The work rate from BUGUS and his long-time friend and collaborator Russ is wild. A quick check of BUGUS' SoundCloud page shows multiple songs dropped each week for the past few months, but the rapper never lets the quality of his music drop as he wins over new fans.
"The strategy of putting out a lot of music is to give each of my songs the spotlight and a chance to be heard," BUGUS tells us via email. "I don't think it's important to do in 2017 if you already have a large amount of listeners, but if you're still being discovered, I think its smart to drop a lot of heat."
There's reflective rapping over boom-bap beats as well as more party centric music where BUGUS toasts his recent success, and most of the tracks are produced by Russ, who is now a star in his own right as a rapper. "I met Russ in 8th grade," BUGUS explains. "We had the same room homeroom. We been boys since then. We started working together in 2008."
In 2011, BUGUS and Russ founded their label DIEMON, which stands for Do It Everyday Music Or Nothing. "DIEMON means everything to me," BUGUS says. "We built it up from scratch by ourselves so I take a lot of pride in DIEMON. It means the world to me." ​
As consistent as the rapping is across BUGUS' output, one of the more melodic tracks is an instant standout. "Free Bird," with its bouncy beat, carefree bars, and memorable hooks, is already nearing 2 million plays on SoundCloud, and it wouldn't sound out of place on mainstream radio, or on your roadtrip playlist, or bumping out of a passing car with its windows down. Basically, it sounds like a summer smash.
"When I did 'Free Bird,' I knew it was special immediately Right when Russ played me the beat, I knew it was incredibly unique and fresh and once I did the hook I knew it was a smash. I like to do hooks first. If the hook is dope, the song almost writes itself."
Check out more of BUGUS' music below and on his SoundCloud here, and look out for more from the DIEMONÂ crew in 2017.
