San Antonio rapper hits it big with major record deal

His name is Michael Bocanegra but goes by his rap name Lilbootycall or Call for short.  Call was born August 19, 1996 and is a San Antonio native dealing with a parental divorce and spending most of his time between the north and south side.

Call recalled when he stayed on the south side with his father, he would get with some friends and made some beats while free-styling into their phones.

The 22-year-old rapper had uploaded “Sailor Moon” to Soundcloud but had deleted them. His fans called for him to re-upload them and about a year-and-a-half later he did raking up over 4 million listening streams.

The local rapper started off his career on Soundcloud where Warner Bros. Records found and signed him to their label.

Call had little doubt regarding the Warner deal. “I was like, ‘Oh, that’s dope.’ But at first I was kinda hesitant, ‘cause I was like, ‘Who the f**k would be interested in a kid named Lilbootycall?’”

“I never thought anybody would take it seriously, that’s why I named myself that.” But sure enough, Warner Bros. Records did take it seriously. Serious enough they flew Call out to NYC and made an undisclosed deal.

“My name is Lilbootycall because when I was younger, people used to treat me like a second option,” Call explains to Forbes. “I didn’t really have that many friends. I was never really the cool kid. My mom couldn’t afford the cool new shoes or the cool new clothes, so I was rocking, like, Walmart stuff or whatever she could find.” This piecemeal wardrobe informed the rapper’s dreamy, candy-coated aesthetic, but the scorn from his peers influenced the way he made beats and wrote lyrics. He caught flak for playing clarinet in school band and left the instrument in his locker on the last day of school one year. “To this day, I still regret not taking that clarinet home,” Call says. “But I guess that happened for a good reason, ‘cause it helped me realize that what people say doesn’t really matter, and s**t, I’ma do me regardless.”

The local native rapper had recently performed in San Antonio at The Block Party downtown at St. Paul’s Square on June 8th.