Rich Boy

Posted in MusicWorld on July 6, 2007 by Malcolm Venable

When it rains it pours, the adage goes, so if all goes according to mythology, Rich Boy might soon find himself in the right kind of downpour.

Propelled into stardom with one of 2007’s big breakout rap hits, Alabama native Maurice Richards had music industry titans including Andre 3000 and Kanye West putting in their two cents on his smash “Throw Some Ds.” Built on an infectious sample by the group Switch, the song peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 3 on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs. (The song became so popular in the first part of 2007 that one of a few remixes ended up in advertisements for the hot HBO series Entourage.)

“Throw Some D’s” was just one of the rollicking tracks on Rich Boy’s self-titled debut, which the former mechanical engineering student at Tuskegee University released in March of 2007. That album, which features production from Polow Da Don (Fergie, Kelis, Ciara) and Brian Kidd, landed at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and No. 3 on the Top R&B/Hip Hop albums charts. Yet many credits on the album go to Rich Boy himself, validating the instincts of Polow, who discovered the rapper.

Rich Boy had been working the local underground circuit and finagling some of his songs to get on local radio station 93 WBLX when the group Jim Crow, of which Polow was a member, visited the station. After Rich Boy handed him a CD, his fate was sealed. Before long, he had signed with Polow’s Zone 4 Entertainment, now partnered with Interscope Records.

Alabama’s first hip-hop star, Rich Boy represents uncharted ground for the genre. Armed with an album that flooded charts and airwaves, his future is nothing if not fertile.

SOURCEMusicWorld TAGS R&B / Hip-Hop Hitmaker Polow Da Don Rich Boy Kanye West