Big Flock

Hailing from Maryland, where he spent his formative years, rapper Charles Ulysses Bowman-Bey launched his performing career as Big Flock near the start of 2012 while aligned with the collective Thraxxx. Alongside fellow rappers Lizzle, Freakshow, and Boogie Snow, he contributed to the Washington, D.C. area rap scene through both group efforts and independent releases. Solo mixtapes arrived at a pace matching his Thraxxx output, beginning with the 2013 project Trilluminati and continuing through an unbroken series of increasingly intense and somber works. In 2014 he issued the Sonny mixtape together with the EP Live Hungry, Die Fat, followed over the subsequent two years by the additional mixtapes Glockism, Kill Me Now, and The Great Depression; the last of these included appearances by 21 Savage and Hoodrich Pablo Juan. Big Flock’s recordings and accompanying videos depicted glorified gang violence alongside drug-dealing narratives, themes drawn directly from his own experiences. Periods of incarceration marked his early career, culminating in a three-year sentence handed down in late 2016 on gun and drug charges. By March 2017 he had composed a five-page open letter expressing remorse for those offenses, acknowledging that he had recognized—somewhat belatedly—the streets’ indifference toward anyone, and the widely circulated statement delivered pointed lessons to his audience.