Tuesday, June 9, 2015

BOHAGON YOUTH


I love hopeless cases like Bohagon, because unfulfilled potential is the most poetic form of failure.  A Georgian rapper with a serpentine lisp and the tranquilized drawl of a backwater T.I., he appeared on two So So Def comps in the late '90s during Lil Jon's stint as an A&R, then signed to his BME label in the days when crunk was king and it looked like our grandchildren would be suckling on bejeweled goblets filled with energy drink.  Jon put him on a number of album cuts and took him on tour, but the album never came out, although he did put out a good mixtape called Crunk in HD, where he holds two cans of citrus-flavored crunk juice as if he is forcing them on you, the viewer/listener, in a prelude to some perverse variation on waterboarding.

That could've been the end of that, but Hagon had already partnered with Playboy Tre for the Georgia Durt label and a number of artistic collaborations.  Tre's fleeting moment in the sun was the blog-beloved Liquor Store Mascot, the closest thing to a concept album on alcoholism rap may ever see.  Bohagon had a scene-stealing verse on the Gil-Scot-sampling "Living In The Bottle," and things seemed good for everyone until Tre crumbled under the burdensome task of dragging B.O.B.'s weed manpurse around.  I don't know what he's doing these days, because his only web presence is a private Instagram account and Facebook and YouTube accounts that haven't been updated since 2013.  If anyone has the word, please send me a carrier pigeon with a USB drive attached to his/her foot.  If you would like to hear mo' Hagon, here are some songs I lovingly assembled for you, years determined to the best of my ability.  Maybe when our Alan Lomax does a survey of the South, Bohagon will find a place in the archive - some small forgotten corner unoccupied by Z-Ro's papers and personal artifacts.

Bohagon w/ Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz - Drop Dem Boes (1998)
Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz w/ Khujo & Bohagon - Uhh Ohh (2000)
Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz w/ Bohagon - Get Crunk (2004)
Bohagon & Playboy Tre - In Stride (2005)
Bohagon - Walk A Mile (2005)
E-40 w/ Lil Scrappy & Bohagon - Pussy Niggaz (2005)
Bohagon - The Streets (2006?)
Bohagon w/ Diamond, Princess, Fabo - Wuz Up (2006)
Bohagon w/ Lil Scrappy - Coke In Ya Nose (2006)
Bohagon w/ Lil Scrappy - Money In The Hood (2006)
Lil Scrappy w/ Young Dro & Bohagon - Been A Boss (2006)
Yo Gotti w/ Bohagon - What It Is (2006)
Bohagon - Bucket (2008)
Bohagon - Do It 4 The Hood (2008)
Bohagon - Who Am I (2008)
Korleon w/ Bohagon - I Be Goin Hard (2009)
Playboy Tre w/ Bohagon - Living In The Bottle (2009)
Bohagon w/ Korleon - Live That Long (2013)

5 comments:

  1. Counting down to the day Fabo gets proper due as a Kim Fowley-an maverick genius.

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  2. also the best playboy tre tape is goodbye america

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  3. Great list.

    "They Snitchin" is also very necessary esp in light of "Bucket"

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