B.U.G. Mafia

B.U.G. Mafia (an abbreviation for "Bucharest Underground Mafia"), is a Romanian hip hop group from Pantelimon, Bucharest, widely regarded as one of the seminal acts of gangsta rap in Romania. Founded in 1993 as Black Underground, its original lineup consisted of Vlad "Tataee" Irimia, Dragoș "Caddy" (short for Cadillac) Vlad-Neagu and two other members, D.D. and Mr.Nobody, who, by the end of the year, had already departed from the group. Irimia and Vlad-Neagu, who were still teenage high school students at the time, had been working on amateur solo recordings and had little professional prospects on their own prior to their encounter. The group initially performed as a duo throughout Bucharest at local highschool proms and parties while considering their options for professional careers in music and, following a string of relatively unsuccessful attempts at promoting their music in English, they recruited Alin "Uzzi" Demeter in 1995 and eventually transitioned to writing in Romanian. Throughout the years, the group endured a long-standing controversy due to the explicit and confrontational nature of their lyrics. Focusing on subjects such as the post-communist Romanian political class, poverty and crime in Romania's communist-built housing projects or their recurring hostility towards Romanian Police, they were subsequently banned from many mainstream T.V. and radio stations in Romania and even at times prevented from touring, spending a night in police custody after their first concert in Drobeta-Turnu Severin in 1997. Although controversial in their incipient years, their lyricism has been praised by a number of literary figures, such as Emil Brumaru and Mircea Cărtărescu. Despite being independently produced on a modest budget over just a few months in 1995, their debut album Mafia signified the birth of Romanian gangsta rap and established them on the fledgling hip hop scene emerging at the time in Romania. They have been estimated to have sold over 1,150,000 records. They are widely regarded as the pioneers of the gangsta rap scene in Europe, being the first major group to fuse the raw, West Coast-inspired sound of 90s gangsta rap with the social and political struggles of post-communist Romania, shaping the foundation of Romanian rap. The group was founded in late 1993 when Pantelimon-based producer Vlad "Tataee" Irimia met Dragoș "Caddy" Vlad-Neagu in Bucharest. Tataee, who was still in highschool, had been interested in becoming a professional musician since 1992, when, under the stage name Doom, he had produced an independent demo called "Straight Outta da Hell", stirring Caddillac's interest, as he was also an amateur recording artist working under the name MC La Duc and had recorded a track titled "Apocalipse" on his own earlier in 1993. As Romania had just overthrown its communist regime in the Romanian Revolution of 1989, western goods such as bootleg recordings of rap albums had started to flood the market in the market liberalization process that had begun. As Irimia and Vlad-Neagu learned that their musical tastes coincided, they decided on pursuing their careers as a group which they named Black Underground and abbreviated it to B.U.G. in late 1993. Two friends of Irimia and Vlad-Neagu, D.D. and Mr.Nobody also joined later but, due to a lack of interest and involvement, quit in early 1994, before the group recorded any songs. In March 1994, Irimia and Vlad-Neagu, working under the stage names Doom and Klax 187 respectively, reworked Irimia's demo recording into their debut single. Working at the Uniplus Radio studios in Bucharest, the two decided to keep the title "Straight Outta da Hell" and recorded the song with Florin "DJ Sensei" Cojocaru, an electronic musician and DJ who produced the record. "Straight Outta da Hell" premiered a month later on Uniplus Radio during "YO! Rap is Moving." a hip-hop oriented late night program hosted by Adrian Niculescu, a local radio personality and DJ. Shortly following their radio debut, Tataee and Caddillac managed to book their first live appearance during a local hip hop concert in Bucharest, an experience they would both later remember as unpleasant, but also significantly influential in their choice of pursuing careers as professional musicians. Since hip hop was just emerging as a music genre in Romania in the early 1990s, studio time and stage performance opportunities were relatively limited, so the group had to rely on the restricted prospects that presented themselves to record more songs. They began working with Romeo Vanica, a keyboardist who had been a member of the Romanian rock group Mondial, who agreed to allow them to use his studio equipment for music production in 1994 as they started creating more songs for an English debut album, tentatively titled Breakin' da Law. While involved in the production process, Irimia and Vlad-Neagu also became interested in music management and consequently started exploring the local rap scene for other groups or solo artists to associate with in order to include a more diverse variety of artists on the album. In December 1994, they met Alin Demeter, who at the time performed under the stage name Drama and was a member of Demonii (The Demons), one of the few local rap acts who performed in Romanian. Initially, B.U.G. invited both members of the group to enroll in the newly founded crew and, throughout the first half of 1995, Demonii became involved in a number of local live performances with Black Underground in Bucharest. Following Demeter's bandmate's decision to form another group besides Demonii, the two parted ways and Demeter joined Black Underground in May 1995. After the settlement, Irimia, Vlad-Neagu and Demeter decided to scrap the recordings they had worked on and switch to performing and writing in Romanian in order to gain access to a larger potential fanbase in their native Romania. The group released Mafia in late 1995 and, since music distribution was virtually nonexistent in Romania at the time, the album was only available for a relatively short period of time in Bucharest, becoming valuable fan memorabilia over time. The album, recorded by Holograf keyboardist and producer Antonio "Tino" Furtună, contained 15 tracks, including collaborations with Pantelimon-based group M&G, hip hop female artist Marijuana and Romanian actress Rona Hartner. Even though their lyrical abilities have refined over the time, the group reflected the rising anger of the urban youth detailing aspects such as urban violence or the rising poverty of the Romanian working class in post-communist Romania in their debut work. With songs such as "Viață De Borfaș" (Thug Life), "Ucigaș" (Killer) or "Înc-o Cruce-n Cimitir" (Another Cross In The Cemetery) they painted their worldview as inner-city youths. Despite the album's poor sound quality and virtually inexistent label promotion, it created enough controversy around the group to allow them get signed by Cat Music, one of the largest Romanian record labels, paving their way to national superstardom. Mafia is frequently quoted among Romanian hip hop historians as the third hip hop album to be released in Romania, after R.A.C.L.A.'s Rap-Sodia efectului defectului (Rap-sody For The Flaw's Effect) and Paraziții's Poezii pentru pereți (Poetry For The Walls). After releasing their debut album, controversy surrounded the group regarding recurring use of violent and sexual lyrics and profanity. The situation created a buzz around them that sparked the interest of Alin Brașov, a Romanian American lawyer who had just returned to Romania and was one of the four associates who owned Cat Music, one of the first professional record labels, which also was the local branch of Sony Records. Brașov, having heard about the impressive success N.W.A had in the United States, convinced the other three associates, Emanuel Maxwell, Sorin Golea and Dan Popi to give the group a chance. B.U.G. Mafia were subsequently signed by Cat