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Love For Tha Sco: Hip-Hop Videos That Show Much Love For San Francisco City

Posted by Billyjam, May 12, 2011 03:16pm | Comments (1)

During the Bay Area's rich, three-decade strong hip-hop history, each city within the greater Bay Area has been fairly represented, from Oakland to Vallejo & from East Palo Alto to San Francisco and all other towns and spots in between. And with this music, more than any other popular genre, such as, say, rock, Bay Area rap/hip-hop has consistently presented an overwhelming sense of pride and recognition for its immediate surroundings. Neighborhoods or 'hoods are frequently name checked in rap songs. Listen to Bay Area hip-hop for any amount of time and you'll hear countless references or shout-outs to street names and specific blocks, to local landmarks and slang terms for areas such as "Valley Joe" (Vallejo), "The Town" (Oakland), and "Tha Sco" (San Francisco), aka "The SFC" or "San Fran Psyco" or "The 4, The 1, The Feev" etc. etc. In fact, San Francisco hip-hop in particular is renowned for displaying a huge amount of hometown pride lyrically as well as in the songs' corresponding videos.

So for this Amoeblog I've assembled ten (admittedly subjective, since there are so many to choose from)

San Francisco themed rap videos that display both a love of San Francisco in their lyrics and also some great visual shots of the City by the Bay. Included is the very recently released, Dregs One directed "Heart & Soul" by Equipto featuring Mike Marshall, which is packed with references to San Francisco hip-hop artists from the past few decades plus tons of citywide landmarks (including Doggie Diner and Amoeba on Haight). "Heart and Soul" and many of the videos below include the SF Giants logo, gear or stadium shots. The SF Giants' success in 2010 brought additional pride to San Francisco hip-hop, as seen in the videos featuring SF rapper Roach Gigz below, along with San Quinn and others.

Looking Back @ Hip-Hop in 2010

Posted by Billyjam, December 31, 2010 10:30pm | Post a Comment

Even his detractors had to admit that Kanye's "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" album is a great recording

2010 was another great year for hip-hop with a seemingly never-ending flow of quality releases dropping from both underground and mainstream hip-hop artists. Hence, it's impossible to fully represent the diversity of hip-hop in 2010 in any year-end column. But this Amoeblog will attempt to offer a sampler of some of the highlights of 2010 via revisiting some select Amoeba Hip-Hop Top 5 charts along with some accompanying videos. Also below are some best-of 2010 lists from Luis F Soria (Amoeba San Francisco), Ray Ricky Rivera (Amoeba Hollywood), DJ Inti (Amoeba Berkeley), and myself (Amoeblog).

The lists of 2010 releases below only scratch the surface of what came out this past year, which proves just how vibrant hip-hop was in 2010. It was everywhere, with artists crossing over more than ever into pop, rock, & dance. And while 2010 saw a ton of newcomers drop impressive albums, it was also a year when many longtime artists delivered some of their best work. Eminem, Big Boi, E40 and Ghostface Killah each had stellar releases. Also impressive in 2010 were Dres from Black Sheep, Sadat X, Rah Digga, and Son of Bazerk and No Self Control, who returned with the killer jackin for beats track, "I Swear On a Stack of Old Hits," released by Chuck D's Slamjamz label. Unfortunately, when they performed live, opening for Public Enemy in 2010, they weren't as good as on record or video (see below). Consistently great in concert including on their 2010 tour was Public Enemy whose 1991 single "By The Time I Get To Arizona" inspired many and took on a new meaning in 2010 with Arizona's Senate Bill 1070, or SB 1070.
Bored Stiff

DJ Shadow's Shadowsphere tour was among the best shows of 2010. Zion I's recent Atomic Clock tour was also on the money. Gurp Fest, earlier this month, proved that the party driven, raw hip-hop Bay Area bred movement is on the brink of blowing up. Among the many Bay Area artists making noise in 2010 were Richmond's Erk Tha Jerk, Vallejo's Moe Green, and Fillmore San Francisco's DaVinci. Veteran SF hip-hop crew Bored Stiff released the free digital album Now More Than Ever in 2010 but tragically lost a member when earlier this month Rick Fairley, aka Big Kwanz, died in his sleep from a heart attack. He was only 36. Hip-hop lost many others too in 2010, notably GURU of Gang Starr, who died back in April at age 43.

Gurp Fest 2010 Presents the (For Now) Underground Musical Collective & Movement Known as Gurp City

Posted by Billyjam, December 17, 2010 05:58pm | Comments (9)

In honor of tonight's big Gurp Fest 2010 at Club Six in San Francisco, the Amoeblog offers an overview of the San Francisco based hip-hop movement / collective known as Gurp City. What follows is a general history and a guide to some of the unique slang used by its members, plus a listing of the many talented artists (and the many more who are loosely affiliated) involved in this party-driven, homegrown underground hip-hop movement. Though based in San Francisco, it but has members beyond, all the way down to the Gurpy South.

Gurp City South will be well represented at tonight's Gurp Fest with (NJ by way of NC) emcee Foulmouth Jerk, Fist Fam, and Bay transplant & orchestrator of tonight's event TopR, who took the word of Gurp City with him when he moved to Asheville, NC. This article includes TopR's description of the Gurp City movement.

Other performers tonight include such key Gurp City members as Z-Man, Eddie K & Brandon K's Trunk Drank, Grand Invincible (Luke Sick from Sacred Hoop + DJ Eons), DJ Quest, Cutty Bang (aka Dick Nasty), Rec League, BOAC, DJ Cue and DJ 2 Fresh.

And given that the term to gurp means to party hard, a belief tha all of Gurp City's members hold close to their heart, tonight's Gurp Fest should be quite the party!

Z-Man "Gurp With Me" (2004)

Although centered in “The City in a Bottle” (San Francisco), the origins o TopR

f Gurp City are in two other locations at the end of the nineties: the city of Chico, CA and the long gone, beloved record/hip-hop store in Daly City, Cue's Hip Hop Shop. It was run by DJ Cue of the legendary Bay Area DJ groups Bulletproof Scratch Hamsters/Space Travelers and was a gathering point for hip-hop minds and talents. The shop may be gone but DJ Cue is still going strong and will be at tonight's event. It's been organized by TopR (aka Topper Holiday), once a very familiar face at Amoeba San Francisco, where he used to hang out years ago and in 2008 did an instore performance. Additionally, back in 2005 TopR appeared on the Amoeba Music Compilation Vol. 5 with a song that mentioned Amoeba in its lyrics.

JAMEOBLOG TOP TEN: WEEK OF 10:21:08

Posted by Billyjam, October 21, 2008 07:36am | Post a Comment

Jamoeblog Top Ten 10:21:08

1. Mike Relm "Everytime (feat. Del the funky Homosapien & Adrian Hartley)" (Deep Fried)

2. Mulatto Patriot "Showtime (feat. Prosper Jones & Mena)" (MP)

3. People Under The Stairs "Letter 2 c/o The Bronx" (Gold Dust Media)

4. CYNE "Just Say No" (Hometapes)

5. Jake-One "I'm Coming (feat. Black Milk & Nottz)" (Rhymesayers)

6. Madlib the Beat Konducta "Disco Dance" (Rapster/BBE)

7. C-Rayz Walz & Kosha Dillz "Holiday" (Modular Moods)

8. Kaboose "Two Sides" (Syntax)

9. Cre-8 "Hootie & the Bloated Blowfish" (Potency)

10. Fort Knox Five "Sao Funky (pts. I & II featuring Javier Miranda)" (Fort Knox)

Mike Relm's hit-bound single "Everytime" appears in three different (emcee) versions on the SF DJ's brand new debut album Spectacle (out today, Oct 21st, and avail in Amoeba Music). The track features female vocalist Adrian Hartley (who he worked with on the Blue Man project) on each of the three versions. The best version ("Everytime") is with Oakland emcee Del the Funky Homosapien, while the other two (almost but not quite as good) versions feature the emcees Mr Lif ("You Break") and ADeeM ("My Heart"). The rest of this new album is really good too, with some nice electro tracks, cameos from Quannum's Lateef and GIft of Gab, plus a bunch of TV montage skits sprinkled throughout, which makes sense since Mike Relm's specialty is doing live video mixes culled from hours of TV and movies.

BILLY JAM'S WEEKLY HIP-HOP ROUND UP: 6-6-08

Posted by Billyjam, June 6, 2008 08:30am | Post a Comment

Sadness struck both Amoeba and the local Bay Area hip-hop community this week with the tragic passing of the much-loved Anthony Marin (aka Big Ant) who, at the young age of 37, died of heart failure last weekend.

A DJ/producer and multi-instrumentalist, not to mention an incredibly knowledgeable musicologist, Big Ant had been a fixture on the local hip-hop scene for many years -- ever since he moved north from LA in the nineties. Before working at Amoeba SF he had worked at Tower Records in the South Bay and Cue's in Daly City.

If you were into the local DJ or hip-hop scene you would have seen Big Ant over the years at countless events. A large framed man with a warm hug and a winning smile, plus an unbridled knowledge of all types of music (far beyond hip-hop), he had DJ'ed all over, played damn near every instrument it seemed (including guitar/drums/keyboards in Black Fiction - the experimental rock band he was a member of along with fellow Amoebites Jason Chavez and Tim Cohen), and was a ham at Karaoke. This evening, Friday June 6th, from 5PM to 9PM, those who knew this great man will gather in his honor at Milk, which is directly across the street from Amoeba on Haight St.

For more in depth tributes to Big Ant, visit 4AM/Jason Chavez's MySpace or the text/photo dedication to him on the homepage of the Amoeba website, where Jason Chavez, his best friend, wrote so poignantly: "The best lesson he taught me is the lesson that every loved one that passes teaches us, that we are all still alive and we need to live, love and find our purpose and passions for ourselves and our passed loved ones who are watching us and guiding us towards our destinies. Everyone stay up, he'd want us to." R.I.P. BIG ANT.

AMOEBA MUSIC SAN FRANCISCO HIP-HOP TOP FIVE (6.6.08)

1) J-Live Then What Happened? (BBE)
2) TOPR The Marathon of Shame (Gurp City)
3) Giant Panda Electric Laser (Tres Records)
4) Subtle Exiting Arm (Lex)
5) The Cool Kids The Bake Sale (Chocolate Industries/A&M)

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