If you've followed the Billboard charts, you've probably seen the name: A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie. A fascinating, rhyming cadence for a Bronx rapper who's put three studio albums in the Top 5 since 2017, including 2018 chart-topper Hoodie SZN.
You may ask yourself: where did he get that one from? It's pretty simple, really. Born Artist Julius DuBose and raised in the Bronx neighborhood of Highbridge - also the birthplace of hip-hop icons like DJ Kool Herc and Cardi B - A Boogie came from another rap touchstone he was a big fan of as a teen: the 2002 film Paid in Full, a Jay-Z-produced film based on the '80s drug trade in Harlem.
"I used to watch Paid in Full every day when I was like 12, 13, and then I started rapping and everybody would call me A Boogie," DuBose told Newsweek, a reference to one of the nicknames for Wood Harris' character Ace (based on real-life boss turned anti-drug emcee Azie Faison). "And then the 'Hoodie' came along because I was wearing hoodies all the time. [People] started saying A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie and it stuck."
In that same interview, he confessed it was one of only two stage names he considered. "The only other rap name [I would have thought of] is Artist," he said. "After awhile, everybody will know me as Artist." He may be getting that wish soon: his fourth album, A Boogie Vs. Artist, is expected to drop in the coming months.