There’s some big doings going down this week at Club Mighty in San Francisco.. Legendary Bay Area deejay Ren the Vinyl Archeologist who heads up True Skool is celebrating 13 years of putting it down and giving us some dope parties to stimulate our soul and mind.. We caught up w/ Ren to ask him about this Friday’s impressive line up and his thoughts on the current state of deejaying.. We also got a chance to peep Ren in the mix…Enjoy the convo and mix below
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A while back we sat down and chopped it up with one of the Bay Area’s finest emcees.. We’re talking about Ms Rocky Rivera..For a long time she was known around the town as a skilled journalist and activist who hailed from SF State…She got so good at her craft that she wound being featured in an MTV Reality series called I’m From Rolling Stone‘ . Here, she won a position as a contributing editor. She is also one of the few if not only journalist to interview all members of the Wu-Tang Clan at the same time.. Her keen knowledge of Hip Hop and her ability to flip the script lead to her winning.
This is important to note, because Rocky decided that she wanted to do more than write, hence she picked up a mic and brought that same scrappy attitude along with her.. The end result has been critical acclaim. In this interview we cover everything from Rocky’s transition from journalist to emcee, what went into making her latest album, Pop Killer Mixtape, Her outlook on Bay Area Hip Hop and a whole lot more.. Enjoy
Press the link below to listen to our HKR intv w/ Rocky Rivera
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As I mentioned earlier there are quite a few artist from the Bay Area who have been stepping up and speaking truth to power. I like to refer to them as the New Messengers.. One of the cats falling into that category is Metro P.. He comes out of San Francisco and is definitely knocking down doors in a major way… His new song ‘Slave to the World‘ is on point and straight butta..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucR8Flg-_PY
Below is another joint Metro P did with Mistah Fab.. Its called ‘PriceTag‘.. I remember when he dropped this late last year… It turned a lot of heads.. It’s pretty damn dope..
This is the homie Dreg’s One out of San Francisco.. Folks need to be up on him… He’s a serious activist, commentator and dope emcee..He’s one of the increasing number of artists especially out of the Bay Area who is all about taking his/her music and using it as a tool to serve the people.. In the tradition of Chuck D from Public Enemy , Dregs is not about rhyming for the sake of riddling, that’s clear by his new song and video ‘Letter to the President‘…It’s one that our Commander-in-Chief Barack Obama may wanna peep.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TsFAhUab5U
Below is one of the many commentaries Dregs One does on issues off importance.. check out this joint here where he breaks down the impact of gentrification in his native San Francisco
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJdcU-4cqQ8
I’m loving the way the Bay Area gets down on the dance tip..With so much of the music corporatized and dumbed down its refreshing to see true Hip Hop expression manifest itself through the dancing..
Peep out how these folks Paulie Rhythms & Boy Wonder of Soul Sector get down on the strutting and popping tip in the Mission one afternoon with Mikey Disko & Donnie Strutt in a low rider…Shout out to my former TA at SF State and local emcee Mandeep Sethi for putting this video together and capturing the magic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlXigzhiLRk
San Francisco-social-networking giant Twitter, which is based in the South of Market Area (SoMa) of San Francisco, was woken up with a rally from various community-based organizations and families riled-up demanding Twitter to comply with their list of demands.
Twitter proposed a $22 Million tax break from the city of San Francisco in order for them to keep from moving to neighboring city, Brisbane. Community based organization SoMCan(South of Market Community Acton Network) organized a lengthy list of demands which include Twitter to provide internships and jobs to those that live in that community as a response to Twitter’s proposal.
SoMCan, organizing Director Angelica Cabande explains, “One demand we requested from Twitter is that they will intern youth and young adults from the neighborhood.
Also, One of the main concerns of many Tenderloin and SoMa residents is to avoid the gentrification seen during the dot-com boom in the late early–mid 2000s when rent was raised by landlords and pushed people out of San Francisco. To this day 10 years after the fact the Bay Area has seen major shifts in their population as a result. The pattern goes something like this..SF in the late 90s in the Mission District and South of Market saw skyrocketing rents (more expensive than Manhattan rents at one point ) and million dollar lofts get built for the ‘new millionaires’ of the dot com industry.. This resulted in thousands of long term residents being forced out the city across the bridge into Oakland. The historic Mission district which has long been an area for Brown folks lost many of its long time resident. The South of Market area lost many in the artists community. The dot com industry of the late 90s went bust but many of those displaced were never ever able to get back to SF.
Oakland with the help of then Mayor Jerry Brown took advantage of this mass exodus and pushed to get many of displaced white residents from SF to come into a refurbished downtown. He promised to make Oakland a sanctuary for artists while simultaneously adding more police and task forces to Oakland’s growing Brown communities which saw its populations jump to 33% and to its long time Black communities. Soon oakland rents sky rocketed along with housing prices as ‘Tha Town became home to half million dollar lofts and condos and million dollar homes. It wasn’t long before many of Oakland’s Black population was X ed out. The latest numbers show we lost 25% over the past 10 years.
The fear is that with Twitter and other companies coming in and getting a measure passed where they don’t pay taxes, that more hi-tech businesses will do the same and we’ll see a second forced mass exodus from the South of Market/ Tenderloin community which is home to many of SF’s poorer residents.
Jeremy Miller, co- director of Education not Incarceration (SF) explains, “This is very serious, we’ve seen it before, we’ve seen the detrimental effects, and we’ve seen communities disrupted [and] people displaced…”
People in San Francisco want twitter to pay their fair share both monetarily and socially. Be a good neighbor is what folks are insisting.
Voting of the proposed tax cuts will be conducted on April 5th, 2011.
As of late…Twitter has not responded & their public relations person was unavailable for comment.
http://vimeo.com/21766629
This is classic Breakdown FM interview we did with E-40 a few years ago…He gives a great run down of the Bay Area Hip Hop scene, We also talked to him about his new businesses which include a burger franchise and new nightclub in San Jose..
E-40 also gives some great history on the Bay and the origins of what he calls mob music. He also talks about the challenges of garnering national recognition and the perception of the west coast. he also talks about the art of emceeing, freestyling and recent collaborations.
Click the Links Below to Listen to E-40
E-40 Interview pt1
E-40 Interview pt2
Below are excerpts of the this E-40 interview
E-40 pt1: owning a franchise, opening a new nightclub
E-40 pt2: national recognition, staying ahead of the game
E-40 pt3: origins of mob music, working w/ Lil jon working w/ jive records
E-40 pt4: creativity, slang terms, battling, freestyles, collaborations
E-40 pt5: The Bay Area scene, E-40 new radio show, perceptions of west coast artists
E-40 pt6: update on e-40 and the family
E-40 pt7: players ball
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Last week the Bay Area Hip Hop community was saddened to see the unintended departure of long time producer DJ Paul Nice. He had become the latest casualty in an increasingly long line of talented musicians and artists who have been forced out of the Bay Area due to astronomical housing costs. With the average price of a medium size two bedroom house going for $435 thousand dollars, rents in Bay Area cities like San Francisco, San Jose and now Oakland have skyrocketed to the point that it is now cheaper to move out and rent an apartment in Manhattan. Bay Area Hip Hop hot spots like Oakland, Vallejo and East Palo Alto are changing by the minute as longtime residents are getting evicted left and right. Paul Nice was a victim of a landlord saying he wanted to move into his pot .. so he could kick Paul out and then go on raise the rents..
In San Francisco the housing situation is all but a lost cause. Hip Hop strong holds like the Filmore have literally changed face over night thanks to the dot com invasion. You will now show up to a gig in the Filmore and be made to feel totally unwelcome and out of place in what was once your neighborhood prior to the new economy suddenly exploding. The historic colorful Mission District is currently dealing with this onslaught and next on the list is Bayview Hunters Point. The South of Market club district is now dotted with ‘live work lofts and newly arrived cranky residents who have used their economic and political clout to shut down night clubs which they say are making too much noise.. It was just a few years ago that many of these now occupied buildings once played host to raves and after hours Hip Hop parties..
Adding fuel to the fire in the nation’s dot com capital is a 1% vacancy rate and ruthless landlords who are now starting to put rental units on auction sites like EBAY. It is now a situation where the highest bidder wins. This is complicated by big businesses that are now buying up and renting apartments for key executives and employees which has driven up rental prices even more. Can you imagine competing for an apartment with a big company that has deep pockets and is determined to fly in workers from overseas or across country? They simply outbid you by offering crazy rent prices. Its not unusual to see 1 bedroom apartments for $2500 and up. Its totally ridiculous and we haven’t even begun to address the drama surrounding commercial properties. About a month and half ago there was a highly publicized situation where a dot com came into the Mission District and displaced a popular rehearsal and studio spot that was home to more than 500 musicians. The Bay Area’s Hip Hop community has definitely been feeling the strain.
Last year Boots of the Coup along with the San Francisco Bay Guardian which has been chronicling this entire mess did a series controversial radio ads on Bay Area radio stations about the Bay Area housing crunch. In the commercial Boots talks about how he was forced to move out of his house in Oakland because of high rents and gentrification. He placed the blame on Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown and warned long time Oakland residents that the new economy and the new face of Oakland would most likely not include them if they didn’t step up their efforts. Boot’s concerns were realized not too long ago when Oakland City Council members voted down an ordinance that would’ve protected residents from unfair evictions.
Another longtime Bay Area Hip Hop fixture was producer DJ Fear of the group No Concept. Earlier this year he was forced to move out of Oakland due to high housing costs. Well established Hip Hop outfits like the Bay Area Hip Hop Coalition and the Hieroglyphics Crew were forced out of their downtown office space which they had for years due to rent increases. These are just the tip of the iceberg.
Over the past year and a half I’ve counted more than 30 Bay Area Hip Hop artists, promoters DJs etc have moved out of the San Francisco/Oakland area to the far outskirts of the Bay or down to LA because of the high housing costs. Its now gotten to the point that when out of town cats say they’d like to get a taste of the local Hip Hop scene, you have to send them to neighboring cities like Sacramento, Antioch, Stockton or Los Angeles which is 400 miles away so they can get a feel. It’s in these places that you will now find Bay Area artists like; Mac Mall, The Luniz, Mac Dre, Mystic Journeyman, Money B, and Rappin’ 4Tay to name a few. More and more Bay Area folks have also been relocating to New York, Atlanta or Texas where housing costs are cheaper when compared to the Bay..Even sadder is the fact that some Bay Area Hip Hoppers went away to school and found they can’t afford to move back..
Billy Jam
In an attempt to bring attention to this housing problem, long time Bay Area DJ Billy Jam and Amoeba Music has put together a compilation album featuring 19 independent artists called ‘Just Paying The Rent’. The album is a who’s who of Bay Area underground artists like Clever Jeff, Crack Emcee, Superstar Qu’am Allah, BLACK, DJ Fear Slumlordz and DJ Zeph. to name a few cover the entire music spectrum from Hip Hop to folk music.
“Just payin’ the rent” is pretty much the battle cry for each of the nineteen indie artists on this compilation who, despite their radical range in musical styles, all share the struggle to just pay the rent and be able to create their art. The San Francisco Bay Area, where most of them reside, has felt the seemingly-overnight effects of the new dot-com economy which has escalated housing costs, changed demographics, and had a drastic effect on the local arts community.
The Crack Emcee
“Living in San Francisco is like living in a computer: everything is about the Internet,” said the pre-teens’ Laura Davis. “People are been forced out because of the skyrocketing rents. Clubs are closing down and practice spaces are rare.” Indeed a major blow was dealt when on October 1st, San Francisco’s Downtown Rehearsal building, where 500 bands of all types of music had rented rehearsal spaces, were all evicted after the building was sold for a huge profit. “I call them the Dotzies,” laughed the Crack Emcee. “They’re blowing the smoke of the new economy up your ass… and all they want to do is sell you sh&*…..everyone’s selling banner space.”
There’s no telling where all this will end and what the final lay of the land will be..I guess I’ll have to move down to LA or back to New York with DJ Paul Nice to get a taste of the Bay Area’s Hip Hop scene. For more info on ‘Just Paying The Rent Project’ drop an email to Billy Jam at mailto:hiphopslam@aol.com