How is a discussion about street dancers connected to an exploration of the Bay Area hip-hop sound? It’s important to understand the conditions under which the genre emerged locally. Anybody could say a bunch of basic rhyme words with no style and flavor,” says Bas, noting as an aside that “most folks couldn’t understand the lyrics anyway.” Many Bay Area hip-hop pioneers got their start in dance crews, including Club Nouveau’s Jay King (who pop-locked with The Unknowns), DJ King Tech (who was known as Wizard, and danced with Master City Breakers), and Flash himself (who performed with UFO).īy contrast, rapping was a relatively new and undeveloped skill, the lowest element on the hip-hop totem pole.
“You could meet with people on their turf and get down, and hopefully not get thumped in the process,” says CJ Flash. Battles even took place on the street, with crews traveling to different neighborhoods around the region to seek out rivals. Their kinetic performances ignited crowds at high schools, house parties, and public spaces like Justin Herman Plaza and Union Square in San Francisco and UC Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza. These ensembles drew from a street-dance tradition that dates back decades. As Bas broadcasts CJ Flash’s voice from his phone through Del’s stereo equipment, CJ Flash spends the next hour or so describing a fledging scene where poppers and boogaloo dancers, not rappers or DJs, were the prime attractions. Then, Bas-1 calls Chris “CJ Flash” Jourdan, an OG who worked with Timex Social Club, the Berkeley teen band whose 1986 electro-funk classic, “ Rumors,” represented the first national breakthrough for Bay Area hip-hop culture.
#80s hip hop album songs mac
Mac Mill and Emperor E go back and forth, trading sound effects and dense Oakland slang as K-os cuts and scratches copies of Long Island band Original Concept’s deathless bass classic, “ Knowledge Me.” Bas praises Mac Mill’s unusual “Arabian” style, which the latter deployed nearly a decade later with the 1995 single “ Arabian Hump.” He also says the showcase was filmed in 1986 for a 1988 video compilation.) (Alex “Naru” Reece, who organized the showcase where Mac Mill performed, clarified in a follow-up conversation that it didn’t happen during Festival at the Lake. Tracy, Rock Master Fresh, Nic Nack, Kimmie Fresh, and the Acorn Crew with Grandmaster Fresh (a rapper later known as “DJ Daryl” Anderson, famed for producing tracks like 415’s “ Side Show” and 2Pac’s “ Keep Ya Head Up”).Īt Del’s house, Bas queues up an extraordinary live video clip of Mac Mill, Emperor E, and DJ Anthony “K-os” Bryant performing at Festival at the Lake, a now-defunct annual event held at Lake Merritt, in 1988. I’ve never heard most of the names Bas mentions: MC Chocolate Milk, Windell Baby Doll, Davy Def, Buddy Bean, Reggie Reg Rock Ski.ter, M.C. For much of the afternoon, Bas - the Oakland native who’s worked with Digital Underground and released his own solo records - has schooled me on the origins of the Bay Area hip-hop sound.īas lists numerous rappers from the ’80s, and not just Todd “Too Short” Shaw, the East Oakland rapper who famously hustled homemade cassette tapes. It’s a wintry January evening when Bas-1 brings me to Del the Funky Homosapien’s house in the East Bay. (Clockwise from top left: Too Short, MC Hammer, Dominique DiPrima, Club Nouveau, and Motorcycle Mike.) (Steve Ringman/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images Al Pereira/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images SFSU Television Archives Raymond Boyd/Getty Images Hodisk Records)Įditor’s note: This story is part of That’s My Word, KQED’s year-long exploration of Bay Area hip-hop history, with new content dropping all throughout 2023. The Bay Area’s bass-heavy sound would arrive at the end of the decade.
In the mid-1980s, after years of street dance, DJing and graffiti sharing equal space, rapping took center stage.
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