After reading a recently conducted interview with Bay Area trio, The Federation, Oakland young gun, Mistah Fab, gave us a call to respond to a few the comments made during the interview. One comment that struck a cord with FAB was when the trio told our interviewer that they didn't "Ride The Yellow Bus" -- a movement in the Bay Area that Mistah FAB has patented and created -- because it wasn't intelligent (see "The Federation: It Feels So Much Better").
Well, the Oakland rapper spoke out and cleared the air about his "Yellow Bus Movement," explained what it's really about and how it got started. And in the process, called The Federation out for hating because of jealousy and envy.
The Bay Area hip-hop community is usually known for being supportive of each other, but no matter how much a region gets along, there is always a war of words when someone feels disrespected.
BallerStatus.com: You have your own movement in the Bay called "Ridin' The Yellow Bus." Talk about that: how it started and what it's all about.
Mistah FAB: The whole yellow bus thing came about from my first single "Super Sick Wit It" from my Son Of A Pimp album. On the song, I got a line where I go "I do the dummy retarded and ride the yellow bus." That phrase is a catch phrase, but not only that, it blew up what our whole movement is about. The whole hyphy thing is about going stupid, going dumb, and when you say "yellow bus," that's ignit.
People trying to say they intelligent and they don't ride the yellow bus, but you can't be hyphy if you ain't on that. You fake hyphy; you not from Oakland hyphy. So, we gone let people know for the record to reflect that the hyphy movement started in Oakland and anybody who's trying to consider themselves hyphy, if they don't give it up to us -- the Mecca of what hyphy is -- then they lying and they watering it down. The yellow bus really explains hyphy to the fullest.
What we've done is transferred it over to subliminally reaching these kids. When we say "yellow bus," we making it cool to go to school. We're trying to raise the literacy rate 'cause right now it's down. It's down all over the country for the youth. The yellow bus, anyone who wears that and rides the yellow bus, who would look at it down, we've turned it around where it's cool to go to school, it's cool to ride the yellow bus. We made it something popular to do. It's like if someone said, "You're stupid fresh," that's a good thing and you wouldn't be offended by it.
BallerStatus.com: So basically, the Yellow Bus movement is just an extension of the hyphy lifestyle?
Mistah FAB: Definitely, it puts the hyphy movement to the forefront of what's going on. What has happened is that the nation has been bamboozled by the representatives that we have repping the hyphy movement thus far. On a nationwide scale, we're trying to take it over and give people an unadulterated hyphy -- the Keak Da Sneak's, the Mistah FAB's, the Mac Dre's... Mac Dre was the inventor of it. This is what we do it for. We represent Thizz Entertainment; that's our movement. We do it for the people that's really, really considerably hypy, who really live that lifestyle. Not the ones who just come to Oakland on the weekend and see what's going on and go to the studio and rap about it. We really do it, everyday. You can catch me riding around IN a yellow bus on rims!
BallerStatus.com: Now, basically, you're referring to The Federation, who in a recent interview with us spoke down on your Yellow Bus movement (see "The Federation: It Feels So Much Better"). Why do you think they intentionally spoke down on something that was obviously started by you?
Mistah FAB: That's what I don't understand. That's what caught me off guard. The way that they put it...if I'm a reader and I'm reading their interview and I see what they say and how they put it, I would think they were trying to talk about me. Or talk about the whole movement and downplay it. So, to respond to that, the only thing I can say is that they are from Fairfield. I'm from Oakland, so you do the math. You ask anybody in the streets, or listen to E-40's album, years ago, they say, "The truth is, you just a Fairfield n----." You know what I'm saying? So, nobody's ever been proud to say they were from Fairfield.
There's only one dude from Fairfield that's really holding it down; he's a young dude named Taj-He-Spitz. He's hot right now. He's repping the real side of it because he's not afraid to rep what he do. He's not trying to take what another city has done and run with it to go nationwide to get on a major label because your mic is bigger. When your mic is bigger that means that more people are gonna be able to hear what you're going to say and you're gonna take credit for something. There's all types of things you go through that shows you don't really define the hyphy movement in general. Using drugs is something, you can use drugs, but does using drugs make you hyphy? No. Livin' this life and really being involved in that, that's what really makes you hyphy.
How old are you? You can't be 36 talking about you hyphy. Come on man, it's for the kids. This hyphy thing is for the kids. Cats like E-40 and Too Short they sponsored it. They said, "No, I ain't doing this. I ain't saying I'm doing this," but they sponsoring it. Too Short is the godfather of the Bay Area, E-40 is the ambassodor, they sponsoring the movement. But they ain't saying, "Oh, we still doing it; we hyphy." E-40 ain't saying he's starting it, he's just giving credit where credit is due, which makes us respect that movement. But, when you say something like [The Federation said] and you ain't even from the Bay, originally, and you claim you hyphy and you 36? Come on, man. Of course you don't ride the yellow bus, you been out of school for 16 years [laughs].
It's funny 'cause we're trying to push the movement. And anybody who gets in these interviews and they just try to bash the movement before it takes off, that just takes away from what we're really trying to do. At the end of the day, the real recognize the real, and we get love in the streets. Mistah FAB gets love all over. We're out here and we don't got to worry about rolling with 30 security guards or getting stripped at the club. They know that.
BallerStatus.com: Now, the Bay Area in general are really supportive of each other, right?
Mistah FAB: Yea. What we've done is we've learned to say, "Hey, we're the underdogs, collectively as Bay Area artists, so let's all come together man. Let's all support each other." But then sometimes, you got people who's just trying to just single themselves out like, "Oh, we don't do that or we better than that," then you can see the hatred. Anybody can see that. That's just undercover hatred, which boils down to the fact of who's hot in the street, who does what they do, you know?
The records reflect what we do. When you're on a major label and you only sell like 10,000 on your first release and you get dropped, come on man. We for real out here. We're really holding down the street side of things, as well as the commercial side because I have my own radio show on the Clear Channel show. So, I'm able to do both and I don't hate on nobody. I support everybody in the Bay Area.
BallerStatus.com: Talk about the music a little bit.
Mistah FAB: Yep, me and Dow Jones just dropped the Recess mixtape. It's the #1 bootlegged mixtape in the Bay right now. I just signed to Atlantic Records, so we're there and we're dropping a new album, The Yellow Bus Rider, in January (see "Oakland Rapper Mistah Fab Inks Label Deal With Atlantic Records"). And me and Dow Jones are also working on a new mixtape called Lunchtime.
What going on right now is the radio show. I have a radio show on 94.9 Clear Channel. What I do with that radio show is I play up and coming artists and music... I play the Federation's, the Keak's, everybody. I don't hate on nobody. I just try to support the people who have been looked over. I don't have no bias feelings toward no one. I'm an equal opportunist. When I see someone doing their thing, I'm not gonna be mad at them or be frustrated toward them. It's hard to look at someone like myself and not get mad. I'd get mad at me too. I'm young, I'm fly, I'm fresh, the street loves me and I shine. They hate. A lot cats be broke man. They sit in they rooms broke, they don't ride the cars we ride. My whole label ride Mercedes Benz's, wear a lot of ice [laughs] and it's ours. We ain't trying to stunt or nothing. We just trying to make a statement. We making a move. We really capitalizing off the independent game and entrepreneurship.
BallerStatus.com: What else is on your plate right now?
Mistah FAB: I'm also a political activist within the community and I do a lot of stuff within the works of my community, which shows it's more than just hyphy out here. We have community programs based for the kids -- the Cool To Go To School Movement, as well as a programs called KIDS, which is Knowledge Induced Development System that we've been getting a lot of grants for, that we finna build up. That's just for the inner-city youth to give them opportunities, to tell em, "Don't ever give up on your dreams 'cause you can make it. That's what we're trying to do.
We're definitely trying to do positive things to overshadow the negativity that the hyphy may bring. At the end of the day, you can talk about everything you have from the cars to the diamonds to the public status, but to save a life and change a person's view and outlook on what opportunity is out there, that's the biggest blessing in the world. To know you saved someone's life and contributed to someone doing positive, that's a blessing. At the end of the day, no one knows that, only you and the person's life you changed.
http://www.ballerstatus.net/features/read/id/37522876/
Well, the Oakland rapper spoke out and cleared the air about his "Yellow Bus Movement," explained what it's really about and how it got started. And in the process, called The Federation out for hating because of jealousy and envy.
The Bay Area hip-hop community is usually known for being supportive of each other, but no matter how much a region gets along, there is always a war of words when someone feels disrespected.
BallerStatus.com: You have your own movement in the Bay called "Ridin' The Yellow Bus." Talk about that: how it started and what it's all about.
Mistah FAB: The whole yellow bus thing came about from my first single "Super Sick Wit It" from my Son Of A Pimp album. On the song, I got a line where I go "I do the dummy retarded and ride the yellow bus." That phrase is a catch phrase, but not only that, it blew up what our whole movement is about. The whole hyphy thing is about going stupid, going dumb, and when you say "yellow bus," that's ignit.
People trying to say they intelligent and they don't ride the yellow bus, but you can't be hyphy if you ain't on that. You fake hyphy; you not from Oakland hyphy. So, we gone let people know for the record to reflect that the hyphy movement started in Oakland and anybody who's trying to consider themselves hyphy, if they don't give it up to us -- the Mecca of what hyphy is -- then they lying and they watering it down. The yellow bus really explains hyphy to the fullest.
What we've done is transferred it over to subliminally reaching these kids. When we say "yellow bus," we making it cool to go to school. We're trying to raise the literacy rate 'cause right now it's down. It's down all over the country for the youth. The yellow bus, anyone who wears that and rides the yellow bus, who would look at it down, we've turned it around where it's cool to go to school, it's cool to ride the yellow bus. We made it something popular to do. It's like if someone said, "You're stupid fresh," that's a good thing and you wouldn't be offended by it.
BallerStatus.com: So basically, the Yellow Bus movement is just an extension of the hyphy lifestyle?
Mistah FAB: Definitely, it puts the hyphy movement to the forefront of what's going on. What has happened is that the nation has been bamboozled by the representatives that we have repping the hyphy movement thus far. On a nationwide scale, we're trying to take it over and give people an unadulterated hyphy -- the Keak Da Sneak's, the Mistah FAB's, the Mac Dre's... Mac Dre was the inventor of it. This is what we do it for. We represent Thizz Entertainment; that's our movement. We do it for the people that's really, really considerably hypy, who really live that lifestyle. Not the ones who just come to Oakland on the weekend and see what's going on and go to the studio and rap about it. We really do it, everyday. You can catch me riding around IN a yellow bus on rims!
BallerStatus.com: Now, basically, you're referring to The Federation, who in a recent interview with us spoke down on your Yellow Bus movement (see "The Federation: It Feels So Much Better"). Why do you think they intentionally spoke down on something that was obviously started by you?
Mistah FAB: That's what I don't understand. That's what caught me off guard. The way that they put it...if I'm a reader and I'm reading their interview and I see what they say and how they put it, I would think they were trying to talk about me. Or talk about the whole movement and downplay it. So, to respond to that, the only thing I can say is that they are from Fairfield. I'm from Oakland, so you do the math. You ask anybody in the streets, or listen to E-40's album, years ago, they say, "The truth is, you just a Fairfield n----." You know what I'm saying? So, nobody's ever been proud to say they were from Fairfield.
There's only one dude from Fairfield that's really holding it down; he's a young dude named Taj-He-Spitz. He's hot right now. He's repping the real side of it because he's not afraid to rep what he do. He's not trying to take what another city has done and run with it to go nationwide to get on a major label because your mic is bigger. When your mic is bigger that means that more people are gonna be able to hear what you're going to say and you're gonna take credit for something. There's all types of things you go through that shows you don't really define the hyphy movement in general. Using drugs is something, you can use drugs, but does using drugs make you hyphy? No. Livin' this life and really being involved in that, that's what really makes you hyphy.
How old are you? You can't be 36 talking about you hyphy. Come on man, it's for the kids. This hyphy thing is for the kids. Cats like E-40 and Too Short they sponsored it. They said, "No, I ain't doing this. I ain't saying I'm doing this," but they sponsoring it. Too Short is the godfather of the Bay Area, E-40 is the ambassodor, they sponsoring the movement. But they ain't saying, "Oh, we still doing it; we hyphy." E-40 ain't saying he's starting it, he's just giving credit where credit is due, which makes us respect that movement. But, when you say something like [The Federation said] and you ain't even from the Bay, originally, and you claim you hyphy and you 36? Come on, man. Of course you don't ride the yellow bus, you been out of school for 16 years [laughs].
It's funny 'cause we're trying to push the movement. And anybody who gets in these interviews and they just try to bash the movement before it takes off, that just takes away from what we're really trying to do. At the end of the day, the real recognize the real, and we get love in the streets. Mistah FAB gets love all over. We're out here and we don't got to worry about rolling with 30 security guards or getting stripped at the club. They know that.
BallerStatus.com: Now, the Bay Area in general are really supportive of each other, right?
Mistah FAB: Yea. What we've done is we've learned to say, "Hey, we're the underdogs, collectively as Bay Area artists, so let's all come together man. Let's all support each other." But then sometimes, you got people who's just trying to just single themselves out like, "Oh, we don't do that or we better than that," then you can see the hatred. Anybody can see that. That's just undercover hatred, which boils down to the fact of who's hot in the street, who does what they do, you know?
The records reflect what we do. When you're on a major label and you only sell like 10,000 on your first release and you get dropped, come on man. We for real out here. We're really holding down the street side of things, as well as the commercial side because I have my own radio show on the Clear Channel show. So, I'm able to do both and I don't hate on nobody. I support everybody in the Bay Area.
BallerStatus.com: Talk about the music a little bit.
Mistah FAB: Yep, me and Dow Jones just dropped the Recess mixtape. It's the #1 bootlegged mixtape in the Bay right now. I just signed to Atlantic Records, so we're there and we're dropping a new album, The Yellow Bus Rider, in January (see "Oakland Rapper Mistah Fab Inks Label Deal With Atlantic Records"). And me and Dow Jones are also working on a new mixtape called Lunchtime.
What going on right now is the radio show. I have a radio show on 94.9 Clear Channel. What I do with that radio show is I play up and coming artists and music... I play the Federation's, the Keak's, everybody. I don't hate on nobody. I just try to support the people who have been looked over. I don't have no bias feelings toward no one. I'm an equal opportunist. When I see someone doing their thing, I'm not gonna be mad at them or be frustrated toward them. It's hard to look at someone like myself and not get mad. I'd get mad at me too. I'm young, I'm fly, I'm fresh, the street loves me and I shine. They hate. A lot cats be broke man. They sit in they rooms broke, they don't ride the cars we ride. My whole label ride Mercedes Benz's, wear a lot of ice [laughs] and it's ours. We ain't trying to stunt or nothing. We just trying to make a statement. We making a move. We really capitalizing off the independent game and entrepreneurship.
BallerStatus.com: What else is on your plate right now?
Mistah FAB: I'm also a political activist within the community and I do a lot of stuff within the works of my community, which shows it's more than just hyphy out here. We have community programs based for the kids -- the Cool To Go To School Movement, as well as a programs called KIDS, which is Knowledge Induced Development System that we've been getting a lot of grants for, that we finna build up. That's just for the inner-city youth to give them opportunities, to tell em, "Don't ever give up on your dreams 'cause you can make it. That's what we're trying to do.
We're definitely trying to do positive things to overshadow the negativity that the hyphy may bring. At the end of the day, you can talk about everything you have from the cars to the diamonds to the public status, but to save a life and change a person's view and outlook on what opportunity is out there, that's the biggest blessing in the world. To know you saved someone's life and contributed to someone doing positive, that's a blessing. At the end of the day, no one knows that, only you and the person's life you changed.
http://www.ballerstatus.net/features/read/id/37522876/
