The 50 Greatest Bay Area Rap Songs BY WILLY STALEY | JAN 26, 2011

23. TWDY f/ Too Short "Player's Holiday"

Year: 1999
Produced By: Ant Banks
Album: Derty Werk
Label: Thump Records
 

Oakland producer Ant Banks put together a sort of Bay Area supergroup called T.W.D.Y. (The Whole Damn Yay) with Rappin 4-Tay and Captain Save-Em. This song, released at the end of last century, is a great document for those studying Clinton-era optimism; the premise of the song is that the president has gotten rid of all the player haters, and there is now a holiday commemorating the day. The video takes place on a yacht.

22. Mac Dre f/ Mac Mall & Miami the Most "Stupid Doo Doo Dumb"

Year: 1998
Produced By: K Lou
Album: Stupid Doo Doo Dumb
Label: Romp Records
 

Peppered with manic adlibs from Dre's erstwhile, aging sidekick Miami the Most—who claimed he was dropped in glitter as an infant—"Stupid Doo Doo Dumb" is exemplary of the kind of music Mac Dre was putting out after being released from jail on pizza parlor robbery charges, but before he started doing lots of ecstasy. It's still gangsta-rap influenced, but it's starting to get goofy. Also, this would be, I think, the last time Mac Dre and Mac Mall would appear together on a song until their beef-squashing reunion album Da U.S. Open with Andre Macassi and Mall Macenroe.

21. The Jacka "Barney (More Crime)"

Year: 2005
Produced By: Maki (4)
Album: The Jack Artist
Label: The Artist Records
 

In the middle of the last decade, a new sound started to come out of the small, quasi-suburban city of Pittsburg, in the Northeast Bay Area. Jacka and Husalah, members of the Mob Figaz, were putting out gangsta rap with a conscious aftertaste, often including moody, sing-songy hooks. "Barney (More Crime)" is arguably the best example of this sound; it retains a certain Bay Area silliness—calling purple weed Barney, for instance—but still manages to be a deeply emotional song. That is no easy task.

20. Celly Cel "It's Goin Down"

Year: 1995
Produced By: Tone Capone
Album: Killa Kali
Label: Jive/Sic-Wid-It
 

Vocoder, deep bubbly bass, and an 808: you can practically see the palm trees vibrating in the rear view's reflection, Celly Cel's jheri curl dripping on the leather of his headrest. Some songs are tough to explain because they're just perfect.

19. Del "Mistadobalina"

Year: 1991
Produced By: Boogiemen
Album: I Wish My Brother George Was Here
Label: Elektra
 

Ice Cube's cousin, Del the Funkee Homosapien, clearly inherited his family's talent on the mic, but also took things in a different direction, favoring laid-back lyricism over the righteous anger that characterized so much of Cube's catalog at that time. On this track, Del kicks three verses handily clowning on some square named Bob Dobalina, over a jazzy breakbeat. Few songs have more bogus backstories than Del's "Mistadobalina." There never was anyone named Bob Dobalina, he's just a stand-in for the typical second-person sucker that so many rap songs depend on. The name, in fact, comes from a sample of The Monkees' song "Zilch."

18. Lil Bruce "Mobbin in my Old School"

Year: 1994
Produced By: Studio Ton
Album: XXXtra Manish
Label: Jive/Sic-Wid-It
 

Little Bruce may be the most slept-on rapper from Vallejo, an "itty bitty city" of about 100,000 that probably leads the nation in slaps per capita. This track, off of his debut album, XXXtra Manish, is an ode to another Bay Area rap tradition: doing stupid shit with cars. While Jay-Z would reserve this Isaac Hayes sample for his thoughtful "Can I Live?," a couple years earlier Studio Ton and Little Bruce made an infectious hook about 23109 violations (CA police code for exhibition of speed, also the title of a popular sideshow DVD) .

17. JT The Bigga Figga "Game Recognize Game"

Year: 1993
Produced By: JT the Bigga Figga
Album: Playaz N the Game
Label: Get Low Recordz
 

JT the Bigga Figga, from San Francisco's Fillmore District, embodies both the best and worst of the independent entrepreneurial nature of Bay Area rap music. He released all of his own music, even a book on how to become a successful black CEO—called Black Wall Street, that would somehow become The Game's ill-fated label—but little other than "Game Recognize Game" is all that memorable today. Of course it's the lesson of the song that you have to respect what JT did, so in that spirit, Get Low to this one next time you hear it.

16. Mac Mall "Let's Get A Telly"

Year: 1996
Produced By: Khayree
Album: Untouchable
Label: Relativity
 

One of many Macs from northern Vallejo, Mall was far more popular in the '90s than Dre ever was, and managed to avoid beef with 40's Sic-Wid-It Records, from the south side of Vallejo (though he didn't manage to avoid having a brief beef with Mac Dre himself). While his first record, Illegal Business?, is an undeniable classic, this track off of his sophomore effort, Untouchable, was a bigger hit for being, well, better. Khayree produced this track, and much of the biggest non-E-40 hits out of Vallejo in the early '90s. Over Khayree's keyboard and blown-out synths, Mall picks up freaks from a house party. It also includes the unfortunate phrase "hands on her cock."