“People don’t know my face,” said Producer DJ Daryl (Daryl L. Anderson) whose clients include Snoop Dogg, Mystikal and Master P. “They know my sound. They say too me, ‘I got these beats dude,’ and they’re mine. It’s funny. For a long time I didn’t realize my sound influenced a new generation.”
DJ Daryl’s sound is known as “bay area mob music.” The era that helped create the legacies of Long Beach’s Snoop Dogg, New Orleans’ Mystikal and Master P, and of course New York’s Tupac – a then young aspiring rapper.
“Tupac had heard some of our music. We didn’t know who he was. We were working with a friend and he asked to be on the album,” said Daryl about meeting the rap legend.
“Keep Ya Head Up” was released in 1993 and it has recently been certified as Diamond in sales by RIAA – that’s over 10 million (10 times platinum for one song). The hit single was re-released in 1998 in a “Tupac’s Greatest Hits” album, in 2007 for the “10th Anniversary and Best of Tupac” project and in 2008 it was re-released as a single.
“Our group 415 was recording with Digital Underground. In our city we were well known. Tupac was there carrying equipment…we didn’t know he was a rapper. We wore bandanas and people thought we were Crips.” DJ Daryl laughed when talking about the early days with Tupac.
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