finally, Baltimore produced a street anthem that the entire city was proud to bump in their rides and party to in all of the clubs. The local disc jockeys were spinning it like it was the latest single from Jigga, and BOSSMAN joined an elite few independent MCs from the town known for crabs in a barrel seemed to be letting one get out of the reach of haters’ claws. Boss Man even further distanced himself from other rappers when he released another two singles that received airplay, “I Did It” and “Off the Record”.
The latter attracted attention from neighboring cities like Philly, Richmond, and even the usually love-deficient Washington D.C. were pumping “Off the Record” on their most requested hit lists every day. By the time Law & Order moved 30,000 independent units, Jermaine Dupri’s Virgin Records Urban Division came calling with a major recording contract. The young don proclaimed, “We signed BOSSMAN because his music is real. Baltimore is still an untapped market, and I believe that we’ve got an artist who is really going to start a movement there.”
Now with one of the most consistent hitmakers in the industry cosigning for him, why does it seem like B-More is missing in action tonight? Could it be that the newest boss from the East coast just doesn’t have the “it” factor? As I’m packing up, preparing to leave the event, a mob of darkly clad fellows converge upon the VIP and miraculously change the atmosphere. BOSSMAN, appropriately clad in a rhinestone Biggie shirt, confidently grabs the microphone with instrumental anthem “Land of the O” playing in the background. With one glance I immediately arrive at one halting realization: I was wrong. The swagger, the cockiness, the entourage all told the tale. Boss Man is a star. Maybe the city just doesn’t realize it yet.
Three days later, I find BOSSMAN at the local Radio One station, sitting in on the Sunday night hip hop show like he’s a regular fixture there. The first thing that I notice is that he doesn’t seem as bulky as he looked in pictures, or even in the club a few nights earlier. We converse for about an hour about almost every aspect of hip hop music, his experiences as an artist, and the upcoming album slated for an April release. I asked few questions because he answered with intricate stories, displaying a sharp wit and an impressive intellect. He was not as cocky as he was at the party, but he was definitely not at a loss for words.
BOSSMAN: He (Jermaine Dupri) might do a couple of joints on the album. He’s been really supportive and, of course, he has the final say, but he doesn’t have to be on the album in order for me to have a hit.
ilightmedia.net: You and SunN.Y. were two of the first artists outside of the So So Def camp signed to Virgin. And with SunN.Y.’s album release date being pushed back indefinitely, where does that leave you in the scheme of things?
BOSSMAN: I’m not worried. We just real careful. We have a lot of support from the label, and I’m making sure that we make the right moves and release the right songs. You can’t (aren’t allowed to) mess up when you’re on a major label. An artist usually only gets one chance. That’s why when they just wanted to re-release Law & Order nationally, I said ‘Naw’. I only wanted to keep three songs, and those were the songs that I know are stuff that people gon’ feel.
ilightmedia.net: Jermaine says that Baltimore is untapped right now.
BOSSMAN: It is. He know that ain’t no artist really pop from this area like that yet. I mean, ain’t nobody lyrically represent how we do here in B-More.
ilightmedia.net: You trying to say B. Rich…just kidding.
BOSSMAN: See, that’s the thing about me. I ain’t scared to comment on anybody.
ilightmedia.net: No, I was really joking about that. B. Rich is doing his thing. But otherwise, what do you think will make you stand out as an artist?
BOSSMAN: I bring the B-More aspect into the game. My feeling records are the best. I mean, even in the “Hand Clap” song, that’s a East Coast back to lyrics song. It might not be all sentimental or nothing, but it gives you information about me and how I do. To me, music has to have information. That’s what’s missing right now in a lot of people’s music.
ilightmedia.net: How did you get started? A lot of people think you just came out and got signed off of two songs.
BOSSMAN: My people know. We been grinding at this for a minute. I’m down with a crew called NEK (North East Kings). We did a project and gave away 20,000 free mixtapes.
ilightmedia.net: 20,000?
BOSSMAN: Yeah, we just wanted to get our music out there. We sold 5,000. I was known as Jimmy Hash then. It was more of us then, but now it’s Dollars, Tony Manson, and me. We went out of town and sold our CDs for $2 each, you know, just grinding. Then, DJ Rod Lee had that beat for “[Land of the] O’s” for about a year. I had heard it, but I never did anything with it. Then I was driving and I came up with the hook. I wanted to make something that really represented our city like that. You know, like “Welcome to Atlanta” or one of them other anthems from other cities. Then we came out with it and the DJs started jumping on it immediately. That’s how you know you got a hit, when you don’t have to ask somebody to play your music. And that’s how it happened. It took about a month for it to pop, but after it did, we got a lot of love from this area.
ilightmedia.net: It seems like Baltimore might really be the next area to blow. Young Leek (new Baltimore artist) just got signed to Def Jam. What do you think about that?
BOSSMAN: That’s a good look for Baltimore and for DJ [Kay] Swiss. Paula Campbell too (recently signed to Sony).
ilightmedia.net: That’s what’s up. So what do you want the public to know about Boss Man?
BOSSMAN: I mean, my story isn’t a whole lot different from a lot of others in the hood. You know, growing up with negative influences and struggling through a lot of things. What I want people to know about me though is that I took all the negative energy and made it a positive.