Lil' Boosie

Boosie Badazz, who first recorded as Lil' Boosie, forged his hard-edged Southern sound while coming of age in one of Baton Rouge, Louisiana’s most notorious neighborhoods, an area marked by widespread drug activity and gun violence. The absence of his father added further hardship, but his deep involvement in basketball initially seemed to open a route to college. Drug-related trouble instead led to his expulsion from high school, after which he turned to rap and connected with C-Loc. His first recorded appearance came on C-Loc’s 2000 album It’s a Gamble, followed by the independent full-length Youngest of da Camp. Real momentum arrived once he joined Pimp C’s Trill Entertainment roster; there he linked with Webbie for the 2003 project Ghetto Stories and the 2004 album Gangsta Musik, which introduced Webbie’s later hit “Give Me That.” After Trill secured a deal with the Warner Bros.-affiliated Asylum label, both artists moved to a major imprint. Webbie’s album appeared in 2005 and Boosie’s Bad Azz followed in 2006, featuring guest spots from Yung Joc, Pimp C, and Webbie. The accompanying Bad Azz DVD contained interview segments in which Boosie discussed the drug-related death of his father and his own diabetes diagnosis. Late that year he released the Streetz Is Mine mixtape with DJ Drama. Superbad: The Return of Boosie Bad Azz arrived in 2009 along with the single “Better Believe It,” and Incarcerated followed in 2010 while he served a sentence for drug possession. After his 2014 release from prison he adopted the name Boosie Badazz, appeared on Jeezy’s “Beez Like” and T.I.’s “Jet Fuel,” and offered the free digital mixtape Life After Deathrow. Atlantic then set the official album Touchdown to Cause Hell for a February 2015 release.