On Boogie’s major label debut album, he approaches life with an admirable sense of vulnerability, broken apart with realistic fits of frustration and anger.
Boogie is a rapper coming from a very troubled past. Though he is in a better place now, his entire life he has struggled with poverty, infidelity, and confusion. On a recent interview on Power 105, the Compton born rapper revealed that from his birth until well into his teenage years, he and his mom were sleeping on the streets and occasionally a friend’s home. He also revealed that throughout his entire life he has never been faithful to the girl he is in a relationship, something that he is working very intensely on with his current partner. On this new album, he confronts his insecurities head on. He talks about his best attempts at keeping his 9 year old son from knowing the struggle that he was all too familiar with at that age and he talks about the women in his life he has not treated well and searching for answers on why he can’t just be perfect. This is first touched on in the very first song of the album, “Tired/Reflections,” When he raps, “Tired of working on myself I want to be perfect already, Tired of the dating process I want to know what’s certain already, Tired of questioning if God’s real I want to get murdered already.”
It is apparent that Boogie is one who has a very thoughtful conscience and is just another person trying to navigate through life. Many songs here, like “Tired/Reflections,” “LOLSMH,” “Skydive,” and “Whose Fault,” are pretty much stream of conscience tracks where Boogie reflects on topics such as women, the music industry, being slept on, and feeling like he doesn’t really understand himself. These are mellow sounding tracks with a lot of natural instrumentation that allow for Boogie to flow over the beat for as long as it takes for him to get his point across. The word play on this album is complex and dazzling. “Locked in my mind I’m surprised to find I think silence is key.” Boogie is constantly dropping lines with two, even three, possible meanings behind them and it makes the music much more fun to listen to. One of the ones that stood out most to me was on the explosive track, “Rainy Days,” featuring Eminem, where Boogie raps, “I come from a place where things can get shady, my chances were slim.”
While we are on the topic of features on the album, there are not many, but when they do pop up they are used incredibly effectively. The notable ones seen on here are J.I.D, Eminem, and 6LACK. J.I.D delivers his verse on the uniquely produced banger, “SOHO.” The two spit over winding and unwinding synths created by James Teej and let this dark production give them the opportunity to rap about the frustration that the meetings and negative energy of the music industry brings to them. However, the last 30 seconds or so of “Soho,” feature a beat change to a lone piano while Boogie begins a verse where he rapidly dishes out a brief moment of his fears about ending up back where he was 10 years ago and mourning the people who have died before they were able to see him where he is today. I saw this moment as Boogie saying that he has much larger things on his mind than the marketing meeting or lunch meetup that somebody is making him attend in Southern Hollywood. Eminem appears on the explosive banger titled, “Rainy Days.” At first listen I was not a huge fan of his verse as he starts off very strong and then about 3/4 of the way through the verse he goes into the strange and awkward flow he used for the majority of his 2017 atrocity of an album titled Revival. However, this doesn’t take away too much from the verse and after a few listens I actually began to appreciate the flow change. “Rainy Days,” is a song that deals with a theme a lot of rappers have discussed before which is where they were a few years back and where their career trajectory is taking them. Boogie’s verse on this song is on of my favorites on the album as he sounds incredibly hungry and lets the soaring 808’s float underneath his ominous delivery.
What I loved about the album most was probably the way that it was structured. Going in, I was wondering how the more aggressive tracks would fit in with Boogie’s more laidback and conscious tracks. The result is that the album is structured so it really feels like you are experiencing the thoughts and life of someone who is trying to be the best they can possibly be at their craft. The moments of reflection and soul searching are broken apart by fits of frustration and anger. He also includes the times in life when the main character of whatever story you’re applying this album to, is living and experiencing the world, seen on “Live95,” and “Swap Meet.” This is the story of someone who is learning to understand themselves and balancing their struggles with perfecting their craft so that, even if it is not right now, they will someday be one of the greats.
The stretch of songs that I found to be the most interesting on the album were, “Whose Fault,” “No Warning,” and “Self Destruction.” I found a small hidden storyline within these three tracks. With “Whose Fault,” Boogie discusses what his life has been like dating the woman who is not the mother of his child, and sharing the responsibility of raising his son with the mother, as friends. It is a complicated situation and Boogie raps through the frustrations of being an artist on the road as well as being present for his son. This is done over airy production created by Keyel and Dart and what really pulls the whole track together is the breaks between the verses that introduces a very smooth sounding saxophone into the production which sounds great. Next, with “No Warning,” I felt like it was heading back in time. While on, “Whose Fault,” he was rapping about the present and how he is working on being a father, “No Warning,” goes back to splitting with his girlfriend who is the mother of his child as well as finding out that she is pregnant. This isn’t referenced directly but the lyrical content leads me to believe this is probably what the song is centered around. This song features a church choir and a lone piano and quiet snare and hi hat drum pattern, barely even audible. What happens next is Boogie’s “Self Destruction.” With this song he is throwing all responsibility out the window. He feels like he doesn’t know what he’s going to do anymore and the world is against him. He raps about all the stuff he’s going to do and lets his conscience take the backseat while he pushes his worries and concerns away. “Till the time I f**k a singer I can’t say I’m that guy, like that night I drunk text SZA then got hot she ain’t reply.” The beat on this track is really nasty, produced by Mario Luciano, it features very heavy bass and an evil sounding melody that Boogie’s melodic hook pairs incredibly well with.
I rate Everything’s For Sale by Boogie an 8/10
The First Spin 