NEPA Scene Staff

Chart-topping rapper A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie returns to Sherman Theater in Stroudsburg on Nov. 17

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From a press release:

With his new album “The Bigger Artist” and its singles topping the Billboard charts this week, it was announced that New York hip-hop artist A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie will return to the Sherman Theater in Stroudsburg on Friday, Nov. 17 at 8 p.m.

Tickets, which are $39.50, $55, and $70 for VIP balcony seats, are on sale now and available through the Sherman Theater box office (524 Main St., Stroudsburg), online at shermantheater.com and ticketfly.com, and all Ticketmaster outlets. VIP boxes and sky boxes are available for this show and include eight tickets (VIP box) or 12 tickets (sky box), a fruit and cheese platter, and waitstaff. To purchase box seats, call the theater at 570-420-2808.

Some things are just destined to be, like the rising music career of A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie.

The 21-year-old Bronx, New York rapper, whose real name is Artist Dubose, was born to create. “My dad named me Artist. His whole life’s passion is art,” A Boogie says.

Today, he’s racking up millions of streams across all digital platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, and Pandora, and has taken over radio airwaves all over the nation. His unique style has even grabbed the attention of some of rap’s biggest stars like Drake, DJ Khaled, and Meek Mill. However, before he became a national sensation, A Boogie was just a kid from the Bronx with a passion for rap and the drive of a superstar.

When he was a teen, A Boogie listened to 50 Cent and Kanye West and got inspired to write raps about his rough and tumble Bronx neighborhood. “I’ve always had the passion to rap. Growing up in the hood, just rapping about what you see,” he explains.

Boogie would recite the rhymes to his high school classmates, who encouraged him to write more and eventually helped him with his moniker. “My original rap name was A Boogie,” he says “but I was wearing hoodies all the time and everyone started calling me A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie.”

The Bronx was filled with bad influence, so Boogie’s parents moved him from New York City to Florida to help the youngster escape the streets. Though he missed his native city, A Boogie continued to rap and record music in his Florida home after his father bought him his first microphone. “That’s when my music really picked up because I didn’t really have much to do,” he says.

Still, it wasn’t until he moved back to NYC in the summer of 2015 that A Boogie found the inspiration that he needed to record his first hit and start his own record company, Highbridge The Label, with the help of his childhood friends Quincy “QP” Acheampong and Sambou “Bubba” Camara.

And like many coming of age stories, it all revolved around a girl. “When I moved back to New York, I started going out with this girl for about four months,” he says. “She told me she was pregnant, so I’m thinking it’s mine. First, I was buggin’ like, ‘Damn, I don’t want a baby.’ And then one day she disappeared on me.”

It was then that A Boogie found out that the child wasn’t his and his girl was unfaithful. He immediately recorded the scornful and emotional “D.T.B. (Don’t Trust Bitches).” After that came his breakout hit “Still Think About You,” where he sings, “You got me singing all of these love songs, what the fuck am I doin’.”

With those two songs in the can, Boogie had the basis for his debut mixtape “Artist,” which he released at the top of 2016.

“I just went with my feelings,” he says. The tape isn’t all emotions, however; A Boogie mixes melody with hard edge street anthems. Tracks like “Trap House” and “My Shit” reveal another layer on the young spitter.

“I got two sides to my music,” he says. “The Artist side of me is the love songs and A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, that’s when I go with the trap songs.” “My Shit” proved to be the golden layer as it became RIAA certified gold with 72 million streams to date. It was also listed among “The Best Songs of 2016” on Apple Music.

The mixture of styles is clearly working. “It’s like every time I record, I make another hit,” he says.

Another hit was indeed in the making with his latest mixtape/EP, “The Bigger Artist.” “TBA” expanded the popularity of A Boogie’s growing fan base, debuting at No. 3 on iTunes’ Hip Hop/Rap charts.

Fresh off his sold out 18-city TBA Tour, A Boogie is wasting no time solidifying his presence in the rap scene. Labeled as “one of the hottest and newest up-and-comers in hip-hop” by XXL, A Boogie has already taken 2017 by storm. Beginning the year as the face of the new Jordan Brand Formula 23 sneaker, the Bronx native has since released his track “Drowning (feat. Kodak Black)” and has been featured on a number of recent projects, including his collaboration with PnB Rock and Kodak Black, “Horses,” on “The Fate of the Furious” soundtrack, as well as fellow Highbridge The Label artist Don Q’s “I Told You.”

A Boogie will continue to make waves and redefine the sound of New York rap. His ability to seamlessly combine the melodic tone of R&B with street rap is unlike any other rapper of his generation. It is easy to see why the New York Times named A Boogie “the most promising young rapper the city has produced in some time.”