The Boobie Boys

The Boobie Boys have gone down in gangster and lyrical lore as certified legends versed in the strength of street knowledge and hood justice. One of Miami’s most savage drug gangs, they allegedly killed to establish their turf and to retaliate against rivals. Murder was their game and they massacred enemies recklessly, executions and gangland style killings their M.O. AK47s blasted indiscriminately, laying waste to those who got in their way. Miami police linked as many as 35 murders and 100 shootings to the Boobie Boys as they allegedly unleashed an eight year barrage of murder and mayhem in the city. Newspaper headlines called it, A Decade of Death, but in the streets it was what it was. It was gangsterism, still it was more. The Boobie Boys were respected, loved and hated all at once. Their movement was strong, so with power came respect. Because in the game that’s what it’s all about. They embodied the gangsta’s creed, “My brother’s keeper, all for one and ride or die.”

In Miami’s mean streets they built an 80 million dollar drug empire that smuggled over five tons of coke from Panama and the Bahamas. Their supply of yayo was feeding over 25 Florida cities and twelve states with the illegal drug. In cementing their cocaine enterprise it’s alleged by police that they wrecked havoc, warring with other drug factions in the Miami-Dade area and leaving death in their wake. The AK47s sprayed rapid fire, and as a result the turf wars raged unabated furious and out of control. It was a scary time for the community and police with guns blasting every night and bodies dropping. But it was also a time of street legends being born in a hail of gunfire. Kenneth “Boobie” Williams was the namesake of the Boobie Boys, the alleged mastermind of the Carol City gang that police say left a trail of bodies on the streets of Miami, blood running cold on the sidewalk as they trafficked in millions of dollars of cocaine. Taking no prisoners and showing no mercy. Like Tony Montana they turned the Sunshine State into M.I.YAYO. A virtual narco zone and the distribution capital of the western hemisphere. In the MIA it was about that bang-bang and brick laying. Take a journey into the life of street legends and original gangsters, the Boobie Boys.

As with most hood legends, it usually takes a rapper to put them on the map. They can be certified in their hood and city like the Boobie Boys were, but until a rapper takes them national, they’re just the latest ghetto star. In the Boobie Boys case, it was gangsta rapper William “Rick Ross” Roberts who glorified their legend in his rhymes. In his song White House on Port of Miami he rapped, “Let me think back to ’96 when Bobbie had the realest nigga feelin like a bitch.” He also shouted out the crew in the Trilla intro – “Shout out to Kenny Williams. Shout out to E-4. Shout out to Fishgrease.” To the public, Boobie was nothing more than a drug dealer with a murderous bent, but to Ross he was a friend and mentor. “To me Boobie is the Carol City Cartel, what Larry Hoover was to the Gangster Disciples.” Ross credits the notorious Boobie as his most important mentor and credits Boobie with founding the Carol City Cartel.

Ross says that before Boobie was apprehended by the FBI, he passed the rap gauntlet to Ross, his protégé. “The dude that initially put me into the music game is Boobie. My music touches on his lifestyle. Boobie helped a lot of people in the hood and inspired a lot of positive things. The downside to it was that he was accused of over 100 homicides and for running a multi-million dollar drug enterprise,” explained Ross. “The stuff I talk about is real. The dope is real. The gun talk is official. Look up Kenneth ‘Boobie’ Williams. Look where he’s from. That’s not nothing to be proud of. I wish that on no man. But just to let you know, that’s what I witnessed. It’s a reality.” Since his debut on the national scene with Everyday I’m Hustlin Ross has claimed affiliation with the Boobie Boys.

“Them niggas were doing their thing. I was just watching. I was a fan of the game. I sat on the porch and watched the Cadillacs go by,” said Ross. “The nigga I talk about on my record is Kenneth ‘Boobie’ Williams. He was featured on America’s Most Wanted in 1999. He got three life sentences, and they said it’s going to take five more years before they get to all of the murders. His only conviction was a federal firearms conviction. The police said the only reason that occurred was because an officer alleged he observed him get out at a gas station and pull a gun out. The officer then hopped back in his car. Didn’t follow him or shit. This was totally false, but that goes in the indictment. The feds say he got 100-130 bodies. He was like 27 years old. The feds alleged he was running a $100 million cocaine distribution business. I talk to him all the time, and I work hard to keep him positive, no matter what it is. My dog is fucked up. He will never see home again. You see a nigga like this comes around once in a lifetime. A nigga who won’t curse, but he’ll tell you in a soft voice to go home or suffer the consequences. It was what it was.”

Ross has honored his homie in verse and with a DVD. The rapper from Miami’s Carol City neighborhood teamed up with Chris Larceny to produce M.I.YAYO, a DVD profiling Ross’s Top 10 urban gangsters and street legends from Miami. The DVD is a gripping true account of street life in Miami that features the Boobie Boys, and Ross shows love to his homies in glorifying their deeds, legend, and exploits. “In the 80s and 90s which was my generation, a lot of niggas got rich, got killed or got life. Everybody knows what we represent. In my video I have a shirt on that says Boobie Boys. It represents my homie, Boobie,” Ross said. Ross emulates his former mentor too on the street tip. He portrays himself as not only a drug dealer but a gangster as well. “Get at me in the streets, nigga. You know how we play,” Ross said. “This shit about to get deeper than rap.” But Rick Ross is no Boobie. He’s just a rapper, an entertainer who got his start as a prison guard. Maybe that’s how he first met Boobie. The real characters of his rhymes have a different take on it all.

“Ross is the homie,” Chico says. “He was unconscious of the full effect behind his actions. I know his intentions were good, but it was bad PR for our case. You have niggas still fighting to overturn this shit. It’s not a good look when we’re arguing the allegations were hyped, distortions and straight up fabricated. But then a nigga with nationwide exposure is constantly trying to validate it with glory. Hip-hop/rap music and its content is so powerful. It travels beyond the realm of our ghetto.” Plex gives his take on the matter also. “Chico said it best, but for real, it was lightweight, a sucka move.” Plex says. “Because it’s like he validating what the cracka’s said by putting a Boobie Boys t-shirt on. Who the fuck is the Boobie Boys? Straight up. People don’t even call Black, Boobie. We call him Black. So if dude was out to support his man, he should have put on a Black t-shirt. Still it is what it is. Dude a rapper, he did some rapper shit, so I ain’t mad. I just hope he moves a little more wisely in the future and stands up for his man, Black, when the time comes, you feel me? But as far as Carol City Cartel, I didn’t have nothing to do with that. I was Streetlife Mob. Ross and them were little niggas back then. I did me musically and they’re doing them.” E-4 looks at it all a little differently. “It’s all entertainment,” he says. “I am just glad to see someone from where I used to be reach stardom. I wish Rick Ross all my blessings. I send him all my shout outs.” Rappers have to know where to draw the line between reality and entertainment though. Chico explains why.

“I was in USP Lee County when the Ross Hustlin single dropped,” Chico says. “One morning on my way to the yard my case manager stopped me. He said, ‘Harper, did you see the TV this morning?’ I thought my case had gotten overturned or something. As I looked bewildered and waited for him to continue he said, ‘Your homeboy is representing for you all Boobie Boys. MTV aired the video early this morning.’ This was a middle-aged white dude, living in the mountains of Virginia or nearby in the surrounding area. If Hustlin made it inside of his living room I know damn well it reached the dens and family rooms of the appeal court judges and clerks who were in the process of deciding on our direct appeal. You follow me? Not to mention the many undercover informants who roam amongst us with the duty to report back to them with any info that may be conceivably relevant. You understand? Our appeal was denied shortly after that. Now, I’m not implying that the homie’s comments directly caused it, but indirectly it’s very possible. It’s a slap in the face to certain people. You cannot glorify everything. Especially injurious events.” Chico didn’t sit back though he tried to reach out to the homie, correctional officer turned gangsta rapper Rick Ross.

“When I first got word from the street about Ross’s statements concerning our case I tried to reach out to him.” Chico says. “My intentions were just to explain to him how to be more responsible with his words and actions. After failing to make direct contact with the homie, I sent another homie to the Hustlin video shoot. He spoke to Ross personally and was told that Boobie gave the green light for the attention. My man left Ross with my concerns and that was that. Since he said Boobie had stamped it that’s who I followed up with. I knew Boobie better. That information couldn’t have been accurate. To Ross’s credit Boobie never hit me back. I could only assume that it was true. That fucked me up cause niggas didn’t realize that this was bigger than a rapper trying to be vilified or a villain trying to be glorified. For some cats they might feel some type of commemoration for this type of association, not for me though. Association is what got me convicted in that courtroom and sentenced to life to start with. I didn’t support that shit.” Chico didn’t blame Rick Ross though.

“My beef was with Boobie.” Chico says. “Since then Rick Ross has dropped the M.I.YAYO DVD and continued to give bad PR to our case. And unless somebody with some sense gets in his ear or he grounds himself to a conscientious source he along with other rappers like him are going to continue making it hard on the real characters of their music. And it ain’t nothing gangsta about that. Ross is unconscious. A lot of rappers these days are. Even Tupac was with that name dropping shit. But the O.G.’s pulled him up quick and hipped him. He had real players of the game getting in his ear. He had Mutula, Geronimo, Sinqu and a select few more of the elite soldiers from behind this wall that grounded his ass. His hands on contact with their conscience minds is what made him so advanced beyond the rest. He was fortunate in that way. When he began talking about those brothers much like Scarface did with Larry Hoover they didn’t perpetuate the propaganda surrounding those brothers’ situations. They talked about the injustices that were involved. That’s how you represent for a nigga. Pac and Face learned that. Other rappers don’t so they run reckless with their lyrics, completely oblivious to its consequences.”

Check out the rest of this story and more in Street Legends Vol. 2. Order it today.