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After the giddy high of Gnarls Barkley's St. Elsewhere (the Cee-Lo/Danger Mouse collaboration reviewed in this space last week), I lacked the heart to survey the current slate of hip-hop releases. Indeed, listening to Purple City's The Purple Album (Purple City/Babygrande/Koch; **) -- anointed "The second coming of gangsta rap" by The Source -- was quite demoralizing. Same goes for DJ Drama & Yo Gotti's I Told You So-Gangsta Grillz (The Aphilliates/IE Entertainment; **) and Mobb Deep's Blood Money (G Unit/Interscope; *1/2). The aftereffects of Mobb Deep signing with 50 Cent's G-Unit can be felt not just in Prodigy and Havoc's new monikers ("VIP" and "Hollywood," respectively), but also in the lack of dynamic production that made the duo East Coast stars in the mid-1990s. Blood Money prominently features the G-Unit rogues gallery of Fiddy, Lloyd Banks, Tony Yayo and Young Buck, as well as preemptive apologias like these lyrics from the single "Put 'Em in Their Place": "It's our means ... Curtis 'Million Dollar Budget' Jackson/Go 'head be mad at that man, he's the one who made us rich/You ain't the only millionaires on the block no more/We filthy rotten rich ... and we takin' advantage ..." Yawn.
Even though nothing else in hip-hop these days attains the glory of Cee-Lo and company's St. Elsewhere, the Bay Area's hyphy phenomenon does bear examination. Hyphy Exposed (Fall Thru Entertainment; ***) is an unrated DVD chronicling the evolving Oakland-centered music and dance movement. Hyphy -- a term free-associated from hyper and fly -- is northern California street culture, a regional hip-hop style that's already been co-opted by outsiders from Snoop to the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and is being advanced via acts such as the Federation and the Frontline. Partying revolves around drank (booze), yurp (pot) and thizz (Ecstasy); dancing (trippier than LA krumping); and "sydeshows" -- cars doing multiple doughnuts by braking and turning at high speeds.
Here's how my San Francisco Bay Guardian colleague Kimberly Chun describes it: "[It's] all about a certain extra-urban hip-hop that's coming out of Vallejo, Richmond, not quite inner-city ... more like the outer developments that lower middle class people get pushed to when the city gets gentrified."
The gritty, rhythmic sound of hyphy is not exactly new, having been incubated in the so-called Yay Area since the '90s by acts like San Quinn, Andre Nickatina and hyphy ambassador E-40. Now, the scene's starting to take its cultural production cues from southeastern crunk. Perhaps this is retaliation for Lil Jon and the Ying Yang Twins copping platinum with "Get Low," ripped from the Get Low Playaz, who hail from San Francisco's once-hippiefied Fillmore district. The Playaz coined the term and dance "get low" on "Game Recognize Game" way back in 1994.
For anyone who's seen the black biker saga Biker Boyz, Hyphy Exposed contains similar hi-octane racing scenes -- but with low riders on steroids. Rednecks have monster truck rallies at arenas and speedways; hyphy denizens execute hooptie tricks on the streets.
Reaching back to an earlier era of the new school, I screened Wu-Tang Clan's Legend of the Wu-Tang: The Videos (Loud/Legacy/RCA/Columbia; ***1/2). Starting with the rough, grainy clip for "Method Man," it's clear this is a relic from the time when a) hip-hop video budgets were just emerging from the music's ghettoized period, b) parades of shuddering thongs were not prevalent and c) the notion of a hip-hop collective from New York's isolated Staten Island was surprising.
Champagne flows at the end of "C.R.E.A.M.," but this comes after many murky shots of bruhs grouped around in puffas and hoodies, nary a gyrating booty or Brooks Brothers suit in sight. On "Can It All Be So Simple," Wu-Tang explicitly interrogates the old vs. new school divide, deploying a Gladys Knight sample to debunk myths of the good ole days.
Call me conservative, but this audiophile -- who is slightly older than hip-hop itself -- shall just have to retreat to old-school reissues from the dawn of the '90s: Whodini's Funky Beat: the Best of Whodini (Jive/Legacy; ***1/2), the contentious light pop of D.J. Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince's We Are the '80s (Jive/Legacy; **1/2), and the darker P-Funk redux of DJ Quik's Born and Raised in Compton: the Greatest Hits (Arista/Legacy; ***1/2).
The Whodini collection is a delight, chock full of classic jams from more innocent days: "Five Minutes of Funk," "Friends" and the immortal "Freaks Come Out at Night." None have lost their lustre in intervening years.
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An Evening with Vince Gill @ Ovens Auditorium -
Carver Commodore (18+) @ Neighborhood Theatre -
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Thomas Rhett: Better In Boots Tour 2025 @ PNC Music Pavilion -
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