Lichelle Marie Laws (September 12, 1969 – March 11, 2024),[2] better known by her stage name Boss (stylized as Bo$$), was an American rapper from Detroit.

[4] Her debut album Born Gangstaz was released in 1993,[6] and the singles, "Deeper" and "Recipe for a Hoe", hit number one on the Billboard Hot Rap Tracks chart.

[7] 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.

[4][5][8][9] 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..."[10] "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.

Having left Detroit for south-side Los Angeles in 1990, Laws and Moore encountered its "squalid side... derelict hotels, feudal gangs, dealing and hustling".

Def Jef claimed to have "shopped (Laws) to almost every major and indie label and met with resistance... People are always asking about how she looks, what her age is... it's never about the music.

[12] In 2017, Laws suffered from "a major stroke and seizure", and on 31 January 2021 a GoFundMe was set up to raise $15,000 for a recommended medical procedure.