Last time we heard from a college dropout-turned producer-then rapper, he was headed West with two multi-platinum albums, a slew of other successfully produced hits and ended up on President Bush’s anti-patriot list. But now Mobile, Alabama has its version of the aforementioned Kanye. His mother calls him Marece Richards when he is in trouble, but the world knows him as Rich Boy. Although his moniker may suggest that he has money out the ying yang, Rich Boy insists that his name was given to him because his last name is Richards and people would call him “Rich’s Boy.” Now that he has everybody and their momma “Throwing Some D’s On That Bitch”, his name may become synonymous with his anticipated financial gain.

Although money, power, and respect are the goals of most people in any genre of life, Rich Boy is determined to not only stack his paper, but to make his family proud. The producer/emcee admits that his hood upbringing may have led him to do some unsavory things that caused his mom a great deal of pain but ever since he enrolled in Tuskegee University he has been on a mission to right those wrongs. Just as his College Dropout predecessor had done before him, Rich Boy was on his own path to “Touch the Sky” by taking those same wrongs to help him write his songs. Little did we know that this once mechanical engineering major would be signed to Interscope, have a hit single, be dropping a heavily anticipated album, and virtually responsible for putting Mobile, Alabama on the map.

The map may not be big enough for Rich Boy. His self-entitled album which dropped on March 13, 2007 has been one the most anticipated albums to hit the streets. Featuring production from Kanye, Timbaland, Mannie Fresh and Polow Da Don, Mr. Richards in his own words stated, “I believe I have created a classic album. I worked with some great people and I put a lot into this project. I didn’t want to just have a good single and the rest of my album be some bullshit.” Being perfectly honest, Rich Boy can’t afford to put out some bullshit; especially not being part of the regime known as Interscope. With artists such as 50 Cent, Emimem and The Game constantly generating numbers for the label, he was quick to point out that he went into this project with the focus of making something the true to himself yet still marketable. “I definitely feel a certain sense of pressure about the album but at the same time I don’t give in to it or I want fall under the pressure. I got a lot of respect for 50 Cent, Eminem, and all of them cats on Interscope but I also feel like I can be one the first really huge southern successes for the label.” With the major success of “Throw Some D’s” and now the “Throw Some D’s” remix featuring Andre 3000, Rich Boy may be well on his way to generating some Eminem like numbers. Continued on page 2 »