B.U.G. Mafia

Widely regarded as the seminal pioneers of the gangsta rap sub-genre in their native Romania, B.U.G. Mafia got a head start in Romanian hip hop when, in 1993, Vlad "Tataee" Irimia and Dragoș "Caddillac" Vlad-Neagu met in Bucharest, swiftly striking a friendship based on their mutual appreciation of hip hop music. Enlisting two other friends who would quickly become dissociated with the group, they founded one of the first gangsta rap groups in Romania, initially performing as Black Underground, while working on a debut album in English, tentatively called "Breakin' da Law", which would eventually be shelved in 1995, when they recruited Alin "Uzzi" Demeter as their third and final member and switched to writing their lyrics in Romanian, while also adding the "Mafia" moniker to their abbreviated group name. The group's debut album, "Mafia", was finally released in September 1995, on AMMA Record, a small, locally-owned, independent record label based in Bucharest. Although it did not achieve impressive sales numbers due to limited distribution at the time, the record caught the ear of Cat Music executives who were well aware of N.W.A.'s success in the United States and signed the group to the newly founded record label. B.U.G. Mafia were catapulted to national superstardom in 1996 when its two releases produced entirely by group member Tataee provided Cat Music with impressive sales-numbers, as well as a flood of interest from their newly discovered fanbase. As Romania was still a fairly conservative country in the mid-90s, the group endured a longstanding controversy regarding the explicit nature of their lyricism that carried on well into the year 2000. In 1997, together with fellow gangsta rap group La Familia (5), Tataee, Uzzi, and Caddillac were taken into police custody following a concert in Turnu-Severin, as profanity in public performances had an unclear legal status at the time. The charges were dropped the following morning, but the incident became a turning point in the history of Romanian hip hop, allowing them to become one of the most well-known groups in the genre. Following the release of their sixth studio album, they founded their own record label, Casa Productions, while also enlisting Nicolae "DJ Swamp" Oncescu a new member of the group. Oncescu, who had been a member of hip-hop powerhouse R.A.C.L.A., became the group's DJ, while also contributing to every release until his departure from B.U.G. Mafia in 2009, following a series of financial disagreements. Acting as producers and record executives for Casa Productions, the group also propelled a number of other hip hop artists towards national notability, such as M&G, Maximilian (4), and Grasu XXL in the mid and late 2000s. They have been estimated to have sold over 1,100,000 records in their native Romania.