http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/04/20/DDGCRIB4S61.DTL
Local rap is in some good times. That's no hype -- just hyphy.
Peter Hartlaub
Thursday, April 20, 2006
If you lived in Oakland three years ago and didn't spend all your time barricaded in Rockridge or Montclair, the chances are good that you ran into a rap group called the Team.
Standing by their car in a busy parking lot or popular street corner, two or three very polite men in their early 20s stopped you, pointing to a trunk filled with compact discs. They asked for $10 but indicated they would take less. Mostly, they just wanted people to hear their music.
This week, you can walk into just about any well-stocked Bay Area record store and buy the Team's "World Premiere" -- the latest in a string of definitive "hyphy" rap records released this spring, including E-40's "My Ghetto Report Card," Celly Cel's "Slaps, Straps & Baseball Hats" and Keak da Sneak's "Kunta Kinte." The local rap scene hasn't received this much attention since Tupac Shakur was alive and residing in the East Bay, and the next few months seem to be shaping up as Oakland's version of the Summer of Love.
Hyphy music has reached the point where even national publications such as USA Today and Rolling Stone are taking notice. The word hyphy is a derivative of "hyper," and while 10 people will give you 10 definitions, it's about letting your inhibitions go and getting a little crazy.
The attention has instilled pride and a healthy competitiveness among local rappers that has been infectious, with each album seeming to feed off the previous one.
Unlike 98 percent of what you hear on commercial radio, local rap is a truly organic form of music. Hyphy won't change the negative opinions that haters have about rap, but at a time when mainstream pop stars are manufactured, it's almost completely democratic. Rappers start out selling out of their trunks and on consignment at small record outlets, and the ones who work the hardest and have the best product hit it big. Vallejo's E-40 is the ultimate local success story, using this method to eventually reach nationwide fame.
The endgame is pretty clear, laid out in the lyrics of the albums themselves. The hope is to duplicate the success of crunk in the South, which spawned artists including Lil Jon and Three 6 Mafia, who have won multiple Grammys and even an Oscar.
Hyphy is still a long way from that kind of success. If a pestilence of bad rappers suddenly appears and puts out inferior product, the whole thing could implode, leaving us to wait another 15 years. But so far, this year has been fun to watch for fans of local rap, with at least one great regional hip-hop album released during each of the past three months.
E-40's selling-out-of-the-trunk days are more than a decade behind him, and the veteran rapper has been like the blocking back for hyphy. When "My Ghetto Report Card" first dropped last month, premiering at No. 1 on the Billboard rap charts, it busted a hole for the others to follow.
E-40's first album with Warner Bros. -- and his first produced by Lil Jon and Ricardo "Rick Rock" Thomas -- is all about the bay, with E-40 providing a glossary for the local lingo. Instead of moving on, he tries to blaze a trail.
"The West ain't been the same without 'Pac," E-40 says in the hyphy lovefest "Yay Area." "So I guess it's up to E-40 and Rick Rock."
One of many local artists on "My Ghetto Report Card" is Keak da Sneak, whose newest release, "Kunta Kinte," is made up mostly of tracks from his past two albums. Fans may protest, but it's a smart move because it makes for a stronger album when a lot of people outside the Bay Area discover him this year. (Keak contributes to E-40's first single, "Tell Me When to Go," which has been in regular rotation on MTV.)
With the most distinctive delivery in hyphy, Keak is sort of the Tom Waits of rap, with a voice that sounds as if he's been gargling Pennzoil and has a penchant for sonic experimentation. "Get That Doe" samples the Commodores' "Brick House," a rattlesnake and what sounds like two guys enjoying a plate of chicken wings.
The Team doesn't have the long track record of E-40 and Keak da Sneak, but "World Premiere" shows that Clyde Carson, Kaz Kyzah and Mayne Mannish had the good timing to peak creatively just as hyphy started getting big. While the single "Hyphy Juice" is sort of an East Bay "In Da Club," most of the album builds on more mature R&B influences that surfaced in the group's previous album, "The Negro League."
The Team members made it this far by working hard and emulating those who came before them, and the album ends with a remix of "It's Getting Hot" that's a tribute to old-school Oakland rap -- starting with contributions from Humpty Hump and Too and ending with a fantastic rant from MC Hammer.
With his prowling delivery, it's clear that Carson in particular has been listening to a lot of Marvin Gaye over the past few years -- or maybe LL Cool J's "I Need Love."
"Top of the World" is the album's best track, but the seductively grooving "Summertime in the Town" is the one everyone will be playing on Foothill Boulevard in Oakland this August.
How cool will it be if the rest of the nation is playing it, too
Local rap is in some good times. That's no hype -- just hyphy.
Peter Hartlaub
Thursday, April 20, 2006
If you lived in Oakland three years ago and didn't spend all your time barricaded in Rockridge or Montclair, the chances are good that you ran into a rap group called the Team.
Standing by their car in a busy parking lot or popular street corner, two or three very polite men in their early 20s stopped you, pointing to a trunk filled with compact discs. They asked for $10 but indicated they would take less. Mostly, they just wanted people to hear their music.
This week, you can walk into just about any well-stocked Bay Area record store and buy the Team's "World Premiere" -- the latest in a string of definitive "hyphy" rap records released this spring, including E-40's "My Ghetto Report Card," Celly Cel's "Slaps, Straps & Baseball Hats" and Keak da Sneak's "Kunta Kinte." The local rap scene hasn't received this much attention since Tupac Shakur was alive and residing in the East Bay, and the next few months seem to be shaping up as Oakland's version of the Summer of Love.
Hyphy music has reached the point where even national publications such as USA Today and Rolling Stone are taking notice. The word hyphy is a derivative of "hyper," and while 10 people will give you 10 definitions, it's about letting your inhibitions go and getting a little crazy.
The attention has instilled pride and a healthy competitiveness among local rappers that has been infectious, with each album seeming to feed off the previous one.
Unlike 98 percent of what you hear on commercial radio, local rap is a truly organic form of music. Hyphy won't change the negative opinions that haters have about rap, but at a time when mainstream pop stars are manufactured, it's almost completely democratic. Rappers start out selling out of their trunks and on consignment at small record outlets, and the ones who work the hardest and have the best product hit it big. Vallejo's E-40 is the ultimate local success story, using this method to eventually reach nationwide fame.
The endgame is pretty clear, laid out in the lyrics of the albums themselves. The hope is to duplicate the success of crunk in the South, which spawned artists including Lil Jon and Three 6 Mafia, who have won multiple Grammys and even an Oscar.
Hyphy is still a long way from that kind of success. If a pestilence of bad rappers suddenly appears and puts out inferior product, the whole thing could implode, leaving us to wait another 15 years. But so far, this year has been fun to watch for fans of local rap, with at least one great regional hip-hop album released during each of the past three months.
E-40's selling-out-of-the-trunk days are more than a decade behind him, and the veteran rapper has been like the blocking back for hyphy. When "My Ghetto Report Card" first dropped last month, premiering at No. 1 on the Billboard rap charts, it busted a hole for the others to follow.
E-40's first album with Warner Bros. -- and his first produced by Lil Jon and Ricardo "Rick Rock" Thomas -- is all about the bay, with E-40 providing a glossary for the local lingo. Instead of moving on, he tries to blaze a trail.
"The West ain't been the same without 'Pac," E-40 says in the hyphy lovefest "Yay Area." "So I guess it's up to E-40 and Rick Rock."
One of many local artists on "My Ghetto Report Card" is Keak da Sneak, whose newest release, "Kunta Kinte," is made up mostly of tracks from his past two albums. Fans may protest, but it's a smart move because it makes for a stronger album when a lot of people outside the Bay Area discover him this year. (Keak contributes to E-40's first single, "Tell Me When to Go," which has been in regular rotation on MTV.)
With the most distinctive delivery in hyphy, Keak is sort of the Tom Waits of rap, with a voice that sounds as if he's been gargling Pennzoil and has a penchant for sonic experimentation. "Get That Doe" samples the Commodores' "Brick House," a rattlesnake and what sounds like two guys enjoying a plate of chicken wings.
The Team doesn't have the long track record of E-40 and Keak da Sneak, but "World Premiere" shows that Clyde Carson, Kaz Kyzah and Mayne Mannish had the good timing to peak creatively just as hyphy started getting big. While the single "Hyphy Juice" is sort of an East Bay "In Da Club," most of the album builds on more mature R&B influences that surfaced in the group's previous album, "The Negro League."
The Team members made it this far by working hard and emulating those who came before them, and the album ends with a remix of "It's Getting Hot" that's a tribute to old-school Oakland rap -- starting with contributions from Humpty Hump and Too and ending with a fantastic rant from MC Hammer.
With his prowling delivery, it's clear that Carson in particular has been listening to a lot of Marvin Gaye over the past few years -- or maybe LL Cool J's "I Need Love."
"Top of the World" is the album's best track, but the seductively grooving "Summertime in the Town" is the one everyone will be playing on Foothill Boulevard in Oakland this August.
How cool will it be if the rest of the nation is playing it, too