After in years of inactivity it’s safe to say, A Boogie is on the clock! Which in of itself is hard to even quantify, because in the past ten years A Boogie is arguably the most important rapper out of the five boroughs that compromise New York City. Everything rap that is melodic out of New York City is a direct cause of his brand of music. His influence is everywhere, yet if feels as if he’s been lapped by those who have obviously studied every word he’s ever rap-sung.
Atlantic Records recently parted ways with multi-platinum recording artist Meek Mill, and the late PnB Rock before his untimely death. Yet Atlantic is still the home to melodic rapper critically-acclaimed, nine time Grammy nominated Roddy Rich. Roddy is out here thriving and like artist Rod Wave at the top of the year closed a $15 million deal with Alamo Records.
A Boogie Wit da Hoodie
Does A Boogie feel the pressure to deliver at that level? Between his Breakfast Club interview to support the roll out of Me vs. Myself and the project itself its easy to hear that he understands where he’s at and he’s not comfortable with his place with in his career and most importantly in Hip Hop. Lack of productivity has been Boogies biggest issue, aside from EP’s his last project Artist 2.0 was released early 2020, pre-pandemic. Ending this year his dropped Me vs. Myself (Album) and an apology for his inactivity to his supporters with a A promises of a project every three months this coming year, for the foreseeable future.
But let’s start at the twenty three song Me vs. Myself (Deluxe). The project opens up with A Boogie featuring PnB Rock on “Needed That.” The song is about embracing romantic setbacks as they come. Hearing PnB Rock lead off A Boogie’s project with the Hook and first verse just shows the love and respect A Boogie have for PnB Rock and reminds us of the that PnB Rock was. Let’s get to the stand outs. "Take Shots" with Tory Lanez, "Water (Drowning 2.0)" featuring Kodak Black. A clear attempt to try and capture lighting in a bottle twice (The original Drowning record is several times platinum). Features also include Lil Dirk (twice), Roddy Rich, H.E.R., G Herbo, and Don Q.
The Bronx native’s subject matter is typical Boogie, heartbreak, money, strippers, materialism, but he’s in familiar vocal pockets, and then he strays into territories that he hasn’t frequented. It’s not a bad thing that his content is his content. It’s the vocal pathways that he chooses to deliver his content. It’s hard to tell an artist to not do the thing that he’s known for, not to do the very thing that made him successful. Not listening to anyone is what got him here. But growth should be the what’s seminal for new works of art.
In closing, the good thing is A Boogie Wit da Hoodie is back, the bad thing is there isn’t much difference since the last time we saw him pre-pandemic. This album Me vs. Myself (Album) was titled correctly. It’s plain to see A Boogie can only be defeated by A Boogie.