Great Mac Dre Article

This guy Gabe Meline really nailed it with his piece on Mac Dre in the most recent issue of the North Bay Bohemian. I'm usually EXTREMELY disappointed in the Bohemian's coverage of hip hop, or lack thereof really, but this is a very well thought out piece which includes some little known information and some real great convos with Dre's mother, Wanda Salvatto aka Mac Wanda and his aunt. And the fact that they made it a cover piece is even more impressive to me.

This is another great collectible to add to your Bay Area hip hop archives so shoot on up the North Bay and grab a copy or two if you get a chance.

My favorite part:

Then there was the time he surprised Dedrick and Salvatto by showing up out of the blue during a camping trip at Lake Mendocino.

"Here comes Andre with a silver Mercedes," she says, recalling Dre in the rugged outdoors, "in his nice clothes, with his Burberry briefcase! It was just so funny."

READ THE ARTICLE AND SEE SOME GREAT PICTURES HERE

Happy ChrismaKwanzukkah

Happy holidays and all that jive and a "no homo just in case" for that picture. I think that shit is funny as hell though. Another thing that's funny to me is Santa making kids cry so below is a picture of another drunk Santa making some ungrateful little punk cry. You can see a lot more pics like this here: Santa Is Best When He Makes Kids Cry

The holidays are a little rough this year since I'm losing my job next Friday and haven't found a new one yet, but hey, I'm still breathin' so it's not all bad.

I figured I'd drop a present here for the masses so here's the High Fo' Xmas EP from Master P's No Limit Records. I'm a little undecided about posting full albums here, but this shit is 10 years old and I'm pretty sure it's out of print by now so I figure it's okay for me to post it.

As you can see, P clearly got the inspiration for the High Fo' XMas cover from the drunk Santa picture up at the top. Thankfully, for the cover they kept the nudity to a minimum with only one shirt missing.

Anyway, when this compilation came out in 1995 I was geeked. Some of it is pretty cheesy with the whole Christmas theme, but there are some really good songs on it. In particular, "Chillin N Da Game" by Mafiosos is damn near perfect. It has no Christmas twist to it so it seems out of place here, but whatever. The song is great and Mafiosos really should have been a bigger duo in the Bay. Another favorite for me is "Locked Up Fo' Xmas" by King George. Everyone always clowns King George, but I really like this song so fuck off. Bay Area legend, Al "Baby Jesus" Eaton, produced it and kept the jingle bell sound rollin' through the whole thing and it worked. "Rev. Do Wrong Xmas Party" is another strong track especially when Dangerous Dame comes through and DEMOLISHES it. "...so 'tis the fuckin' season to be jolly / my favorite gifts is my bitch and my broccoli."

Here's a tracklisting for ya:

1. High Fo' Xmas (Street Version) - San Quinn, Silk, Master P
2. Intro
3. Locked Up Fo' Xmas (Street Version) - King George
4. Talk
5. Jacking Fo' Da Holidays (Clean Mix) - Master P
6. Chillin' N' Da Game (Street Version) - Mafiosos
7. Ghetto Nite
8. Christmas In Da Ghetto (Radio Version) - C-Murder, Master P
9. Hood Carols
10. Rev. Do Wrong Xmas Party (Street Version) - Big Ed, Lil Ric, Dangerous Dame
11. No Limit Party (Remix Bonus Street Version) - Master P
    

Here's the album link: High Fo' Xmas - West Coast Bad Boyz (No Limit Records, 1995)

You're gonna need StuffIt Expander to open that bitch up.

Aww shit, happy holidays!!!

RIP Richard Pryor

Definitely one the best to ever do it.

Bay Area Classics - Volume 2

Here's another group of tracks for ya...


"Get Off My Sack" - C-Funk featuring Mozilla (EPA)
He now goes by !ProHoeZak?, but when this song came out in 1995 he was still known as C-Funk. Old fucks like me will even remember when he was known as Cap'n Crunch. Anyway, this song was off his great EP, 3 Dimensional Ear Pleasure, on Paris' Scarface Records. It never really got much press or attention for some reason, but it was a good release and I enjoyed it so here ya go. Random trivia: His cousin is none other than Flavor Flav of Public Enemy.

"Dead Presidents" - Chunk (EPA)
I pulled this track off of a sampler CD that I got at a Gavin music conference called The Sessions back in '96 or '97. The CD featured a variety of people from J-Live to Clee & John Doe to Lyrics Born & Lateef and more. At the time Chunk had an upcoming album on E'Lan Records. As far as I know that album was never released and this song never really saw the light of day. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong and let me know where else this song appeared.

"Rollin Thru" - COZ featuring Bun B of UGK (Oakland)
COZ was the very first person I ever interviewed for 4080 magazine (RIP). The publisher of the magazine kinda threw me into it without warning and I ended up conducting the interview while riding around Oakland in a Mercedes with COZ and one of his boys for a hour or so. We actually even ended up stopping at his grandmother's house for some reason. The interview came out great and even though I was completely unprepared for it, I think I did a pretty good job. When I first met him, I noticed that he kinda looked like Ice Cube and kinda sounded like Scarface and actually his music is kind of a blend of those two. This track is off his album, View To A Kill, on Ghettogroove/Str8 Game Records which was basically a re-vamped version of his major label album on EastWest Records (I think it was EastWest... It's been a lot of years.) I really like this album, but unfortunately I haven't heard too much about COZ since it dropped save for a few compilation appearances. Also, I figure I can't go wrong posting a rare track featuring Bun B since everyone on the internets is all of a sudden Bun B fanatics. I like Bun B just as much as the next guy, but damn, where were all these Bun B fans before? They should have BEEN supporting.

"Westbound To The Fullest" - Underground Rebellion featuring Saafir (Oakland)
Underground Rebellion is one of those groups that was always kind of on the outskirts of the Bay Area rap scene. No disrespect to them at all because I liked all the shit I heard from them, but they just never seemed to bubble past a certain point for some reason even though they deserved to. They weren't making your typical mid-90's Oakland rap. They experimented and sounded different which was refreshing and Krush's production was always on point. This one features another Oakland vet, Saafir, and comes off the A1 Immaculate Funktism album on Treasure Line Records.

"Cellblock Rulaz" - STN featuring Erase-E (Richmond)
Unfortunately STN (RIP) was killed recently. This track is off of his highly slept on album, Game Stress, and as far as I know this is the only album he ever got to release way back in the mid-90's. Not much to say about this track because it really just speaks for itself. It's just some good Bay Area street music featuring a great production job by Kidnapp and vicious verses from both STN and fellow Richmond resident, Erase-E, who flows ridonkulously here. I got to meet Erase-E a month or so ago and he finally has some new material about to hit the streets which I am eagerly anticipating. His upcoming album is titled, Smoov'...But Aggressive, and will be released on Lethal Injection/Beats By The Bay/Hillco. Features include Twista, B-Dub of CIN and luckily some STN so he will not be forgotten. Look for an interview with Erase-E here soon.

Enjoy and let me know (doxx707@yahoo.com) if you need anything re-upped.

You Need To Get A Jobby Jobb

Sorry for the lack of updates here. I'm in real life stress mode so posting about rap music hasn't been my top priority. Long story short: The company I work for decided to eliminate a bunch of positions and my job is one of 'em so I got my 30 day notice and will be out of work soon.

Happy holidays, I guess.

As far as Bay Area rap music/blog business...

1) Later tonight I'm gonna do another Bay Area Classics audio post (probably five songs or so that all may have been overlooked or just came out before your time). IMPORTANT FOR FUTURE AUDIO POSTS: Does anyone know how I can convert songs from cassette to MP3? I've got tons of rare, overlooked shit on tape just sitting in my closet that I think people should hear. E-mail me at doxx707@yahoo.com if you can help me.

2) Speaking of audio updates, please frequent Get Stoopid. Jayo over there has been putting in some good work by posting all the latest tracks from the Bay for the last few months. Plus he recently re-upped every track he's ever posted which is ridonkulously nice.

3) SD (formerly known as Skip-Dog of EZSD) was in my neck of the woods a week or so ago came by my house and kicked it for a minute. He digs the interview I did with him a while back, but I still haven't posted it yet because I haven't had a chance to go to Kinko's and scan the picture he gave me to go along with it. Plus I'm waiting to get an exclusive song from him off his upcoming solo album to post with the interview as well. Should be soon.

4) CultStatus seems to have dried up. No new posts since September 13th, just tumbleweeds rolling around. So for now, I gotta refresh the links and remove it. It was/is a great blog so I hope it gets updated soon. Dame!!! Where you at!!! If you come back to it, let everyone know so we can re-link.

5) In relation to numero four up there... New blog added bitches!!! I've been really enjoying Nah Right for a minute so it's in there now. I've got some others that I like and are gonna be added soon, but my head hurts right now and I can't think of them. Keep checking the link list over thataway-----------> and you'll see 'em soon.

Be sure to check back later tonight for that new audio post (if it's not up tonight it'll be up tomorrow sometime).

Now I'm gonna go drink my last 8 Pacifico's and figure out a way for this blog to make me a millionaire so I don't have to find a new job. Perhaps a Pacifico sponsorship??? Lord knows I've probably been the leading consumer of their fine product for many years now. Just ask my local bartenders.