B.U.G. Mafia

Founded in 1993 as Black Underground, its original lineup consisted of Vlad "Tataee" Irimia, Dragoș "Caddy" (short for Cadillac) Vlad-Neagu and two other members, D.D.

[1] Irimia and Vlad-Neagu, who were still teenage high school students at the time, had been working on amateur solo recordings and had little professional prospects on their own prior to their encounter.

and radio stations in Romania and even at times prevented from touring, spending a night in police custody after their first concert in Drobeta-Turnu Severin in 1997.

[7][8] Despite being independently produced on a modest budget over just a few months in 1995, their debut album Mafia signified the birth of Romanian gangsta rap and established them on the fledgling hip hop scene emerging at the time in Romania.

Shortly following their radio debut, Tataee and Caddillac managed to book their first live appearance during a local hip hop concert in Bucharest, an experience they would both later remember as unpleasant, but also significantly influential in their choice of pursuing careers as professional musicians.

[1][14][15] Since hip hop was just emerging as a music genre in Romania in the early 1990s, studio time and stage performance opportunities were relatively limited, so the group had to rely on the restricted prospects that presented themselves to record more songs.

They began working with Romeo Vanica, a keyboardist who had been a member of the Romanian rock group Mondial, who agreed to allow them to use his studio equipment for music production in 1994 as they started creating more songs for an English debut album, tentatively titled Breakin' da Law.

invited both members of the group to enroll in the newly founded crew and, throughout the first half of 1995, Demonii became involved in a number of local live performances with Black Underground in Bucharest.

After the settlement, Irimia, Vlad-Neagu and Demeter decided to scrap the recordings they had worked on and switch to performing and writing in Romanian in order to gain access to a larger potential fanbase in their native Romania.

The album, recorded by Holograf keyboardist and producer Antonio "Tino" Furtună, contained 15 tracks, including collaborations with Pantelimon-based group M&G, hip hop female artist Marijuana and Romanian actress Rona Hartner.

With songs such as "Viață De Borfaș" (Thug Life), "Ucigaș" (Killer) or "Înc-o Cruce-n Cimitir" (Another Cross In The Cemetery) they painted their worldview as inner-city youths.

Brașov, having heard about the impressive success N.W.A had in the United States, convinced the other three associates, Emanuel Maxwell, Sorin Golea and Dan Popi to give the group a chance.

It sparked the group's first hit single, "Pantelimonu' Petrece" (Pantelimon's Having A Party), a feature with young pop singer Iuliana "July" Petrache.

Tataee referenced this moment in a 2009 interview with Radio ZU talk show-host Mihai Morar, mentioning that the song became a hit just after Romania adopted a new copyright law, enabling the group to make significant profits, as B.U.G.

[19] He also mentioned on his official Twitter page that Mircea Badea was the first TV host to have the group on the air in 1996, during the morning show he presented at Tele 7 abc with Teo Trandafir.

In early 1997, Tataee, Caddilac and Uzzi, together with La Familia members Tudor Sișu and Dragoș "Puya" Gardescu, were taken into police custody after a concert in Turnu Severin.

Refusing to take into account that the violent lyrics were not actually performed in a public place, the Romanian Police forces arrested the five artists, charging them with outrage against good customs.

The legal incident that had occurred in February reflected in the album's sales, as it moved an impressive 55,000 units with no music video or radio single promoting it.

An unexpected success came from the single's b-side, a song entitled "N-ai fost acolo" (You weren't there), a viral response to critics claiming that the group's lyrics were pure fiction and had no factual basis whatsoever, became a massive hit during the summer and provided a strong launch pad for the album's release in September 1998.

The album was also known in Romania for its inclusion of the "Poezie de stradă" (Street Poetry) song which was released as a single in 2001 and had a music video that featured real Romanian Police officers crashing an organized crime meeting.

The group had been interested in founding a record label since the late 1990s so they could obtain more creative control in producing their own music and also sign and develop new artists.

Gangsta rap pioneers La Familia were also interested in joining Casa Productions but a disagreement with the label's management led to a conflict that took both groups to court a couple of years later.

Tataee had stated in various interviews that he had been interested in adding a professional DJ to the group since the early 90s but the few hip hop DJs in Romania were already committed to other projects.

The follow-up to Băieții Buni was only released in 2011 as the group embarked in a 6-year-long journey producing and recording two greatest hits albums in the first decade of the 21st century.

Titled Viața Noastră (Our Life), recording sessions for the album started in 2003 at the Ines Sound and Video studios in Bucharest and carried on throughout 2004 before being halted so the group could work on the Băieți buni (Good Guys) soundtrack.

Using a sample from Casa Productions artist Villy's 2002 "O Altă Zi" (Just Another Day) song, it was released in early 2006 along with a music video shot by Marius Panduru and directed by Marian Crișan.

As "Pantelimonu' Petrece" (Pantelimon's Having A Party) had been one of their first signature hit-songs, the record was released as a single in mid-2006, with a music video also directed by Marian Crișan.

In 2004, the group was approached by Pro TV to compose and produce the soundtrack for Andrei Boncea's procedural drama, Băieți buni (Good Guys).

B.U.G. Mafia at Club Dumars in Bucharest in 2003 at the Băieții Buni (The Goodfellas) release party.