Today's vibrant, predominantly independent and self-supported Bay Area rap scene was born in Oakland almost three full decades ago. The very first Oakland rap release, which was also the very first known Bay Area rap release, was Motorcycle Mike's Gerald Robinson produced 12" single "Super Rat" on Hodisk Records -- the label run by Nicky Moore that also released the Numonics. 

Born Phil Lewis and influenced by Bootsy Collins as much as the Sugarhill Gang, Lewis also went by the full rap tag of Motorcycle Mike Dappa and was, not surprisingly, a motorbike fanatic. The song "Super Rat" was pro-black in its message, with Mike drawing an analogy between the then much talked about Norwegian "super rats," who could not be killed by poison but instead got stronger, and the underdog black man in Oakland and other American urban areas who could not be kept down.

Motorcycle Mike's original Oakland rap record was followed up later that same year by the single “Tally Ho” on Walker Star Records from Steve Walker, who re-emerged some years later to record under the name Biscuit. Around this same time a foul-mouthed young teen, Todd Shaw, who went by the moniker of Too $hort and later went on to become acknowledged as "the Godfather of Oakland rap" was making primitive tape to tape recordings in his East Oakland bedroom with partner Freddy B. They would hawk them on street corners and on AC Transit buses, pioneering a whole new movement.  "Too $hort paved the way for me and everyone out there today with the way he recorded and marketed his tapes himself," E40 told me years ago. In his early years, the Vallejo rapper successfully adapted Too $hort's DIY approach to street level rap distribution.

In 1985 Too $hort released his first single, "Girl," an anti-crack song which defined his characteristic slow, bass-heavy sound designed for listening to in the car. The song also appeared on the 75 Girls Records & Tapes album Don't Stop Rappin' and as a later year reissue on the In-A-Minute Records 2CD Too $hort 75 Girls collection Greatest Hits Vol I: The Player Years. After a series of releases through 75 Girls, $hort, along with manager Randy Austin, formed his own label, Dangerous Music, on which he released the legendary Born To Mack album. 

In 1988 he released a Dangerous Music compilation which included the then unknown East Bay and Frisco rappers Spice 1 and Rappin' 4-Tay.  That same year Too $hort landed a deal with Jive Records in New York. Meanwhile, another Oaklander, Stanley Kirk Burell, who went by the name of MC Hammer, was enjoying much success with his self-produced debut album Feel My Power and its single, "Ring 'Em," on Bust It Records.  

When a year later Hammer got picked up by Capitol Records, those within the local rap community finally believed that they could be taken seriously at a national level. Note that up until this point only the Berkeley based Timex Social Club had scored nationally with their 1986 pop/rap hit single, "Rumors."

Other talented acts to emerge from Oakland in the late eighties and who helped pave the way for today's thriving rap scene all over the Bay include female rapper Cassidine (whose 1988 album Man Handler was released on cassette & LP on the 75 Girls label when she was known as "the female Too $hort"), North Oakland's APG Crew,  the "Arabian rapper" Mac Mill, Sir Quick Draw (currently known by the hip-hop name Naru Kwina), pioneering Bay Area 'gangsta' rap group 415 featuring Richie Rich, and the P-Funk fueled Digital Underground, whose debut single, 1989's "Underwater Rimes" on TNT, led to their deal with Tommy Boy Records and the worldwide success of  "Humpty Dance."