Axl Rose
Awww The Bay Area a stretch of land going from San Francisco, Vallejo, Oakland, Richmond, and surrounding area heading south to Palo Alto, Fremont, San Jose, and yeah we can even give Morgan Hill and Gilroy some love as the cut of line. Home to some of the most diverse and serious Hip Hop music ever.
Check the resume. The upper West Coast of Hip hop is home to some of the most supreme that have blessed the mic and altered the game. Del the Funky Homosapien and the whole Hieroglyphics crew (Souls of Mischief, Casual, Pep Love, etc.), Too Short, Living Legends (Murs, Grouch, Eligh, Asop (not Aesop Rock!!!), Luckyiam., Sunspot Jonez, Bicasso, etc.), Digital Underground, E-40, Mac Mall, Mac Dre (R.I.P.), Quannum (although they began from more up North in Davis, Ca they still made their music mark in areas like SF and Oakland.), the list goes on forever. Where do you think Snoop got most of his lingo from like fasheezy/fashizzle?
So to highlight a bit of the Bay Area flavor I thought these four albums would give an idea of the wide range that goes on out here. Starting with a pioneer, a legend I am talking about the one and only Todd Shaw aka Too Short and his first major label debut, remember this is the later home to Brittany Spears and Justin Timberlake, Jive Records 1987's "Born to Mack".
Hot of the success of his final underground album,1986's Raw, Uncut, and X-Rated, Jive Records signed what was at the time the nastiest man one man rapper (ONE MAN...they were called 2 Live CREW!!!! not one man crew!!!) with his use of profanity and sex. While almost primitive sounding it was one of the first West Coast albums to really showcase that bump of the Roland 808 drum machine that would later become the main ingredient in many rap albums to follow. Seriously forget Freaky Tales and go straight to Dope Fiend Beat to REALLY get yo Bay Area on!!! With its slow and deep bass sound you could almost see the seeds of Screw Music beginning to bubble under the surface. While lyrically not Too Short's best album this album bridges the gap between a young boy that just is talking nasty into a mic and the grown ass man that was teaching us pimpin' back when a certain dogg was just a puppy.
Too Short "Born To Mack" 1987
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Oakland California is the home to many thought processes amongst them is the Black Panther of Hip Hop known as Paris. Released in 1990 “The Devil Made Me Do It” on Tommy Boy Records was the final nail in the coffin of what was known as Militant Rap pioneered by Public Enemy. Minus Professor Griff's “Pawns In the Game” no other album that didn't have Chuck D or a song written by Ice Cube or Ice T scared the establishment the way this one did. The title track being banned from MTV was no real shocker but the fact it didn't stop the album from reaching in the Billboard 200 topping at number 41 said something.
If Public Enemy was the Dead Kennedy’s in terms of political issues and using satire (geez listen to 911 is a joke again!!!) then Paris was The Exploited, about a subtle as a using a sledgehammer to the face to prove a point. While he spoke of things that effected black youth in a broader way than say N.W.A. which was more accessible to everyone, his Black Nationalist ideology was a tad hard to take serious. Later his style would be lampooned by movies like CB4 and Fear of a Black Hat. Paris was a precursor to rappers like Dead Prez and Immortal Technique that would come and give the powers that be and ourselves the firm bitch slap we need every now and then. His second album Sleeping with the Enemy from 1992 and its Bush Sr. assassination implying cover that WOULD NEVER HAVE MADE IT OFF THE PRESS THESE DAYS!!!! insured Paris would never have another major label release again although he still makes some decent records still. That entire aside The Devil Made Me Do It is a great window into a time period when a young man not only said fuck the police but fuck the government! Preach brother!
Paris The Devil Made Me Do It 1990
Everyone knows the song "I Got Five On It" from Oakland California duo the Luniz. If you don't than you need to pull your head out of your ass and hop to it cause with it's Club Nouveau sampling " Why You Treat Me So Bad" beat and infectious hook it will get you off yo ass even if you're not high. But many of y'all slept on Luniz second album 1997's Lunitik Muzik. While a big departure from the Bay sound prevailent on the first time out this one went as far as to squash beefs (Funkin' Ova Nuthin' feat Too Short), add humor (My Babby Mamma, 20 Blunts A Day), do Weird Al type parodies (Is It Kool?, Handcuff Yo Hoes), but in the middle of the East Coast/West Coast virus have a cameo from a East Coast Hip Hop artist,the funk doctor himself, Redman (Hypnotize). Nuff said.
Luniz Lunitik Muzik 1997
And what would the bay be without a little something different than the usual burger and fries? We're talking about the land of Hieroglyphics and another crew that changed Bay Area Hip Hop, or at least your perception of what the Yay was like. I am talking about Mystik Journeymen from the collective Living Legends. In 1999 the duo of BFAP aka Sunspot Jonez and PSC aka Luckyiam.psc aka Luckyiam released an album (Black Sands Ov Eternia) that wasn't just two dudes rapping about how dope they were but rather a critique and journey through what it was like to be a young struggling artist at the height of the P-Diddy-glitzy skullduggery going on at the time. At the time this album was a blessing, gaining the Mysik Journeymen and Living Legends as a whole a larger audience, but later a curse as no album by the duo was as well crafted and caused many to wonder if the group peaked, even though solo project from both Sunspot Jonez and Luckyiam have all been top notch. Black Sands Ov Eternia also contained a song that would plague the Living Legends live sets for YEARS!!! The great posse cut "Mercury Rising". It is a perfect intro into the world of the Living Legends but if you've been in the know for a while you as sick of hearing it as they probably are of playing it...well maybe.
Elsewhere you'll find great tracks about faith in ones self, self reflection and the everyday things humans think about when at a crossroads in life. And these two chose the right paths indeed. If you think Kanye West is deep then you have the personality of a roof shingle and this isn't the album for you.
Mystik Journeymen Black Sands Of Eternia 1999
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