Coo Coo Cal largely fell off the radar in the years after his 2001 single "In My Projects" became the biggest rap song to come out of Milwaukee since... ever. This summer I caught up with the rapper, though, and he explained what he's been doing in the years since doing four months jail time in 2006 for felony cocaine possession: going legitimate.
"We've gone corporate," he said. "We follow the rules. We flip houses. We do real estate. You name it, we do it. You get a flat tire, we can handle that. A streetlight go out in your neighborhood, we've got somebody that can fix that."
But in between investing in real estate, Cal was also working on a comeback album, Kokain Kowboyz, a collaboration with Milwaukee rapper Baby Drew, who also tasted success if not on nearly the same level as Calwith his single "Disco Lady."
Kokain Kowboyz, released last week, is a snappy, Southern-styled rap album, a Milwaukee-centric song cycle about being a big fish in a small pond. Though the album is being promoted as a "ghetto classic," its polished production and contemporary hooks suggest its aiming more for the shelves of chain CD stores than the trunk of a car. This is the work of a major-label vet, not an amateur. You can sample songs from the album on Imeem.com.
