L.E.P. - Ozone Magazine

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No disrespect to the West Coast, but Chicago started this gangsta shit--yet, looking at most of the city’s current successful Hip Hop acts, you’d never know it. Backpack and skateboard rap have dominated The ‘Go and may give many outsiders the wrong impression of the city home to the most infamous gangsters since Al Capone. Make no mistakes: Chicago is a criminal city. If the current violent streak continues, it will be without question 2008’s murder capitol of America, and at times can make Compton look like Connecticut. And while Lupe Fiasco and The Cool Kids can kick push through parts of the city with ease, they certainly weren’t frolicking around The Bogus Boys Low End neighborhood. Count, Moonie, and Big Rugg, also known as the Low End Professionals give a new meaning to the word “real.” Straight off the streets, these three don’t attest to be anything they aren’t, but even though they do gangbanging music, they’ve proved that you can do so without promoting violence. “They blamed Hip Hop for everything that’s going on in the streets and in the gangs,” says the Infared Records CEO who just goes by the name E. “But [no gang] is worse than the government. Right now Chicago is the murder capitol. We’re talking about what’s going on down here.” Not only is the group talking about what’s been going on in the crime riddled Chi-Town, but they’ve also transcended Chicago’s recent reputation for friendly rap, and are representing the city their way. The Low End is a very distinct hood in Chicago, but for people that aren’t as familiar with the city, can you give a little description of what it’s like out there Count: It’s grimy on the Low, real grimy, that’s where all the projects are—State Street. The whole South Side, really the whole Chicago is grimy, but the Low End got a whole ‘nother story to tell, it’s the grimiest. “Bogus” is a trademark word in the Chicago vernacular. Can you explain why you guys call yourselves Bogus Boys Moonie: Chicago started the whole gang banging movement, and we feel if you gon’ be a part of something you should at least know the history behind it. In Chicago back in the 80’s and 90’s [Gangster Disciple leader] Larry Hoover had a hit mob called the Bogus Boys. When he had a problem with m’fuckas he would send them Bogus Boys to do his murdering. My cousin was an official member of that, and I grew up around him. The Bogus Boys got so big that they basically revolted and told Larry Hoover, “Fuck you,” in a sense. Of course Larry Hoover didn’t like that, so he had anybody who said they were a Bogus Boy killed. Most of them got annihilated, but there are still some that are around now, like my cousin Andre Gill. They call him Billy the Kidd. So that’s where the name Bogus Boys comes from; it was a hit mob from the GD’s. Tell me about the movement Count: The movement is going well. We all kinda came up together. We from Inglewood on the Low End of Chicago, and we all came together, and decided to do music. We would be in the projects just messin’ around, man, and eventually we got serious. We first had a deal with Interscope, and then we got out of that and we got signed to Sony, but then my little brother got killed, so that kinda scared them, so we got outta that deal. Now, we’ve been grinding independently, we got like 100,000 mixtapes out in the street. We got that fanbase going, and we got songs out here on the radio now on like 40 stations. We got songs with Jim Jones, Young Dro, Fabolous, and we got a song with Rick Ross called “Thug Girl.” We definitely gotta buzz going, especially in Chicago. Moonie: The movement is strong. We get like 10,000 hits a day on Myspace. We’re in the new Kanye video, “Homecoming,” and the new Yung Berg video “Do Dat There.” We get love from all the DJ’s: Ferris, V- Dubb, Sean Mac, all the Violators, we mess with all the DJs. We got a serious movement; I can go to Cabrini Green and get 100 niggas out here. I can go to West Side—to the village, K-Town and get a hundred niggas. I can go to the south side and get a hundred niggas. Who does most of your production Big Rugg: We got two producers that do all our production: Low Key and the Fly Boyz. In your opinion, what is Chicago’s role in the national Hip Hop scene right now Count: Man, Hip Hop moves around from this coast, to that coast, to down South, but Chicago has always been on something different. We weren’t really about Hip Hop OZONE | 17
here, we were more about the organizations in the streets. Rap hit hard around here like everywhere else in the country, but in Chicago, we don’t have any major labels, so people just have to get their buzz up and perfect their craft. We’ve got the momentum, and we’re pushing down the door and creating opportunities out here. The Chicago story needs to be heard and that’s what we’re here doing. There definitely seems to be a distinct connection between the culture of Chicago and the South. Count: Well, Chicago has a little bit more of an edge to it then down South does. People up here are a little less friendly than cats down South, but there are definitely a lot of similarities. The South is as gangsta as it gets, and so is the Chi. But Chicago has a lot of different musical styles, and some music from the Chi is really similar to Southern music. The Bogus Boys get love everywhere we go, whether it’s the East Coast, West Coast, or Down South. What type of fans come to your shows Count: Our fanbase is diverse. We keep it in the streets, but the females do what they do, too. We gear some of our music to the females. We got some songs for the guys, and some for the lil’ juvies, ‘cause they be out in the streets, too. Basically, we make music based on the last 6 months of our lives, so what’s currently going on the world, you gon’ hear in our music. We make music for the streets, for our hood. I wish I could tell you something different, but we ain’t in the corporate buildings downtown, so I can’t tell you about that. I’m in the streets every day. We’re in the streets right now while I’m talking to you. As Chicago artists, what attracted you guys to Bike Week in Myrtle Beach We just wanna be a part of whatever’s going on. That’s how we’re getting our music and our movement out there. We go everywhere that’s poppin’. What it is about L.E.P and The Bogus Boys that makes y’all different from the legions of other independent rap groups Our story. We’re different. Our streets is different—they’re more structured. You need to hear about our political prisoners. We structured these organizations, and had these neighborhoods under control where it wasn’t all wild out here like it is now. They took the structure out of the streets when they locked up our chiefs and our leaders. It wasn’t all this random killing before then. We got a serious story to tell; this is a Chicago thing, and plus we’ve got some really good music. We’ve got cool production, nice features, and it’s real professional. It’s on point, and it’s industry ready. Big Rugg: We don’t advocate violence, we only talk about what we see. We put out 120,000 copies of our mixtapes last year, we got 60,000 out in the streets right now. We’ve done the Raw Report, The Source, and a couple of other small magazines. Our grind is so ugly. We’ve got our wrapped vans, a hundred miles moving. A label is gon’ really have to come get it with us, and put they money where they mouth is. Not too long ago, you released a Yung Berg diss. Where did that come from E: Yung Berg used to be on our label. He tells everybody that DMX signed him, but actually we were in a meeting in New York with DMX. I wasn’t gonna go with the deal they were trying to offer us, because we weren’t getting enough from the label. [Yung Berg’s] dad lied and said he had left his bag in the meeting room; he went back in and got DMX’s number. Once we got back to Chicago we didn’t hear from Berg again. Then we found out he had went back up there and signed a deal with DMX. Shorty feels he’s in a good situation right now, but we’ll see where his career is when the real gangstas come through. We’re in his video, but we still dissing him. He knows he can’t come to the city without letting us in his video. So do you still have animosity with him E: Until he straightens it out with Moonie I ain’t got nothing to say to him. I put $50,000 dollars into him for he and his daddy to be where they are. Yung Berg wanted to be on so bad, he would cross his mother or father to get in the game. Okay, so getting back to L.E.P., tell me about your current label situation Moonie: We’re independent now. Infared is our label. We were with Sony, but when Larro got killed, the label kinda got scared. We got off the label and started pushing the music ourselves. We’ve had a few labels call us offering 360 deals. We don’t want a 360 deal. We’ve been good by ourselves, why would we get into a situation where somebody can control our music Website: www.myspace.com/bogusboyslep 18 | OZONE
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