Boughetto (Peezian Definition) – To be classy, yet crass. To have an appreciation for the finer things, yet revel in the seemingly ignorant. To encompass all areas of urban culture. To be frank, if you were born in the seventies, and unless your parents were the Huxtables, you’re Boughetto. See, my family had episodes like the infamous Ray Charles episode of The Cosby Show, but we didn’t have wardrobe, and instead of Ray Charles or some great jazz musician, the music would have been played by Maze Featuring Frankie Beverly. We had episodes like the episode when Theo found marijuana in his books, but it wouldn’t have been planted in my house, somebody would have straight up bought it. We had episodes like the time when Dr. Huxtable tried to show Theo the value of a dollar by creating a virtual “real world” in his house, except in MY house we actually got kicked out by my pops. All of that is Boughetto. Trust me, we weren’t this way by choice. You see, we were affected by Reaganomics like most black families were. My dad had two jobs and some side hustles, and my mother had a job, but even that wasn’t enough to keep us from having ghetto-type problems. I KNOW what it’s like to be on top of the world by having the first house on the block in one minute, and having the County Sheriff show up and kick you out of that house in the next. I know what it’s like to have a girlfriend who enjoys reading your romantic prose and another who would much rather get busy to Ice Cube. I know what it’s like to wear Izod sweaters one day, and MCM hoodies the next (see, I just told you my age). All of that is Boughetto. Due to the effect of the afore mentioned Reaganomics, we went from a trailer in the West End of Tuscaloosa, to a three bedroom ranch house in Oak Manor, to hotels from night to night, to an apartment on the Eastside. That made me adapt. You had a choice. You could be an outcast, which I technically was, or you could have no identity whatsoever and try your best to fit in, which I technically was as well. I had friends in the Chess Club, as well as friends who were the first incarnation of Gangster Disciples in Tuscaloosa. I was in the marching band and played four instruments, which made me a band geek, but I had bootlegging cousins, which meant I could get liquor for parties and that made me cool. I made a 27 on the ACT, which made me a nerd, but I had a music collection that consisted mostly of West Coast Gangster rap, which made me cool. All I am saying is that I was a little of everything. I was never too much of one or the other. But when you were raised like I was, which was nowhere near Good Times but nowhere near Silver Spoons either (telling my age again), that made you Boughetto. I turned my nose up at LIVING in the projects, but I LOVED hanging out there, basically because the best looking girls were there. I turned my nose up at generic brand food, but my mama made the BEST macaroni and cheese ON THE PLANET out of government cheese that she would get from her insurance clients. All of that is Boughetto. Basically, all being Boughetto is being a little of this, and a little of that. Not too much of this and not too much of that. Since I learned to adapt, I got GOOD at being snobbish and GOOD at being ghetto. I can negotiate a deal with the most prominent of financial dignitaries, as well as negotiate a deal with the biggest urban pharmaceutical salesman in your local trap. That’s all that being Boughetto is. And being Boughetto made me listen to TuPac, Big L, Miles Davis, Pat Metheny, Grover Wahington, Jr., LTD, Mel Waiters, Steely Dan, and A Tribe Called Quest. So that comes out in my music. It’s all Boughetto. I sincerely hope that you can relate, whether your 16 or 56. If you are just one of those people that relates to everybody, then you can relate to this EP. Don’t deny who you are, accept it all and embrace your Boughettoness. Enjoy. Sam P. Addams