Buttas - Diamonds And The Gold - 1998

12" - 1998 - 438 Entertainment  

Back in 1998 with this rare 12" released by Buttas, a female emcee from Richmond, Virginia. It was fully produced by Ron Flowers a.k.a Fro or Fro Organix, also from Richmond,VA and came out on 438 Entertainment, a record label owned by a guy named Via and consisted of Baby Fro, Via, Brian Trent, Mega Roka and D'Angelo before she signed. The wax is composed of two songs 'Diamond and the Gold' and 'Snake eyes', both available in their album, remix and remix instrumental versions. 

During a little chat, Buttas explained to me how everything started for her and what happened after the release of the 12", here is her story ! 

Buttas : "Well... I would always carry a notebook around starting in like 5th grade... I used it for writing thoughts, attempts at graffiti and bubble letters etc... By middle school I had been drawn to hip hop...still with my notebook my writings became more organized..wrote my first song "My Lee Jeans" inspired by "My Adidas", Run DMC. I had piles of notebooks ... Kids around my way found out I could rap thru my peers. Started battling and being tested and boy was it fierce ! Never wanted to be an artist tho. Writing was my release. But by now the buzz was crazy ! By high school everybody knew, I was sort of forced to be in every one of what was known as the hottest High School Showcases in VA, Bill McGees John F. Kennedy Talent Shows now known as Armstrong High. In 96/97, one of my homeboys said he knew some people looking for a female artist. I was like 'nahhh dont want to be' but he set me up, introduced to an Emcee name Black who put me on the spot throwing any kind of words for me to spit to. 2 days later I met Baby Fro a.k.a Fro Organix and Via who owned 438 Ent. formerly I.D.U... The rest was history!"

Buttas : "I went on to record over 100 songs. Released an EP on consignment called 'The Forgotten MC' which did very well. We started shopping the packages to record companies and meeting with labels who said and I quote 'you're to complicated, people don't want to think'..smh. It was discouraging especially since I never aspired to be an artist just because I could spit or write. However we did get an offer from a label whose name I won't mention but the offer was a 7 album deal with no creative freedom... RIGHT umm yea, no... How does an artist say she's/he's an artist with no creative freedom. I refused to compromise who I was. So after more struggling and personal issues playing a role, parted ways with 438 Ent. Never stopped writing or recording tho even now. I went to school in NY for music business and engineering and became an Artist Manager. Was a partner in an Ent Company and made moves. I then took every experience I had in music and life and turned it into a show titled "Shaun Nicole's 2 Turntables & A Mic". Inspired the Real BET's 106 & Park. My show educates and assists indie artist producers and eventually dancers. Its my life ! Currently under reconstruction with goals of major network TV."

Mad Props to Shaun 'Buttas' Nicole