By Cody McDevitt

If rapper Boaz Bey gives the impression that he has seen worse days and survived tougher tribulations than most, it's because he has. The 22-year-old rapper was 6 when his father died, and he was 7 when the gang violence began in Larimer.

"There were gang wars going on for five or six years between seven communities," he says, sitting in the I.D. Labs studio in Millvale. "It was a heavy influence to see older people drinking and smoking and doing what they thought they had to do to get over. We grew up in a peer-pressure time. It was a wild situation, just a bunch of violence.

"When you're coming from a not-so-productive environment, it begins to not be seen as a struggle anymore. It becomes a way of life. The things I've seen coming up in the community was what there was to talk about. My life didn't get advanced until I got older, when I started making my own decisions and going to my own places."

Amid his troubling childhood, he developed a passion for music, learning to play the clarinet and listening to hip-hop icons like Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G.

He arrived on the scene three years ago when "It's Alright," a song produced by Black Czer dominated WAMO's Battle of the Beats music contest for eight weeks straight. He also appeared on mixtapes with his popular crew, the Govament, who had a guest spot on New York's Hot 97, and released a solo disc, "Intent to Deliver."

Boaz's appreciation for orchestrated sounds shows on many of the piano-driven tracks of "The Phenomenal Boaz," a latest mixtape that is causing a stir on the local scene. It gets his name out there again before another solo release this winter.

There are certain songs on the mixtape that glorify the violence associated with the "thug" lifestyle. Yet he is the first to say it's not a life he wants ... he just wants to amuse his listeners.

"It's entertainment," he says. "There's a difference between the real world and entertainment. Anyone who is an entertainer will tell you that. They may do some things they say or say some things they do, but they'll definitely put some icing on the cake."

His concern for the black community shines through on the eighth track, "Fight for Freedom."

Explaining what inspired the song, he says, "As a people, we're still not free. We're still in chattel slavery. People need to free themselves -- we're still slaves ... mentally. So a lot of people are going to die because of the violence, a lot of mothers are going to cry ... it's going to be a long walk before we're free as a people."

Boaz doesn't think rap will cast aside the mental chains he refers to, though.

"A lot of hip-hop artists are not being role models right now," he says. "People want to be like the rapper, and they're not doing things they're supposed to be doing."

He's not a role model either, just an artist, and that is more important anyway. He will soon start putting down tracks for the next record.

"We're going to be doing as much recording in the next few months," says Tim Sheffler, a.k.a. DJ Shef, a 23-year-old contributing producer for the album. "I'm not going to say the next album is the 'real' album, but it's going to be all original music. There's going to be more freshness."

After the interview, Boaz and DJ Shef go into the recording area and play two songs that will be on the upcoming release. They sound like something Talib Kweli would put out, music from someone who has something important to say.