Roach Report: THE BAY AS OF TODAY
The Bay is back in its slump. YOY is this happening again! How can we artists be so popular at home with hit songs scattered around and our bootlegged ring tones ringing on buses and slapping out of subwoofers from San Francisco to Sacramento. And still we are unable to get any mainstream exposure. They say hyphy’s dead. Man, hyphy isn’t going no where, there was a sideshow this Saturday, or Sunday morning to be more accurate, not to far from my house.
I was at home cup caking but all my cousins were there and everybody was still going dumb with over hundred cars in the hyphy train. I see dreads, beanies, and gold grills every time I go to the corner store. And there isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t see a Buick on some rims scraping around. Local rap stars have shows and fans, and we see turf dance battles all the time. I’m telling you if this was the south, we would have videos on rotation and songs on the radio all day.
They say the lingo’s played out and therefore the songs are to, but shoot, what is Soulja Boy, or any other artist with a hit song for that matter saying that hasn’t been said a million times already. Ummmm…….nothing. I admit a lot of the older artists that were prominent in the beginning of the movement did not carry it how they should have, but at the same time they are older. They did not really grow up in the hyphy era. A lot of them aren’t making songs that we, the young people, really feel anymore.
But there are new cats in town. Artist’s such as the Trunk Boiz, Diligentz, B.I.G. (my group), D-Lo, and Young Bari, all have songs that have became huge locally and could easily be as big as “Get Silly” (which sounds almost identical to a song Doc from Richmond put out over three years ago), or “Crank That Batman” for example. The occasional spin from Dj Rick Lee on 106 KMEL or J. Espionza on WILD 949 on a mix show is greatly appreciated but not nearly enough. Go to a function and put on “No Hoe”, “Cupcake No Fillin”, Or “Get It Get It” and everybody goes nuts. Nobody gets the party going like us.
The MySpace is already big, all artists I’ve mentioned having at least 50,000 to over 200,000 plays on their hit songs. But what’s next? Nobody is getting behind us to push us in Atlanta, Chicago, LA, or Miami. Out there they don’t even really understand us or our movement even though they like the music. All they know is E-40 and Tell Me When to Go. And E-40 is great at making hyphy music but he is definitely not hyphy.
I’ve been to clubs from Mexico to Portland where Bay Area songs as old as Mac Dre’s Thizzle Dance got the party going more than any other song they played, they were imitating us in the clubs and I could tell they are just waiting for the next Bay song to ring their ears. Imagine if they heard what we new artists are coming out with. There was an article in the SF Weekly that discusses the subject in depth focusing a lot on the radio’s play in the death of Bay Area hyphy music and my mentor Mistah Fab. The article basically said personal feuds between the main radio station out here and the biggest artist out here, Mistah Fab, led to a ban in Fab’s music being played on air. This had a trickle down effect and basically killed the movement from a commercial radio perspective. As a whole the Bay didn’t come together as a unit when the light was shining on us. We have hit songs ready for the world and we need to get the light back on us, whatever it takes.
Filed under: By Youth, For Youth, Pop Culture, Youth Radio: Bay Area, roach report | Tagged: B.I.G., Bay Area, D-Lo, Diligentz, E-40, hyphy, mistah fab, MySpace, Trunk Boiz, Young Bari
The “Hyphy Movement” was supposed to be an independent style of living. But then, the media took control of it and commericalized it. Then, as opposed to being unique, it became what everybody was supposed to do. The songs then started being about what was already out there:girls, money, cars, drugs, and some other BS. In my opinion, this would have been a good movement if it was not cemmercialized. It could have been a way to better the community and a chance for people to get together and make a statement. But since it was similar to the rest of the music out there, it “died” because there was nothing new that people could have come up with, it would have been all repetitive. No offense, but that is why I think that the best bay area rappers are people like The Coup, Zion I, Del tha Funkee Homosapien, and other conscious rappers who rap about real issues that go on in the world around us, not meaningless music which tells us to get high and disrespect our own women. The hyphy movement could have and possibly could still be used for something positive. Cool report, by the way. Peace from Berkeley.