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E-40 more than hyphy
By JOHN BECK
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Ever since E-40s "My Ghetto Report Card" came out last month, all we hear about is hyphy this and hyphy that.
Backstage, the girls in Nina Sky gush "we just heard about hyphy last week!" Even USA Today ran a full-on hyphy spread.
And Friday night's Sonoma Jam '06 had all the hustle and flow of an underground movement gone mainstream. But in this rare case, is mainstream such a bad thing?
Not when it means the Bay Area is finally getting the nationwide respect it deserves. Atlanta has the crunk. Houston's got screw music and New Orleans is home to Master P's No Limit empire. Now, it's the Bay Area's turn. Turf Talk, Too $hort, Droop-e and Keak da Sneak (who coined "hyphy" for hyper energetic) are the fresh blood, but it's E-40, the godfather of the movement at 38, who's doing the most for the cause.
After 15 years and 12 albums, he pulls it off by keeping it real. Midway through the show Friday, after a frenetic run through "Automatic," he slowed it down to "throw ya one's in the air" for the fallen hip-hop heroes such as Proof (who was shot and killed Tuesday in Detroit), "Left Eye" Lopes, Alliyah, ODB, Mac Dre and Tupac.
In his black A's hat and stunna shades, E-40 stalked the stage for a well-deserved 707 homecoming with Charlie Hustle and the rest of the 40 Water posse. Going back to 2003 for "Gasoline," he nailed exactly what sets him apart: "E-Figgady a different pedigree than most of these suckers up in this industry be trying to copy me."
But while every rapper ever born loves to rail against copycat suckers, who says it like this? "I'm close, I'm doing the most, I flamboast ... Prolly gammas miralicious ... Big spit, game vicious, Man on the microphigadelian foshelian."
Wha?
It's a new language and however you cipher it, it's hyphy.
The bouncing crowd (numbering about 2,000 by final count) loved every minute of it, shaking with the rattletrap walls of the Grace Pavilion. And it's also worth noting that producer Joy Mukherji, who stages Liquid Lounge parties at Los Robles Lodge, says she "at least broke even" by the end of the night. That means she's staging another show in May. Already booked: Youngbloods and the Sanchez Brothers
E-40 more than hyphy
By JOHN BECK
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Ever since E-40s "My Ghetto Report Card" came out last month, all we hear about is hyphy this and hyphy that.
Backstage, the girls in Nina Sky gush "we just heard about hyphy last week!" Even USA Today ran a full-on hyphy spread.
And Friday night's Sonoma Jam '06 had all the hustle and flow of an underground movement gone mainstream. But in this rare case, is mainstream such a bad thing?
Not when it means the Bay Area is finally getting the nationwide respect it deserves. Atlanta has the crunk. Houston's got screw music and New Orleans is home to Master P's No Limit empire. Now, it's the Bay Area's turn. Turf Talk, Too $hort, Droop-e and Keak da Sneak (who coined "hyphy" for hyper energetic) are the fresh blood, but it's E-40, the godfather of the movement at 38, who's doing the most for the cause.
After 15 years and 12 albums, he pulls it off by keeping it real. Midway through the show Friday, after a frenetic run through "Automatic," he slowed it down to "throw ya one's in the air" for the fallen hip-hop heroes such as Proof (who was shot and killed Tuesday in Detroit), "Left Eye" Lopes, Alliyah, ODB, Mac Dre and Tupac.
In his black A's hat and stunna shades, E-40 stalked the stage for a well-deserved 707 homecoming with Charlie Hustle and the rest of the 40 Water posse. Going back to 2003 for "Gasoline," he nailed exactly what sets him apart: "E-Figgady a different pedigree than most of these suckers up in this industry be trying to copy me."
But while every rapper ever born loves to rail against copycat suckers, who says it like this? "I'm close, I'm doing the most, I flamboast ... Prolly gammas miralicious ... Big spit, game vicious, Man on the microphigadelian foshelian."
Wha?
It's a new language and however you cipher it, it's hyphy.
The bouncing crowd (numbering about 2,000 by final count) loved every minute of it, shaking with the rattletrap walls of the Grace Pavilion. And it's also worth noting that producer Joy Mukherji, who stages Liquid Lounge parties at Los Robles Lodge, says she "at least broke even" by the end of the night. That means she's staging another show in May. Already booked: Youngbloods and the Sanchez Brothers
