Boss

Lichelle Marie Laws (born September 12, 1969), better known by her stage name Boss, is an American rapper from Detroit, Michigan. Her debut album, Born Gangstaz, reached number three on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart in 1993. Her name is sometimes stylized as Bo$$. Personal life and career Laws was born in Detroit to Joe Laws, an autoworker, and Lillie, who took her master's degree in education, Detroit, and was a teacher at junior high and middle schools, formerly a teacher of business education at Lewis College of Business, Detroit. Her parents were both church deacons. She has two elder sisters. Laws relocated to Los Angeles after graduating high school, accompanied by her DJ Irene 'Dee' Moore. She was spotted by DJ Quik who stuck her on a track with AMG. Russell Simmons liked the track and promptly signed her to Def Jam West. Her debut album Born Gangstaz was released in 1993, and the singles, "Deeper" and "Recipe for a Hoe", hit number one on the Billboard Hot Rap Tracks chart. In 1994, Laws was interviewed by a reporter from The Wall Street Journal, who revealed that she grew up in a middle-class neighborhood (on the West Side, Detroit), studied ballet and piano, and attended Catholic private school (where she was a cheerleader), before majoring in business for two years at Oakland University. Laws had never attempted to disguise the truth of her upbringing; the intro of her 1993 album Born Gangstaz, "Intro: A Call From Mom", has her mother Lillie describe her as "a young lady who was brought up through Catholic school for 12 years; and dance schools, tap dance, jazz, piano lessons and all of that; plus, you went to college for three years...." "The album is, in fact, bracketed with a mockery of her rearing; phone messages from mama and papa particularizing a privileged suburban upbringing (Catholic-school, piano-playing, tap-dancing)" belying the record's "unyielding vulgarity and embroidered aggression" with a "brilliant... self-mocking disclaimer". Def Jef, who produced the album and suggested the inclusion of Laws's parents, observed "I can't believe none of the reviews saw the irony of that. No one did!" Having left Detroit for south-side Los Angeles in 1990, Laws and Moore encountered its "squalid side... derelict hotels, feudal gangs, dealing and hustling". Prior to securing a record deal, they lived in poor circumstances, selling drugs, sleeping on benches, and living in low-rent hotels.