At Glam I. Rock's in-store performance at Oaklandish last Friday evening the new female rapper from The Town delighted the hometown audience at the downtown retail store, that transforms itself in a concert space every first Friday of the month, as she ran through a string of songs off her recently released debut EP, The Feel (Savvie1ent/The Olive Street Agency). The 21 year old rapper was literally born into hip-hop since her mom is Oakland female rapper Nic Nac who came to fame two decades ago when she recorded with such artists as The LOX and Eve but most notably with Dru Down and the Luniz, and toured and performed with such legends as Too $hort, Ice Cube, and 2Pac.  Nic Nac has been a consistent positive influence in her daughter's artistic growth. "She's played a huge part in influencing me from a young age even before I was rapping.  Just being everywhere she was -- show rehearsals, video shoots, sessions. She had already put me in that element," Glam I. Rock told the Amoeblog in a recent interview noting that, in addition to her mom's music, some of the very first rappers she heard (and likely influenced her) from a  young age included A Tribe Called Quest, Pete Rock & CL Smooth, Big Daddy Kane, The LOX, Jay-Z and Nas.

Collaborating as a duo for the first time DJ Eddie Def and emcee Dopestyle are currently in the midst of finishing up recording a new album project together that the two longtime Bay Area hip-hop artists have christened Supreme Raw.

And Supreme Raw pretty much sums up the vibe of this raw, no-holds-barred, lo-fi hip-hop project as witnessed in the above video for "Salty The Clown!" - the first track to be leaked off the album that is scheduled to be released by summer's end.

This, as yet untitled, new full-length is described by Eddie Def as, "grimy hip-hop, old school 90's with chopped up samples," adding of its sound that it is, "in tradition of Gang Starr, Cypress Hill, Wu Tang type beats, ya know lo-fi hip-hop."

Although the DJ/producer and the emcee are both longtime Bay Area hip-hop artists it was only two years when they first met. "I met Dopestyle at a Casual show when me and DJ Quest were performing a set with Z-Man," said Eddie Def. "I gave him some beats and he responded back and we started working on some shit." Before long they had the makings of an entire album - one that features lots of cameos (not officially announced just yet but should be of interest to fans of West Coast underground hip-hop). "His flow is unlike any other," said Eddie of Dopestyle, "What I love him is that he is a topic rapper; interesting topics too! He raps about cancer. He raps about spousal abuse. He raps about people dying; serious shit and not the typical stuff people usually rap about."

A founding member of LiveWire Records West Oakland's Shady Nate is a local rap hero and long a popular artist with both Bay Area rap fans and fans nationwide of the mobb street style of rap that he and his LiveWire potnas (including J Stalin, Philthy Rich, and Stevie Joe) all deliver. He grew up in West Oakland's notoriously violent Acorn housing projects on 7th Street not far from the West Oakland BART station - an area that has gone through much changes over the past decade - and, while a gifted hip-hop artist who has enjoyed moderate success from his art, has gotten caught up in the street life and spent a good deal of the past decade either incarcerated or under house arrest. However thanks to his ever optimistic, upbeat outlook Shady Nate has managed to write and/or record music and boasts an impressive discography that includes  - much of it with his fellow rap artists in the tight knit LiveWire collective - the label he launched in 2004 along with J Stalin and Jay Jonah.  I recently caught up with Shady Nate to talk about rap music, West Oakland, and how he got the name Shady Nate?

"I got my name from my hood: the notorious Acorn Projects - the only projects in Oakland period. They say everybody in my hood is Shady. I'm from a shady hood and Acorn niggas ain't cool and all that. So I named myself Shady Nate just to let people know what it is," Nate told me. Known for caring about his West Oakland neighborhood and giving back to his community (Nate has been responsible for throwing BBQ's in his neighborhood for the kids coming up over the past two summers) I was curious to know what Nate thought of West Oakland today versus ten, fifteen, or twenty years ago. Is it better or worse than when he was a kid coming up? "That's a tough one," he answered, pausing for a second and considering all of the so-called "development" that taken place in West Oakland in the past decade. "Yes they're putting money into the city; they're rebuilding but they're not putting money back into the right places. They're not putting money into the schools so while they're rebuilding the structures, the buildings, they're not rebuilding the community, the people. So the people is getting worse. It's a lot worse from when I was a youngster. People might have thought I was crazy but now the people that is coming up under me they is even more sick. I can't say it's getting better. I really think it's getting worse."

And the winner is......Too $hort in the ongoing beef / rap battle between Too $hort and Messy Marv who, as instigator, is indeed messy - not to mention foolish to take on the respected "Godfather of Bay Area rap." That's my personal opinion but already it seems that most other Bay rap fans are similarly taking the side of $hort in this seemingly mean spirited & uncalled for attack by Marv - an undoubtedly talented rapper but one known for starting beefs with others.  This battle (essentially an attack) began recently on Twitter by Marv but $hort did not take the bait and respond, at least initially. Soon after the beef escalated from online to the studio where Messy Marv., a couple of weeks ago, recorded "Class of 84 (Fuck Too $hort)" in which his main gripes with  Too $hort seem to be that he was not born in the Bay, that he has not helped other artists enough to Marv's liking, and that he is "old." Note that at thirty something (his self-penned bio says he's 31 but some say he's closer to 40 than 30) Marv is not exactly a young cat himself in this rap game.