Genres: Rap/Hip HopMixing genres is often a difficult task but according to the numbers B.G. put it all together and made a sound that works well for him.
B.G. - Making History
"I mean a lot of artists let the labels dictate whether they going to put them in a shiny suit or let 'em do them and personally, I'm just too hood to be Hollywood."
Mixing genres is often a difficult task but according to the numbers B.G. put it all together and made a sound that works well for him.
B.G. - The Early Life
B.G. aka B Gizzle or Baby Gangsta, was born Christopher Dorsey in New Orleans, Louisiana on September 3, 1980. Spending his childhood in rough uptown New Orleans by age twelve he took to the streets selling drugs and rapping as a hobby. Luckily for him and history, Baby Gangsta was sent by his barber to audition with Cash Money Records, brothers Baby/Birdman and Ronald "Slim" Williams. The brothers signed him and a career was born.
Cash Money Records
Known as the B.G.'z, B.G., age 14, and Lil Wayne, just 12 years old, recorded True Story (original release in 1995). As with many of B.G. works - some of the singles on the album told a story, his story of growing up in New Orleans style poverty. Chopper City (1996), It's All on U Volumes 1 and 2 (1997) selling over 250,000, followed in rapid succession. He also collaborated with Lil Wane, Juvenile, Young Turk, and Bulletproof (Baby's nephew), as the Hot Boyz (who left to go solo) for the 1997 debut release of Get It How U Live, selling over 400,000 copies.
After Cash Money penned a distribution deal with Universal Records one of their first releases was B.G's Chopper City in the Ghetto (1999), with its massive hit single Bling Bling and urban radio hit Cash Money Is an Army. The album topped the Billboard 200 that April and went Platinum very soon after. "Bling bling" was actually added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2003, defined as "any sort of expensive jewelry, automobiles, or other forms of opulence".
This made B.G. a man of history. Riding the wave of success, Guerrilla Warfare (1999) spawned 2 hits - I need a Hot Girl and We on Fire - also going Platinum in short order. Cash Money reissued two of B.G's disks, True Story and Chopper City. He did one last album, Checkmate (2000), before a dispute over money made them part ways.
Making his own way
After settling the legal differences with Cash Money, B.G. formed his own label, Chopper City Records, and penned a deal with Koch Records for distribution. The new label's debut album was Living Legend (2003) where he continued his autobiographical style. He quickly followed up with Life after Cash Money (2004), the Heart of tha Streetz Volume 1, (2005), Volume 2, (2006), and We Got This, featuring the Chopper City Boyz, in (2007).
Whittled from quartet to duo Life in the Concrete Jungle was released in 2008. Throughout his disks he hashes out his opinions, feelings, and disappointments with fellow rappers, life, his drug addictions, run-ins with the law, and difficulties with fellow-man.
B.G's latest album, star-studded Too Hood 2 be Hollywood, was released in December, 2009, distributed by Universal, featuring many of his old homies and collaboration among several producers. Industry chatter is that there is another reunion being planned after the last one was cut due to an eruption of gunfire outside the club shut the party down.
Drugs and violence seems to be a staple in B.G.'s life. His associate Soulja Slim was brutally murdered Thanksgiving Eve in front of his mothers home in the 8th Ward and Juvenile's 4 year old daughter, Jelani, was murdered by her half-brother. The newspaper often reads like a veritable who's who of the New Orleans hip-hop roster. In November, 2009, B.G. was arrested on felony weapons charges after a traffic stop revealed stolen firearms and ammo in the vehicle.
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