Steve 'Flash' JuonIt has been a while since I thought about Bobby Shmurda. The last time was when I was compiling a list of “Twenty Important Rap Videos for 2014” and he came in at No. 19. I mean yeah it’s good that he made the list at all but I certainly didn’t consider it the most important video of ’14 by a long shot. Before and after his debut EP could even be released he was arrested multiple times, and as the charges kept piling up he eventually copped a plea in 2016 to a reduced sentence (which included credit for the time he had already spent behind bars). After various battles over his eligibility for parole he was finally released in 2021 with five years of probation hanging over his head. If nothing goes wrong between now and 2026, he’s good.
If the video for “Whole Brick” off “Bodboy” has you thinking he’s anything but repentant you’d be entitled to that opinion. Unless you’ve been living under a rock and this is your first rap song, you don’t have to ask the question “Whole brick of what?” because you already know. It’s actually comical in this case and given his legal troubles purposefully so, just so nobody in law enforcement gets it twisted. I’d actually encourage you to stop reading this for a minute and watch the video to see what I mean, but in case it gets taken down in the future I’ll describe it for you. Shmurda has very attractive women wearing next to nothing walking around whipping up the product in Pyrex bowls. It’s completely over the top.
“Hoochie Daddy” is just as excessive in a completely different way. There’s probably a segment of his audience who won’t recognize this is a tribute to 2 Live Crew’s “Hoochie Mama” so I’m mentioning it here just to be as clear as his glassware. The instrumentals are different of course, but both songs are uptempo and both have a similar chorus, just with one word flipped. Once again the video shows off Shmurda’s love of women with large chests and fine behinds, and although it probably makes me a pig to say I enjoy it too at least I’m gonna be honest about it. Watching his clip might save you a trip to the nearest adult establishment with pole dancers, because you won’t see more jiggle and bounce there than you will here.
The rest of this short album is pretty unremarkable save for the fact Shmurda is something of a throwback in the modern era. In an age where even New York rappers sound like AutoTune trappers, Shmurda spits no-nonsense bars and never sings a lick. He sounds more like a year 2000 era rapper than he probably should, until you stop to think that he was influenced by G-Unit growing up. He would have been nine years old when their biggest album came out so the timeline definitely adds up. Songs like “No Sense” leave me convinced that Shmurda views himself as a modern day, long lost member of the now dissolved collective.
There isn’t much time for collaborations in under 20 minutes, but he does manage to bring in Fat Tony for “Glock Inside” and Rowdy Rebel for “On God.” I suppose the run time is the one thing that makes Bobby Shmurda more like his peers than any other. There isn’t a single song on “Bodboy” longer than two minutes and 34 seconds, with 44% of them clocking in at under 2:00 total. They didn’t even pad out the run time for the two music videos off this album with more women showing off more skin, and if you paid that much for models you should’ve gotten your money’s worth.
This is both an important and an irrelevant release. It’s Bobby Shmurda’s first official studio project since his legal woes began in 2014, and it’s a prelude to a full length album that’s supposed to be out later this year. I’m happy Mr. Pollard is getting his life and his career back on track, and I also hope that the rest of his probation is remarkably uneventful. I fear that the NYPD will have it in for him though (their history with rap stars is well known) and find any trumped up excuse to violate his parole and send him back for the remainder of his sentence. I support Shmurda’s efforts to remain a free man fully even if I don’t recommend “Bodboy” to you. Outside of the singles there’s nothing to it. Wait for the full album instead.