It's about to be a very big week for New York rapper A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie. One of the genre's most talked about newcomers, Boogie will de dropping his debut LP, The Bigger Artist, on September 29th, and will come to us through Highbridge The Label and Atlantic Records. While there's more than enough excitement for the 21-year-old emcee to chew on at the moment, he recently revealed how one of his music dreams never materialized when it came time to ink a record deal with a major name. In truth, he was secretly hoping to be picked up by Jay-Z and Roc Nation.
"Diddy reached out, Khaled reached out, a lot of people reached out [...] I think the only person that hasn't reached out to try to sign me, when everybody was looking to sign me, was probably JAY-Z," he said during an interview with Montreality. "I ain't feel no type of way, but I felt like, 'Damn,' because I always [dreamed] about something like that. That was just one of my goals. But after a while, I had to wake up and realize, 'Damn, I could become bigger than that, feel me.'" Though attaining the kind of career that Hov has made for himself and blessed the hip-hop community with is a lofty goal to be sure, the pieces might be in place for Boogie to take the first steps towards hitting that target.
His label, Atlantic was listed, as of May 2017, as No. 1 in overall market share among the big three of Universal, Sony and Warner. They've also now got a new hitmaker on their hands, with Cardi B becoming the first unassisted female emcee to hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart since 1998, when Lauryn Hill last did it. The recent success for them has effectively counteracted their bungling of high-quality hip-hop acts in the past, such as Lupe Fiasco and Action Bronson. It's still too early to pronounce A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie the next success story from the vaunted record label, but if the teases of promise shine through on his upcoming full-length project, the sky is the limit for the New York artist.
