Mac Dre On The Cover Of The San Francisco Bay Guardian

I'm glad people liked that last post I did with that rare Mac Dre feature. I've even seen the track I posted pop up on a few other sites so it's cool to know that people are (a) checking my site out and (b) are spreading pieces of it out there into the matrix.

I'm on a Dre theme right now so I figured people should know about this as well...

There's a very good article written in the new issue of the San Francisco Bay Guardian by Garrett Caples about the aftermath of Dre's murder. Dre even made the cover, which you can see above, via a nice painting of him done by Eustinove P. Smith. The article delves into Dre's past as well as the newfound popularity he had just prior to, and after, his murder. The point of the article though is really to open people up to the idea that just because Dre had a criminal past it didn't define him and that he should also be remembered for the positive things he did during his much too short life. You can read the article here: http://www.sfbg.com/40/07/news_dre.html, but I would also recommend trying to find yourself a copy of the issue if you can. It's a real nice piece of memorabilia for a Bay Area collector. I grabbed two of 'em for my own archives.

Also, there is an accompanying piece about Dre's label, Thizz Entertainment, also written by Garrett Caples that you can read here: http://www.sfbg.com/40/07/news_dre2.html.

The Cover From Issue 2 Of My Old Magazine

I put that bad boy you see up there out in 1997, but I was working in this Bay Area hip hop industry for 3 years before that. I've been around this music shit for a long time. I've got history. That's the cover of issue 2 and I'm still real proud of that one 'cause I had a good mix of people in there from Mac Dre (RIP Andre Hicks) and Andre Nickatina to Closed Caption and Lateef & Lyrics Born. I did all the interviews in that issue (other than half of the Assassin piece) and took all the pictures of Mac Dre for his cover feature.

Just felt like throwing that old school cover up there for people. I still have a handful of copies of that issue laying around so if anyone wants one, hit me up and we can figure something out. True Bay Area hip hop collectible for ya.

Bay Area Audio Update (E-40/Casual/The Coup/Clyde Carson/Turf Talk/San Quinn/Lyrics Born/Zion I)

E-40 & Lyrics Born

Haven't had an update in a minute 'cause I'm working on a few different big posts right now so I figured I'd just drop a couple tracks that I've been listening to lately on ya'. Enjoy.

1) "Callin' Out-Remix" - Lyrics Born w/ E-40 & Casual
Some real energetic, bouncy funk shit. This has been out for a good while now, but I still really like it and I just re-found it after much searching of the interwebs. I really like the fact that Lyrics Born reached out to someone like 40 for this since I never imagined they would be on a track together. 40 sounds different than normal on this track, but he still puts in some real solid work as do LB and Casual. "...let me ask ya'll somethin', huh / straight up / is the Bay up in this mothafucka..."

2) "My Favorite Mutiny" - The Coup w/ Black Thought & Talib Kweli
I'm real happy to hear some new music from The Coup. They always had that revolutionary shit to actually make you think, not just nod your head. They have a new album called Pick A Bigger Weapon coming out soon on Epitaph Records. Judging by this track, Boots hasn't lost a step lyrically or productionwise (I'm assuming he produced this, but I'm not sure. It definitely reminds me of his work on Genocide & Juice).

3) "The Bay-Remix" - Zion I w/ Clyde Carson of The Team, Turf Talk, San Quinn & Casual
I'll be honest and say that I don't know much about Zion I from Oakland, but I've been seeing and hearing their name more and more lately. At this point I haven't actively looked into them yet, but this song definitely caught my ear and has sparked me into finding out more about the crew. Good look on getting a bunch of Bay hitters on here.

If any of the links die and you still need them, let me know so I can re-up them.

New interviews coming soon including The Jacka, super producer Rick Rock, Mac & AK, The Federation and many more. I think I'll be reaching out to The Coup soon and Lyrics Born as well for my second interview with him. I really want to make sure that STRIVIN' is wide-ranging and covers all aspects of Bay Area hip hop music from the "turf" shit all the way to the "backpack" shit or however people want to classify things. I like to cover it all and that's how it should be.