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Here are a few things to know about FBG Duck before we talk about his album.

  • FBG stands for Fly Boy Gang. All members of Duck’s crew start their name with FBG as a result — FBG Cash, FBG Dutchie, et cetera.
  • Fly Boy Gang hails from Chicago, Illinois.
  • Either because of their local notoriety or their beef with other crews (the two may be inseparable) a lot of FBG members end up being shot at or killed.
  • Allegedly Duck was shot in the left shoulder too. He immediately denied that report via social media, then did an interview with Vlad TV to refute it again.

Truth be told it hardly matters at this point (over half a year later) whether he did or not. If he didn’t then he’s right to debunk the story, and if he did he’s probably got a good reason to NOT talk about it — ya heard? Either way it’s fair to say the Fly Boy Gang has more than their fair share of haters, but unfortunately you wouldn’t need to have ANY to wind up with more holes than Swiss cheese in Chicago. Duck lost both his brother (FBG Brick) and his cousin Coby Mack to violence in the same shooting in one day — and Duck saw both of their bodies laying in front of him on the street.

FBG Duck has been through some f—ked up s–t y’all. You could hardly blame him for wanting to make it as an artist to hopefully make enough money that him and all of his kin could get up out of ChiRaq and live in peace. The Tookaville emcee got his big break last year when Sony Music signed him for an alleged $1.6 million. Independent reporting on some of these things is hard to come by, but his “Big Clout” album lists Columbia Records as one of his labels, and Columbia is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony. That’s all the confirmation I need regardless of what the actual dollar amount or number of albums he’s contracted to deliver might be. The lead single off “Big Clout” “Mama’s House” dropped last September with the album following a month later.

“Ay, I was really trappin out my mama house
Ay, I was cappin havin all that traffic at my mama house
I wasn’t even thinkin ’bout the landlord puttin my mama out
Told her ‘Ma don’t worry, I’ll buy you another house’
Heh, and another house, aye, ooh-wee
I was really f–kin different b—hes on my mama couch
Whole time a lot of s–t done happened at my mama house
I don’t mind bein in the hood, gotta get my mama out”

The song illustrates Duck’s mindset well or at least that of the persona he shows on his records — Duck has done dirt, he’s not ashamed of it, and he just wants to take care of the people he cares about. To that end he’s using his major label connection to put on his collection of FBG comrades on tracks like “Or Not” featuring FBG Dutchie and FBG Young. There’s a music video for this track too.

The album itself is a little bit on the short side at 21 minutes and would best be called an EP, but most EP releases don’t have the kind of buzz behind them this one does and it’s not being marketed as such. It is being sold at an EP price though so at least you’re not overspending for seven tracks at an average of three minutes apiece. Though I can’t find individual production credits on my digital stream, I did eventual turn up the fact the music is produced by Malcolm Flex, d.a. doman and Bilbo Beatz. Regardless of who does individual songs they wind up with a dank bass heavy sound.

Let’s wrap this up with a brief summary of the good and the bad about “Big Clout.” On the plus side I appreciate that FBG Duck is a rapper who is actually rapping. Given how many new albums I listen to lately where the so-called rapper is singing or AutoTuned (or both) this is more refreshing than you might think. “Big Clout” will rattle your trunk if you’ve got a good set of woofers so this is music made to ride to. Thematically Duck is like a lot of his peers these days — I’m a success, I got enemies, to hell with them cause I’m gonna drink, smoke, f–k and make money. I do mean that literally too. The song “Mention” which closes the album (and features FBG Dutchie) has them repeatedly saying “First of all, f–k my enemies”. Unfortunately in ChiRaq there’s not much reason to be kinder or gentler, and given how many of his friends are dead or have been shot Duck has even less reason than most. My concern as always though is that violence begets violence and an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind.