two heaters

Da Theory - Get Dirty

this one has some pulsating square bass undearneath this rolling, whispery vocal sample. these fellas are from the town (oakland for you know-nots), and this heater gets the clubs HOT.

Mistah F.A.B. feat. Turf Talk & E-40 - Super Sic Wid It

"thats F.A.B. not fabolous". this right here is bangin. its a traditional slap (thats a mob song with really long handclaps). but its hyphy, got that arppegio'd whistley techno over earthquakin bass stabs, synth brass on the hook, etc. that, in my book, makes this bitch a slumper. enjoy

newest of the new

Zhane (feat. Keak Da Sneak) - Are You With Me?
This premiered on the radio sometime last week. The beat is minimal-- futurism. mobbing around tokyo with the windows up type shit. zhane, no not the r&b one, is capital wack, but keak comes smooth over the beat. i still got a bunch of stuff im sleeping on, ill hook you guys up soon, i prom.

Da Dummy In The Area

E-40 - Da Dummy

This song has been getting a lot of play on the radio recently. Def my current fav to get hyphie to. E-40's son, Droop E, did the production and its a knocker, thumping bass drums painted over with a spazzed out, nearly atonal synth arpeggio. The chorus is so silly its borderline wack, but it works in a hyphie-as-a-dance-genre kinda way. And it really is, sometimes the lyrics can be dope, but really, hyphie is pure fucking dance music. this is rap on E. Theres another single out featuring 40 water, go get it from Cocaine Blunts right cherre, its Trillville, lil jon production, and its pretty fuccin bland. 40, of course, has the best verse on the track; trillville come dull as fuck.

heres another track thats burnin up the bay right now. san quinn, easily one of the best rappers in the bay, comes clean. i'd really like to see him get more popular, but his voice is so gruff and strained, i just cant imagine him getting any more popular than he already is, unless he pulls the odb card and plays on his strained ass voice. i just dont see that happening tho, as hes a pure lyricist. this beat trys hard to play to his gruff voice, and achieves that for the most part, with really dirty, almost orchestral synth stabs.

San Quinn - The Bay is in the Area

i got a bunch more current singles and recent slumpers, so stay tuned...

The current Jam

Keak Da Sneak - Super Hyphie

This ones been blowing up the bay for a couple months now, its definitely the current summer jam, ive read on forums that even las vegas has been showing this single some love. good to see a single from someone other than E-40 finally make it outside of northern california.

more thoughts about the whole hyphie scene, it seems to be a consolidation of the whole "New Bay" thing, Mac Dre's (RIP) nation of thizzlam, and accepted and completed by bay area veterans. Frontline came out of richmond repping this New Bay thing, supposedly making a new sound to try to get the bay out of a slump, they got a certified hit, "What is it" (thanks to E-A-Ski), but on the street the New Bay thing was just all-talk, it sounded like traditional bay slumpin mixed with roc-a-fella's Young Gunz. Fast forward a little bit, Mac Dre got murdered, everyones showing him and thizz entertainment love/respect, everybody's copying mac dre's steez, reppin the thizz face and whatnot. All of this came together at a time when Ric-Roc's beats were getting maximum exposure on kmel and 94.9, to create the hyphie scene as we know it. Its great to see the bay make shit happen, but i cant help but wonder whats going to happen with the real gangsta rappers like yukmouth, c-bo, etc. last year they were finally able to legitimately release the Thug Lordz album (it had been held up for a year due to contractual lawyer legal shit), but none of the album got any kind of play on local stations. well im going to show the real gangsta shit some love, check out this track from Thug Lordz, its a C-Bo solo and boy he lays it down real grimey over a harsh trunk-funk slumper.

Thug Lordz (C-Bo solo) - My Life

An Introduction to "Going Dumb"

Federation - Hyphy Remix (feat. Keak Da Sneak, E-40, San Quinn and Turf Talk)

So i'm kicking off this blog with the song that started the whole hyphie "scene". In an MTV news article, they describe hyphie music as the bay area's own genre ("California Krunk"), which isnt really true. It really is more of a scene than a genre, and even that is pushing it. The gangsta scene in the bay area is huge, and has its own distinct elements, the whole hyphie thing is basically the underground gangsta rap's attempt at wooing a more mainstream, nationwide audience. See, the bay area has had this stigma of being impotent when it comes to nationwide recognization of our rap artists. We had it big back in the day, but everyone know the bay doesnt get love outside of the bay anymore. The south, following in our footsteps of slangin' tapes and fostering a vibrant underground rap scene is the current favorite child of the mainstream.

But, for the past couple years, people in the bay have established an effort at reclaiming mainstream recognition. Ric Roc really brought the limelight back to the bay after fucking with tons of major artists, and now hes producing a whole slew of bay artists. When this song hit the radio in summer 2003, it blew the fucking spot up. This song is what got those kids hanging out of their cairs, driving down the streets with the doors wide open.

And yes, i'll be restructuring and working on the design of this blog, for now its just a template. deal.