The Oregonian A&E March 11th, 2005
In front of the board
Friday, March 11, 2005
MARTY HUGHLEY
Bosko has a rep. The name he's sometimes credited by, Super Producer Bosko, may be a promotional flourish, but he has established that he's skilled behind the recording console.
Bosko has a resume. He's lent his production and other talents to numerous hip-hop acts, most frequently Bay Area hero E-40, but also Too Short and Master P.
Bosko has a specialty. The talkbox hasn't been in vogue since Roger Troutman's Zapp was on the charts, but it shows up as a key flavor on parts of Kanye West's multimillion-selling Grammy winner, "The College Dropout," played by none other than the Portland-bred Bosko.
Now Bosko wants to show you that he also has a voice. The new album "That Fire" marks the emergence of Bosko the R&B crooner, adding a new dimension to the hard-hitting hip-hop that's been his specialty.
Ghanaian-born Bosco Aniabil Kante moved from Portland to Los Angeles in the late 1990s and has been steadily making connections and building his career, albeit mostly in the background. It appears now that he's ready to move directly into the spotlight -- as he will with a CD-release show Friday night at Berbati's Pan.
Though this new approach puts Bosko front and center more than before, he's still a team-first kind of guy, to the extent that "That Fire" is something in between a solo album with guest stars and a various artists compilation. The large supporting cast here includes DMX, E-40, Lil Jon, Bubba Sparxxx, plus longtime Portland compatriots Maniac Lok and Cool Nutz. On the other hand, Bosko produced all of the tracks (playing guitar and other instruments as well as assembling samples and beats), wrote and performed three tunes by himself, and sang on several others.
Through what could seem a jumble of different voices rapping here, Bosko serves as a sort of one-man Greek chorus, sliding in and out of a confident falsetto to deliver succinct hooks and recapitulations. And though much of the album carries a hard-core aesthetic -- rough shouts of "yeah" stabbing out from the background, a free flow of profanity and no compunctions about frank sexual language -- it's the vocal hooks (and the more contoured R&B grooves that best accommodate them) that are the disc's most appealing feature.
Reportedly this smoother style is the direction Bosko is heading in with the R&B album he's at work on, to be titled "Unlimited." Seen in that light as a transitional effort, "That Fire" makes the most sense, reminding fans of his credentials in one sphere while building a connection to something new.
It's too soon to tell if Kanye West's coattails are strong enough (and if being an instrumental sideman provides a firm enough grip on them) to help lift Bosko to mainstream stardom. Similarly, Bombay Entertainment and Cool Nutz's Jus Family Records, who are issuing the disc jointly, will have to muster promotion and distribution sufficient to what, for independent labels, usually is an uphill task.
But there are many impressive touches here, as well as an overall confidence of execution, that bode well for his success. The looped finger-picked guitar motif laced through the title track recalls some of the crossover flavor that's helped the Neptunes become such an in-demand production team. And though a song here that about the kind of relationship sometimes referred to these days as "friendship with benefits" offers so unvarnished a view that the title isn't printable in this newspaper, it has a pleasantly insinuating melody and a vocal performance you might think of as Curtis Mayfield meets R. Kelly. There's plenty of sexism on the album -- at once indefensible and par for the course in this field -- but on this song at least, Bosko sounds less exploitative than simply disarmingly honest.
Of course, such directness doesn't help you get played on the radio. But if "That Fire" catches at street level, Bosko's career could yet heat up.
Willamette Week March 9th, 2005
local CUT
THE CURE FOR PORTLAND MUSIC FEVER
Keeping the Pulse
Portland native shows that Jus Family's heart is still beating.
BY JENNY A. RAPF
503 243-2122
For three years Portland's Jus Family Records was in creative hibernation, unable to release any music while the label was in litigation with Universal following a failed deal between the record companies. But that doesn't mean the talent has been resting on its laurels. It just takes a brief scan of the roster included on Jus Family co-owner and producer Bosko Kante's latest, That Fire, to see that. Bay Area legend E-40, king of crunk Lil John, DMX and Bubba Sparxxx all lend their voices to Bosko's production. Obviously, the man who helped start Portland's most successful hip-hop label was busy hobnobbing and knob-twiddling during those dormant years.
African-born and Portland-raised, Kante, along with Terrance "Cool Nutz" Scott, founded the label in 1992 when Kante was a kid and Scott was still bagging groceries in an eastside convenience store. Since then, the label has had its ups and downs, and Kante has since moved south to Los Angeles, adopted the title Super Producer, and worked with the likes of Tupac Shakur, Too Short, Lil' Kim and, most recently, Kanye West on West's Grammy-winning The College Dropout.
That Fire, released on West Coast Mafia, is a pastiche of radio-ready hip-hop, which has been making the rotation on national radio as well as Portland's Jammin 95.5 FM. On the surface, the collaboration with the likes of Lil John might seems like little more than an easy appeal to a national audience that has been flooded with crunk hits for the past year. But Bosko is much more innovative than that, wrapping these radio-worn voices in production that takes each artist's style into account but also allows for Bosko's own imprint. Overall, though, what gives this album heft isn't the guest emcees but Bosko's step in a more soulful direction-which puts him in front of the mic. "I wanted to figure out how I could stand out from the pack, 'cause there are a million rappers," says the 26-year-old, while sitting over Chinese food with his mother at his side. "I started really developing my singing and really improving it, and the songs started to come together, giving me a whole new life as an artist."
One song, "Coffee," not only boasts a seductive tone that seeps like honey over classic drum beats and light tambourine licks, but the dripping sex appeal takes you back to the lovestruck days of D'Angelo, with moments reminiscent of LL Cool J's "I Need Love" sweet-talkin'. This is a crucial crossover step for a guy who's made his name passing beats as a producer and ghost rapper rather than an R&B crooner. Though Bosko hasn't quite earned his label of Super Producer-you'll have to weed through the album to find those diamonds in the rough-he knows where hip-hop has been, and That Fire shows he has a good idea where it's headed.
In front of the board
Friday, March 11, 2005
MARTY HUGHLEY
Bosko has a rep. The name he's sometimes credited by, Super Producer Bosko, may be a promotional flourish, but he has established that he's skilled behind the recording console.
Bosko has a resume. He's lent his production and other talents to numerous hip-hop acts, most frequently Bay Area hero E-40, but also Too Short and Master P.
Bosko has a specialty. The talkbox hasn't been in vogue since Roger Troutman's Zapp was on the charts, but it shows up as a key flavor on parts of Kanye West's multimillion-selling Grammy winner, "The College Dropout," played by none other than the Portland-bred Bosko.
Now Bosko wants to show you that he also has a voice. The new album "That Fire" marks the emergence of Bosko the R&B crooner, adding a new dimension to the hard-hitting hip-hop that's been his specialty.
Ghanaian-born Bosco Aniabil Kante moved from Portland to Los Angeles in the late 1990s and has been steadily making connections and building his career, albeit mostly in the background. It appears now that he's ready to move directly into the spotlight -- as he will with a CD-release show Friday night at Berbati's Pan.
Though this new approach puts Bosko front and center more than before, he's still a team-first kind of guy, to the extent that "That Fire" is something in between a solo album with guest stars and a various artists compilation. The large supporting cast here includes DMX, E-40, Lil Jon, Bubba Sparxxx, plus longtime Portland compatriots Maniac Lok and Cool Nutz. On the other hand, Bosko produced all of the tracks (playing guitar and other instruments as well as assembling samples and beats), wrote and performed three tunes by himself, and sang on several others.
Through what could seem a jumble of different voices rapping here, Bosko serves as a sort of one-man Greek chorus, sliding in and out of a confident falsetto to deliver succinct hooks and recapitulations. And though much of the album carries a hard-core aesthetic -- rough shouts of "yeah" stabbing out from the background, a free flow of profanity and no compunctions about frank sexual language -- it's the vocal hooks (and the more contoured R&B grooves that best accommodate them) that are the disc's most appealing feature.
Reportedly this smoother style is the direction Bosko is heading in with the R&B album he's at work on, to be titled "Unlimited." Seen in that light as a transitional effort, "That Fire" makes the most sense, reminding fans of his credentials in one sphere while building a connection to something new.
It's too soon to tell if Kanye West's coattails are strong enough (and if being an instrumental sideman provides a firm enough grip on them) to help lift Bosko to mainstream stardom. Similarly, Bombay Entertainment and Cool Nutz's Jus Family Records, who are issuing the disc jointly, will have to muster promotion and distribution sufficient to what, for independent labels, usually is an uphill task.
But there are many impressive touches here, as well as an overall confidence of execution, that bode well for his success. The looped finger-picked guitar motif laced through the title track recalls some of the crossover flavor that's helped the Neptunes become such an in-demand production team. And though a song here that about the kind of relationship sometimes referred to these days as "friendship with benefits" offers so unvarnished a view that the title isn't printable in this newspaper, it has a pleasantly insinuating melody and a vocal performance you might think of as Curtis Mayfield meets R. Kelly. There's plenty of sexism on the album -- at once indefensible and par for the course in this field -- but on this song at least, Bosko sounds less exploitative than simply disarmingly honest.
Of course, such directness doesn't help you get played on the radio. But if "That Fire" catches at street level, Bosko's career could yet heat up.
Willamette Week March 9th, 2005
local CUT
THE CURE FOR PORTLAND MUSIC FEVER
Keeping the Pulse
Portland native shows that Jus Family's heart is still beating.
BY JENNY A. RAPF
503 243-2122
For three years Portland's Jus Family Records was in creative hibernation, unable to release any music while the label was in litigation with Universal following a failed deal between the record companies. But that doesn't mean the talent has been resting on its laurels. It just takes a brief scan of the roster included on Jus Family co-owner and producer Bosko Kante's latest, That Fire, to see that. Bay Area legend E-40, king of crunk Lil John, DMX and Bubba Sparxxx all lend their voices to Bosko's production. Obviously, the man who helped start Portland's most successful hip-hop label was busy hobnobbing and knob-twiddling during those dormant years.
African-born and Portland-raised, Kante, along with Terrance "Cool Nutz" Scott, founded the label in 1992 when Kante was a kid and Scott was still bagging groceries in an eastside convenience store. Since then, the label has had its ups and downs, and Kante has since moved south to Los Angeles, adopted the title Super Producer, and worked with the likes of Tupac Shakur, Too Short, Lil' Kim and, most recently, Kanye West on West's Grammy-winning The College Dropout.
That Fire, released on West Coast Mafia, is a pastiche of radio-ready hip-hop, which has been making the rotation on national radio as well as Portland's Jammin 95.5 FM. On the surface, the collaboration with the likes of Lil John might seems like little more than an easy appeal to a national audience that has been flooded with crunk hits for the past year. But Bosko is much more innovative than that, wrapping these radio-worn voices in production that takes each artist's style into account but also allows for Bosko's own imprint. Overall, though, what gives this album heft isn't the guest emcees but Bosko's step in a more soulful direction-which puts him in front of the mic. "I wanted to figure out how I could stand out from the pack, 'cause there are a million rappers," says the 26-year-old, while sitting over Chinese food with his mother at his side. "I started really developing my singing and really improving it, and the songs started to come together, giving me a whole new life as an artist."
One song, "Coffee," not only boasts a seductive tone that seeps like honey over classic drum beats and light tambourine licks, but the dripping sex appeal takes you back to the lovestruck days of D'Angelo, with moments reminiscent of LL Cool J's "I Need Love" sweet-talkin'. This is a crucial crossover step for a guy who's made his name passing beats as a producer and ghost rapper rather than an R&B crooner. Though Bosko hasn't quite earned his label of Super Producer-you'll have to weed through the album to find those diamonds in the rough-he knows where hip-hop has been, and That Fire shows he has a good idea where it's headed.
