'90 music ... legacy ... tribute ...: B.U.G. Mafia (RO)

B.U.G. Mafia (Bucuresti Under Ground Mafia) is a Bucharest-based hip hop group (founded in 1993), among the first hip hop acts in Romania widely recognized in their native country as pioneers of gangsta rap in Romania. Though generally categorized as gangsta rap, B.U.G. Mafia proved several times that they can bring political issues in their music, such as the post-Communist Romanian political class, poverty in Romania's communist-built housing projects or street violence. 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 jail after their first concert in Turnu Severin in 1997.

Origin

In 1991 Vlad Irimia, today widely known as Tataee decided to become a musician influenced by hip hop platinum-selling groups Public Enemy and N.W.A. He had no idea where to start or what to do but he managed to record a first track until 1992.

In 1993 Tataee met with Dragoş Vlad-Neagu who would become known as Daddy Caddy in Bucharest. They started talking about Vlad-Neagu's Cypress Hill cap and discovered they had a common interest in rap music and they both already tried to make music so they decided to start a group which they named B.U.G. Their first rap aliases were Klax 187 and Doom, showing a heavy influence from the American rap scene, especially gangsta rap. They recorded their first track rapping in English with the help of Adi Niculescu, a then well-known radio personality which produced one of the first hip hop radio shows in Romania called "YO! Rap is moving!". The song was called "Straight Outta Da Hell" and it got its first radio airplay on Radio Uniplus where it was actually recorded. The song got favorable reviews even though today's hip hop audience might classify it as dull.
B.U.G. Mafia in 1994: from left to right - Uzzi, Caddy and Tataee.

B.U.G. recorded more tracks in English, producing their own beats with help from Romeo Vanica, a well known producer, who had a professional keyboard. In 1994 they had their first live appearance in one of the first Romanian hip-hop shows, made possible by DJ Sleek a famous Romanian hip-hop DJ and one of the first Romanians to pursue this career. Still looking for new rappers they met with Demonii ("The Devils"), one of the few Romanian hip-hop crews to rap in Romanian at the time. One of the members was Alin Demeter a.k.a. Uzzi who joined the group in 1995 at the same time they changed their name adding Mafia for the Romanian public to get better acquainted with their style. They also stopped writing lyrics in English and switched to Romanian for the same reason. In the summer of 1995 they signed their first professional music contract to record an album on now-defunct Amma Sound.

BUG Mafia - 40KM/h