Mocha - Bella Mafia [Unreleased, 2001]

Partial collection of songs taken from former Missy Elliott protegee Mocha’s unreleased, unfinished debut album “Bella Mafia” (2001).

Shortly after gaining momentum as the first female rapper signed to Missy Elliott’s label The Goldmind Inc. (aside from Elliott herself) alongside hopping on labelmate Nicole Wray’s hit singles “Make It Hot” and “I Can’t See”, Mocha delved into the recording for her own project.

Dating back as early as 1999, the pending debut was under the working title “Hot Chocolate” and according to ‘Billboard’ magazine, Mocha had plans to recruit Missy Elliott as the sole producer for the effort. However, a different direction formed when the young femcee began to experiment with other sounds within her label’s camp, notably reeling assistance from hitmakers like Bink, Timbaland and Rockwilder.

The year 2000 brought forth two buzz singles from the anticipated CD; one being the reverberating cartoonish ambulance audio piece “Runnin' Shit”, assembled by Timbaland, while the other (“Mardi Gras”) – also produced by Timbaland – incorporated Spanish elements and retained backup vocals by Missy Elliott, Lil’ Mo and Elsie Muniz.

Despite the singles’ rollout, “Bella Mafia” suffered multiple postponements due to the inclusion of fellow labelmate Torrey “T.C.” Carter on the Goldmind roster. Due to Carter’s newfound fame as the first male signee, label founder Missy Elliott pushed all other signees’ projects to the first quarter of 2001, as she focused on the remainder of 2000 to promote Carter’s material.

When T.C. was dropped from his recording contract due to business conflicts, Mocha was queued to drop her final single from “Bella Mafia”: the ghetto disco-infused, Rockwilder/Missy Elliott-produced club jam “I Know What’cha Like”, featuring accompanying vocals by then-unknown Petey Pablo alongside contemporaries Lil’ Mo and Missy. Sadly, like previous efforts, “I Know” failed to chart resulting in Mocha’s project to be thrown to the shadows, her name terminated from The Goldmind imprint and conclusively submitting a brief-termed retirement from the music industry to fixate her skillset on drafting up urban-based novels.

Track-listing is as follows:

1.) Top Floor ’98 (Intro)

2.) Runnin’ Ish (Radio Edit) ft. Timbaland

3.) I Know Whutchu Like (Clean/Amended Version) ft. Missy Elliott, Petey Pablo, Lil’ Mo

4.) Mardi Gras (Radio Edit) ft. Lil’ Mo, Missy Elliott

5.) The Streetz (Clean/Amended Version) ft. Lil’ Mo

6.) Talkin’ Crazy (Clean/Amended Version) ft. Timbaland

7.) I Like Control (feat. Nicole Wray & Missy Elliott)

8.) Rippin’ (feat. Sonja Blade)

9.) Do You Wanna Ride? (feat. Coo Coo Cal & Mr. Do It to Death)

10.) Runnin’ Shit (Dirty/Explicit Version) ft. Timbaland

11.) I Know Whatcha U Like (Dirty/Explicit Version) ft. Petey Pablo, Lil’ Mo, Missy Elliott

12.) Mardi Gras (Explicit/Demo Version) ft. Elsie Muniz

13.) The Streetz (Dirty/Explicit Version) ft. Lil’ Mo

14.) Talkin’ Crazy (Dirty/Explicit Version) ft. Timbaland

15.) Even Cheaper (Cheapstake Remix) with Sporty Thievz, Liz Leite of Major Coinz

16.) I Still Believe (Stevie J.’s Remix) with Mariah Carey, Amil

17.) Dollar Bill (Remix) ft. R. Kelly, Foxy Brown

18.) Feel Me (Outro)