There are new music rollouts and then there is a Westside Boogie new music rollout, which twists the “bonkers” knob all the way up, then yanks it right off. On the way to his latest release, the Compton rapper has been building a hysterical, WWE-worthy backstory, complete with bullying fans and capping it off with a kidnapping, all in the interest of getting listeners involved in the recording process.
Earlier this week, Boogie posted a screenshot of his DMs to Instagram, excerpting an exchange with a fan using the handle @fortknoxlive. “We been waiting long enough…” menaces Mr. Knox. “If you don’t drop something THIS WEEK we gonna have a problem.” While Boogie dismisses the overly familiar messaging, fans in the comments echoed the sentiment, hungry for new tunes since it’s been over a year since a Boogie solo release — 2019’s Everything’s For Sale.
However, Boogie’s next post shows the plot thickening as a simple chore becomes a scene right out of a thriller. As the Compton rapper takes out the trash, a van pulls up and the occupant shoves him into the back before driving away.
In the latest post, the kidnapper is revealed to be @fortknoxlive himself, who ties Boogie to a chair in his garage to force him to record — and release — some new music. Across the bottom of the screen is a phone number for fans to text song ideas to help get him free.
As far as album promotion goes, this one is pretty immaculate. By incorporating fans’ ideas, Boogie gives them ownership of the project and helps make the experience more interactive — more investment equals a bigger payoff for both sides. And coming up with such a hilarious, narrative marketing scheme shows how invested he is himself — and gives us an entertaining and unique way to build hype for the new project. Let’s hope he’s got another few chapters of this thing plotted out because he’s raising the bar and I, for one, am all in. Even Boogie’s label boss, Eminem, is down.
Whatever it takes to get @WS_Boogie to drop! @FORTKNOXLIVE https://t.co/5XXf9u6fqo
— Marshall Mathers (@Eminem) December 10, 2020
If you too are impatient for new Boogie tunes, check out his features with Courtney Bell, Guapdad 4000, Reason, and LVRN’s Christmas album to hold you over.