Ears Wide Open: Boogie

Andrew Veeder on February 10th, 2015

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Long Beach rapper Boogie hasn’t been rapping long, but he sounds like he has, with a cadence and ease in his flow that suggest seasoning. In 2014, the 25-year-old guested on SBTRKT’s “Wonder Where We Land” B-side “Spaced Out,” and dropped the “Thirst 48” mixtape last summer, an 11-track offering full of smart and witty rhymes with a laid-back, slightly nasal voice that brings to mind an elder, chilled-out Chance the Rapper. “Bitter Raps” skewers his ego-obsessed peers who roll blunts just for the selfie photo opp, with production from DK The Punisher: “I hate when n*ggas get grown up and outta nowhere get to bangin’ / Like, where you hanging? / I wonder if them n*ggas know you at the place that you be claiming / (Prolly not) Or you just acting / And most of you n*ggas is my sons, sh*t I should claim you on my taxes,” before finally admitting, “I guess I’m on the same thing / I’m prolly on the same thing.” The new year looks to be just as promising for Boogie, with a new project in the works called “The Reach,” and a brand new track called “Further.” Framed around a beat by Keyel, and news footage of a shooting suspect and the 6-year-old victim, Boogie raps about the struggle he was born into, what he’s trying to do about it, and how he’s trying to raise his son, spitting the lyrics, “I’m trying to read on, this ain’t just my story / I’m trying to let em know your plot too / I see a ni*gga kill a n*gga but it’s sick how we be trippin’ when the cops do / Like don’t that seem backwards? / Words never written in this unseen chapter / Mapping out the plan and ain’t never seen the atlas.”

||| Stream: “Bitter Raps” and “Further”