LATINO

The Bay Area Hip Hop Movement

In Oakland, there is restaurant/club Everette & Jones and Tony! Toni! Toné! co-founder D’wayne Wiggins’ Jahva House.

So what can artists expect in lieu of a major-market machine? Support from the area’s contingent of college stations, including the University of San Francisco’s KPOO and Berkeley’s KPFA, and such nightclubs as Cafe du Nord in San Francisco’s legendary Castro/Mission district. Also gone is trade publication Gavin, whose annual music-business conference provided exposure for area acts. 1 rappers from here are still the same people from 10 years ago. But it’s a shame that the No. The Bay Area has gotten kind of blasé on the rap side. The Bay Area hip hop generation is different now. There’s a long list of things spawned here that others have soaked up and had success with. So where does that groundwork come in? It comes in with the indies.

The Oakland group grew tired of being left out of local radio stations’ summer jam events. New rappers here have to be smart enough to stop doing localized music and rhythms and try to make it bigger.

Then there is the commercial radio juggernaut; as in most markets, there are few airplay slots for new rappers. The price of admission was $3.99 and two packs of Top Ramen, a brand of packaged noodles. In 1996, the group decided to throw its own underground concert, the Broke-Ass Summer Jam. With the slowing economy, exacerbated here by the dotcom blowout, many clubs have closed. That climate has sparked an equally diverse and creative musical legacy shaped by such rock, pop, and R&B/funk icons as Grateful Dead, Santana, and Sly & the Family Stone. San Francisco and Oakland are home to a diverse mix of ethnic groups and cultures. Most hip-hop slang comes from the Bay-’pop ya colla, fo’ sheezy’-that Jay-Z and others have made their own.

Support also comes from independent retailers like Amoeba, Rasputin, and 18-year-old Creative Music Emporium. It is nestled at the intersection of the Latino Outer Mission neighborhood and the primarily African-American Lakeview District. Now it’s more alternative urban.

The indies are bread and butter, with the majors as the icing on the cake. However, major labels aren’t taking the time to develop artists anymore. There’s a lot of creative freedom in the Bay Area that doesn’t exist elsewhere, so it’s very indie-oriented. Bay Area hip hop has always done things on its own terms. The Bay Area has always had flavor when it comes to music. People in New York have the perception that Bay Area hip hop is just gangster and pimp music.

It seems every artist runs his own label, emulating Too $hort’s entrepreneurial success of selling music out of his car trunk.

When it comes to the business side of music in Bay Area hip hop scene, frustration colors conversations. Headlining the Bay Area hip hop gold rush of the late ’80s and ’90s were MC Hammer, Too $hort, Mac Dre, and E-40.

About the Author

Hip Hop Mogul

Exene Cervenka – “Someday I’ll Forget” @ Amoeba Music, Berkeley, 11/7/09

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