O.G. Style
O.G. Style made one album, released one of the earliest full-lengths in Rap-A-Lot's catalogue, and both members are now dead. The group is a footnote that sits very close to the beginning of Houston rap as a recorded enterprise.
Formation
The duo formed in Houston in 1989, pairing rapper Eric Woods with his cousin, the producer J. "Big Boss" Brown, who worked as DJ Big Boss. Woods had been recording since 1986 under the name Prince Ezzy-E and was already a local figure through college radio play and MC battles at high schools and block parties.
I Know How to Play 'Em!
Released in March 1991 on Rap-A-Lot, it peaked at number sixty-nine on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. Big Boss produced the entire record and Woods wrote and performed all of it. James Smith — James Prince — and Rap-A-Lot's engineer Cliff Blodget executive produced. The single "Catch 'Em Slippin'" had come out the year before and did the commercial work.
Why the album matters
It is one of Rap-A-Lot's earliest albums, from the period when the label was proving that a Houston independent could put out records at all. Everything that followed in the city — the Geto Boys' national breakout, the Screwed Up Click, the 2005 wave — rests on that infrastructure existing.
The split and the solo years
The duo broke up in 1992 and Woods kept the name as a solo artist. He released I Still Know How to Play 'Em!!! in 2001 on Zone Entertainment, featuring Big Boss on one track, and Return of Da Gangsta in 2004.
What they are known for musically
Early-1990s Southern rap before the Houston sound had settled into anything identifiable — closer to the East Coast template than to what the city became. Woods was a capable, straightforward MC and Big Boss's production is of its moment.
Legacy
Both members have since died. The group is remembered locally as part of Rap-A-Lot's founding period and almost nowhere else, which is a fair description of most Houston rap history before the Geto Boys broke nationally.
Prince Ezzy-E
Woods was recording from 1986 under that name and had a local reputation built on college radio play and battles at high schools and block parties — the pre-recording infrastructure of Houston rap, which existed for years before anyone in the city had a record deal.
Rap-A-Lot in 1991
The label was five years old and had just put the Geto Boys through a distribution fight over content. Releasing a second, less confrontational act was part of establishing that Rap-A-Lot was a functioning record company rather than a single-group operation.
Catch 'Em Slippin'
The 1990 single did the commercial work and remains the track the group is remembered for. It sits at the point where Houston rap still sounded broadly like East Coast rap, before the screw tapes and Rap-A-Lot's own house sound pulled the city somewhere distinct.
Both members gone
Eric Woods and DJ Big Boss have both since died. The group's entire recorded output as a duo is one album, and it sits at the foundation of a label whose catalogue defines Southern rap. Very little has been written about either of them.