PATIEN TLY WAITING THE BA : PART 2Y INTRO :
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ack in April we introduced you to a new era in Hip Hop based in the West Coast, a cousin to the South and its thriving scene, a movement coined “hyphy.” At the top of the list it’s E-40 and Too $hort opening the doors for the previously featured artists like Keak da Sneak, Bailey, Mistah F.A.B., Balance and San Quinn; all of whom are now currently in negotiations for major recording deals. Now we’re back with part two. It’s the same script but different names. OZONE once again takes a look at more talented artists in the Bay Area making moves on the independent front, as they patiently wait for the major record companies to help spread the hyphy movement. Bay area legend Too $hort explains the similarities between the Bay’s current hyphy movement and the South’s crunk movement:
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lot of people refer to hyphy as crunk’s first cousin. They’re related; they’re similar in the sense that the music came from the neighborhoods. Hyphy was a neighborhood thing long before it was a nightclub or radio thing, long before anybody shot a video and labeled it ‘hyphy.’ It reminds me of how crunk came out of Atlanta. It’s just the same energy; it’s exactly the same energy. It comes from the youngsters. When crunk came out, they were throwin’ bows and bumping into each other. It looked like fighting. Hyphy is that same energy. It’s not the same dances or the same movements [as crunk] but it’s the same energy of the young people just releasing and letting it go into the music on the dance floor, in the streets, wherever. It’s just what they do; it’s a way of life for a lot of people. I don’t know if everybody knows this, but the majority of the people who are immersed in the hyphy movement love the shit outta crunk music and snap music and down South music. If a club is playing hyphy music all night, sooner or later they’re gonna switch over and start playing South music and go back and forth so it’s really a mixture of West coast and down South music.
I feel like everybody’s been so biased against California in the last ten years. Since Tupac passed, everybody’s like, ‘Fuck Cali.’ If it’s from the West coast, people don’t wanna hear it. But people don’t understand that hyphy is not that West coast music that you’re used to - it’s not that slow, g-funk music. I think that’s what separated crunk music from what Atlanta was doing at the time - that Southernplayalistic-pimp kinda music and the super-uptempo booty raps. That’s why crunk took over - it was something to bounce to, something to dance to, give you that adrenaline rush. That’s what hyphy is doing to the West coast sound. The Bay area has kinda taken over, even down in L.A. and other parts of the West coast, cause [hyphy] is West coast music for the dance floor. I don’t think anybody could go to the Bay for any extended period of time and not catch the buzz. I was in Atlanta when they started bouncing to crunk music. People in New York were turning down Southern artists in the mid-90s, saying that they were regional artists. When Lil Jon first went to New York to try to get a deal, the labels were saying that crunk would never leave the Southeast. Now a major label will sign any Southern artist with a decent demo. But if you’re on the West coast and selling 50,000 units and getting radio play, a major still won’t sign you just cause you’re from the West coast.” Young and business-minded, the South can undoubtedly share in the Bay Area’s “takeover” mentality. All animated in their own way, this next batch of artists are all feeding the hyphy movement. - DJ BackSide 62 62