After a much more personal album, Sanctuary, which followed the birth of his son, Bugsy H. is back with a new album, SABA2, a follow-up to his album Sabato. An album that was musically dark with both harcdore and horrorcore tendencies, while being very lyrical with personal reflections on life and the world around us. The album reflected the rapper’s philosophy with a concept he invented himself, called Mosaic Rap. Listening to the album, this word took all its meaning, the words were assembled as a real puzzle of thoughts and emotions communicated by the rapper, as an artistic and musical mosaic.
The title of the album was already not insignificant and reflected the artistic will of Bugsy H. Sabato is none other than the nickname given to the architect Simon Rodia, who inspired the rapper in his concept of Mosaic Rap. Like the architect, the rapper assembles words to build his work. As he says himself, the album was originally to be called Sabato 2. Not surprisingly, it is a construction of the architect that we find on the cover of the album, the Watts Tower.
Bugsy H.
Sabato was a nickname of the architect and builder Simon Rodia he build the Watts Towers. I was smoked out once and watched a doc on YouTube about him randomly and already started piecing things together as he did with the structures. So originally I was going to call the Album Sabato 2 but I figured Saba2 had a better ring to it
SABA2 will follow the same concept, still focused on words and the will to give them a meaning and a poetry once assembled, which the rapper does wonderfully well. Unlike Sabato which had a very dark atmosphere, SABA2 offers much more eclectic moods while remaining consistent, which again reinforces this concept of mosaic. It manages to take us in universes at the same time dark, at the same time sad, and at the same time comic. But overall the album is much more laid-back than before.
Like a comedy, the album tells the adventures of the rapper by taking us into his neighborhood stories with numerous references to his native neighborhood of South-End in Boston. However, the rapper also refers to Los Angeles, the city of cinema, we melt in Hollywood stories with perpetual returns to his origins. The introductive track Bridge In Bridge Out evokes his constant back and forth between his stories of South-End and Hollywood, while also being a reference to the bridge that separates Bay Village and South-End. A direct reference to his street, 290th section of Shawmut Ave, is also hidden in a punchline full of meaning, it is meant to be humorous while having an undertone in its actual meaning.
Bugsy H.
Could grill a steak off the Civic that your Uncle had exploded hold it. Ave was noticed by the globe came to show and quote us
In all his neighborhood stories, the first source of inspiration for the Boston rapper is his son. A simple look where he sees his smile gives him the words to write, a way to bring him back to the reality of life, the simple things that make happiness, but also the difficulties of the world around us. A source of inspiration that also pushes to reflection while provoking strong emotions, that’s why the album can be at the same time sad and funny, at the same time down-to-earth and philosophical, at the same time tragic and comic. Once again we find this notion of mosaic, a puzzle about life that is also very introspective.
The favorite track of the rapper himself directly represents these different notions mixed together. Damn Birdy comes back to the tragic death of a childhood friend due to an overdose. The track reflects a kind of anger while digressing on the impact of drugs in his home neighborhood. A personal story full of emotions that allows to criticize the society skillfully while explaining the circumstances of such a tragedy in an underprivileged neighborhood.
Even if Bugsy H. is an excellent lyricist who knows how to give meaning to words, he also shows himself capable of rapping in a much more spontaneous way. Four tracks on the album were not written but rapped in freestyle in the way Biggie and Jay-Z did. Calls We Had is one of them and goes back to his friend S18 and his time in prison for a personal track full of sincerity, which addresses a depressing and difficult part of the rapper’s life.
Bugsy H. takes us once again in these reflections with a return to Mosaic Rap, always full of emotions, thrills, introspection. The rapper definitely knows how to give a personal and sincere meaning to the words he uses. An album that defines itself as a broken glass, a sharp mosaic, which can definitely hurt at the time of its conception by its sincerity.
Regulate 