Why I Love the Bay: The Bay made me who I am. It gave me my existence, my hustle, my arrogance, my confidence, my intelligence, my drive and my ambition. Being a product of your environment, I know that if anybody can survive in the Bay, they can survive anywhere in the world. A female from the Bay can go out and get a nigga, next thing you know, she come back rich as shit! Cause niggas in the Bay ain’t givin’ her nuthin’. But outside, she’ll meet somebody and run so much game on em, they’re going to fall in love. It’s just how you survive and that’s how we do. Niggas in the Bay is real sharp. You’d need a real expensive blade to cut into us, cause we real Ginsu out here. //
San Quinn
Also Known As: The Almighty San Quinn Love Handle: “San Francisco’s Real Mayor” Current Project/Product: Bay Area Mixtape 7, Boy to a Man (forthcoming) Hyphy Hit: “Do Ya Thizzle” Label: Done Deal Entertainment Soil: Uptown Fillmore District (San Francisco, CA) Album contribution: “You Don’t Wanna See Me Rich”
T
he Bay is Active: Everybody is on their second go around. I got a new single with Clyde [Carson], “Push Up On Me.” Too $hort got the I Love the Bay compilation. Clyde got him a new single goin’. Frontline got them a new single goin’. Turf Talk’s record is out. The boy Kafani got the record deal with Koch and we seen him on BET, so I think that we’re scratching at the surface. We just gotta get that 106th & Park stature going. I think everybody’s mind is probably still in the same place though. It should be. The Quick Fix: We live in that era where people get bored too fast. They saw it and now they’re waiting on something new to come up out of it and nothing else materialized, yet there was a phenomenon. Out in Atlanta you got Unk and he got “Walk it Out.” Now you got Soulja Boy and you got TI. Now you got Playaz Circle. Seem like they finna make waves and that’s what we missed. We needed that back to back so we could have a Bay Area set outside of the Bay Area playing our music with about ten songs – that the nation is familiar with. Go Hard or Go Home: We’ll look up and it’ll be hyphy in Seattle or hyphy in Portland. Somebody will know how to maximize it on the business side. Being that we’re independent it’s a lot of cutthroat business moves. Nobody is really going the extra mile to be a mogul. A mogul in the industry is respected amongst the people who are not independent. And we’re missing that too. Why I Love the Bay: I was born and raised here. That’s number one. Then all the things that came from here to make me proud. Jerry Rice, Barry Bonds, the Black Panthers. There’s a musical history all the way back to the Grateful Dead, the atmosphere and it being a melting pot. I got Philippino, Mexican, Japanese, white fans, as well as I got cutthroat negroes that love me all behind the walls of the penitentiary, representing this Bay Area. That’s why I love it, cause it loves me back. //
Big Rich
Also Known As: Fill More Rich Love Handle: “Tha Undadogg King” Current Project/Product: Block Tested Hood Approved, Get Down or Lay Down, Unda Dogg Kingz Noted Slapper: “That’s The Bizness” Label: 3 Story Muzik/Koch Soil: Fillmore Album Contribution: “Speakers On Blapp”
O
n the ILTB experience: Coming into that situation and $hort really reaching out to a nigga like, “I like your shit, come and fuck with us and be a part of this,” it was a great feeling to me. It was an honor to me. So I don’t know how everybody else felt, but to me it was an honor. Far From Hyphy: Seeing it from the City it was cool, but we’re kind of on an island. In the 510, it’s like everybody is kinda together. It was different for us, ‘cause we didn’t really jump aboard onto the hyphy bandwagon as far as the culture as much. So that kind of translated into our music. I made some controversial comments during my campaign last year, saying that I support the movement, but I don’t really make the music. A lot of people took that the wrong way, but my thing was, in no way was I going to make a profit off of the situation if I wasn’t of the situation. But in all interviews I always said I supported [the hyphy movement]. I just said I didn’t make the music. Why I Love The Bay: I love it for the diversity, but I mostly love the rap game out here because we’re the underdog. When the rap shit pops off for us, it’s gon’ be great. Seeing all of us on TV last year was wonderful. Just the fact that we are all underdogs keeps me hungry. I love the culture. You can drive through every city out here and it’s something different to look at. It ain’t the same monotonous shit. We all different and that’s what makes it pop. //
Yukmouth
Also Known As: Yuk Love Handle: Mr. Smoke-A-Lot Current Project/Product: City of Dope Mixtape, United Ghettos: Eye Candy Edition, Million Dollar Mouthpiece (forthcoming/October 2007) Label: Smoke-A-Lot/Godzilla/Rap-A-Lot Soil: 69th Village (East Oakland) Album Contribution: “Shine Like Me”
O
n the ILTB experience: I live in L.A., so I didn’t get to work with anybody. I did mine at my studio. I did my shit within two hours. It’s crazy how you make a song hella fast and it ends up being a hit. Then other songs you spend days with and that shit’s boo boo. So it was right. That “Shine Like Me,” I’m using it for my album too. [It’s] the hottest song I ever wrote. Breaking new ground: A lotta niggas be thinkin’ that me and $hort be still beefin’ and shit, cause after the Luniz shit it just continued. But we had to let niggas know that we’re above that. We’re over that and we’re unifying in the Bay. Regardless of the past [problems] that we had, he’s still a legend. I still look up to him and it’s a pleasure and an honor working with him. Why I love the Bay: I’m from the Bay, born and raised! (laughs) I’m from the Bay and I am the Bay. I’d probably be a cartoonist or something, so the Bay made me. I love the Bay because it got game. It got more game than anywhere else I’ve been. It laces you. Ain’t no gangbangin’ out there, none of that shit – just hustlin’ and game. If I was anywhere else I wouldn’t be as seasoned as I am now. In L.A. I notice that people are waiting around for Dre to sign them. We don’t do that in the Bay. If niggas close the door in our face, FUCK YOU. We gon’
30 // OZONE WEST