Raw Society

East Boogie Underground

Raw Society is a rapper from East St. Louis, Illinois ("East Boogie"), on the Metro East side of the St. Louis scene. He first recorded as NCO and has also used the names Raw $ociety and Raw Fosho. His real name does not appear in published sources. Histories of St. Louis rap describe NCO as starting out in the style of MC Eiht before he reinvented himself as Raw Society. One account of the city's rap history called him the scene's most talented artist of that period, one who "brought a clarity and confidence his peers lacked."

Deadly Impact Records

Starting in 1995, Raw Society released a steady run of independent tapes and CDs on Deadly Impact Records: a self-titled release and Lookin' Thru the Eyes of a G (1995), Players & Hustlas (1996), Reign of Terror (1996), Tears of a Man and Mid Evil Times (1997), and 4 Life (1999). The 12-track Reign of Terror CD, pressed through Disc Makers, was produced by Cap One, E-Note and Greg "G-Rock" Sanders. It includes "8 Million Ways," "Another Lesson," "Players and Hustlas" and "Never Ending Drama." Cap One is the main guest on his records, and the two also worked together on Cap One's 1996 release Holywater. The records are gangsta rap with a G-funk influence, which was common in St. Louis rap of the mid-1990s.

Collector Status and Reissues

Raw Society's early records were independently pressed. They later became sought-after items for collectors of 1990s independent rap, and underground rap collectors call some of them "holy grails." Deadly Impact kept releasing his music into the 2000s with Inbetween (2000), Love / Life / Drama (2001), Inbetween II (2002) and The Element (2003). In 2017 he released Reverse Engineering: Mk Ultra on Fo-Show Entertainment.

Collector labels have kept the catalog in circulation. Reign of Terror was reissued on vinyl in 2020 in a limited run of 300 copies. In 2022 Most Wanted Records, working with Deadly Impact, released Gangiscon, a 17-song album recorded in the late 1990s and early 2000s that had never been issued.