15. Andre Nickatina f/ San Quinn "Ayo"

Year: 2002
Produced By: Andre Nickatina
Album: Andre Nickatina and Nick Peace Present: Hell's Kitchen
Label: Million Dollar Dream

Andre Nickatina (nee Dre Dog) teams up with fellow Fillmore MC San Quinn for this ode to the perils of cocaine abuse. Nickatina quit the powder some time in the '90s, toning down his cocaine-rage sound to a more marijuana-influenced one. Ironically, this song is incredibly popular with sorority chicks and fraternity bros who do cocaine.

14. E-40 f/ Suga T "Sprinkle Me"

Year: 1995
Produced By: Mike Mosely, Sam Bostic
Album: In a Major Way
Label: Jive/Sic-Wid-It

40 and his sister go back and forth over a lighthearted Sam Bostic beat, providing a bit of levity to 40's only perfect album: In a Major Way. This album is so perfect, in fact, that despite its popularity, "Sprinkle Me" might be one of the weaker tracks on it. That said, E-40 laces the listener with plenty of game on this one, including a new place to hide a 40—your ballcap.

13. Too $hort "Freaky Tales"

Year: 1987
Produced By: T. Bohanon, Too $hort
Album: Born to Mack
Label: Jive/Dangerous Music

Before Todd Shaw made a name for himself by cussing, he did so by telling his "Freaky Tales." He would later reprise this with "Freaky Tales 2," "More Freaky Tales," and, of course, "Cocktales." Never once does Too $hort explain what "TP treatment" is, but if you think really hard about it, you can probably figure it out.

12. 2Pac f/ Digital Underground "I Get Around"

Year: 1993
Produced By: D-Flow Production Squad
Album: Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z.
Label: Interscope

2Pac, before he was 2Pac, was a dancer for Digital Underground. Here, he teams back up with his old road dogs, and tones down the self-seriousness that characterized so much of his catalog, instead chasing tail, and partying poolside. On this ode to "No Strings Attached" sex, Tupac even manages to reference WWII-era propaganda—"loose lips sink ships." Pac and the Underground go a little easier on the ladies than, say, Too $hort might have, but the Bay Area player mentality is strong here. Also, we learned that Money B drinks Michelob.

11. The Federation "Hyphy/Hyphy Remix"

Year: 2004
Produced By: Rick Rock
Album: The Federation
Label: Virgin
The Federation "Hyphy"

The Federation f/ E-40 "Hyphy (Remix)"

While "Super Hyphy" might be the track that launched Hyphy music on to a larger-than-regional stage, The Federation—from Fairfield, which is just barely part of the Bay Area—kicked things off a few years earlier over this scat-inflected Rick Rock beat. The beat, in fact, was supposed to go to Mistah FAB, leading to a minor intra-Bay beef between Fabby and the Federation that no one ever really cared about. The remix to the song with Turf Talk, San Quinn, and Keak da Sneak got countless spins on Bay Area radio, ushering in a new era where local artists actually got airtime on KMEL and KYLD. This, like the FAB/Fed beef, would be short-lived.

10. Dru Down "Pimp of the Year"

Year: 1994
Produced By: Ant Banks/Dru Down
Album: Explicit Game
Label: Relativity

The Bay Area was home to Fillmore Slim, and the setting for 1973's The Mack, and you better believe no local rapper is going to let you forget either fact. This occasionally creepy song was an unlikely hit in the Bay Area in the '90s, toned down to "Mack of the Year," with much of the violence against women removed. Dru Down is one of those people who you can tell, from his voice, that he has a jheri curl.

9. Digital Underground "Humpty Dance"

Year: 1990
Produced By: The Underground
Album: Sex Packets
Label: Tommy Boy

MC Humpty, one of Shock G's many alter-egos, wears Groucho Marx glasses and has his own inscrutable dance that is most likely just fucking. Humpty's buffoonish pimp persona, when placed in Bay Area context, is hard not to read as some form of parody of his contemporaries in Oakland. In any case, the song managed to make lumpy oatmeal and Burger King bathrooms seem somehow obscene.

8. Dre Dog "Smoke Dope and Rap"

Year: 1993
Produced By: T.C.
Album: The New Jim Jones
Label: In-A-Minute Records

Dre Dog's ode to marijuana and cocaine—when put together, in local parlance, "chewy"—is still perfect eighteen years later. The lazy, eerie bassline sample, from The Southside Movement's "I've Been Watching You," encapsulates perfectly the disorienting combination of uppers and downers. This song is so full of excellent one-liners it's hard to keep track, but keep your ears open, and you'll hear the name of one of the most popular hip-hop blogs going these days.

7. Keak da Sneak "Super Hyphy"

Year: 2005
Produced By: Traxxamillion
Album: Dopegame 2
Label: Rah Muzic

This is perhaps the only, truly perfect record to come out of the "Hyphy movement," as it was known in 2006. Traxxamillion's smooth, bouncy beat provides a nice contrast to Keak's Newport-addled rasp, and its hardly weighed down by typical Bay Area pettiness about stolen slang. If you can't tell, on the hook, Keak is saying "I don't think they know that's my word," referring to the word "hyphy," which he coined. It's a portmanteau of "hyper" and "fly." Weren't you happier not knowing that?

6. Mac Dre "2 Hard 4 The F-ckin' Radio"

Year: 1993
Produced By: Khayree
Album: Young Black Brotha
Label: Strictly Business Records

Mac Dre never scored a hit outside of the Bay Area in his fifteen-year career, despite being a hero to everyone from the cuttiest of Oakland dopeboys to the stoniest of Truckee whiteboys. Aside from the prominent use of fuck-words on the hook, this song is hardly that hard—it actually sounds wholesome next to so many other tracks on this list. It's almost as if the hook were written that way to prove a point. Andre Hicks swore off radio play in the early '90s with this song—though this track would get spins as "2 Hard 4 the Funky Radio"—and wouldn't see much airplay until after his tragic death in 2004. Bay Area radio stations KMEL and, to a lesser extent, KYLD have found themselves in and out of Bay Area rapper's good graces—and vice versa—at several points, depending on how much local music they played. Both Too $hort and Mistah FAB recorded KMEL diss tracks at different points in their careers. Mac Dre came around on KMEL later in his career, recording an ode to Morning Show host Chuy Gomez on Al Boo Boo, "Chuy."

5. E-40 f/ The Click "Captain Save A Hoe"

Year: 1994
Produced By: E40/Studio Ton
Album: The Mail Man
Label: Jive

This song is an odd blend of misogyny and excellent family values. E-40, his sister Suga T, his brother D-Shot, and his cousin B-Legit trade rhymes about what a bad idea it is to spend money on women. In Vallejo, it IS trickin' if you got it, and E-40 created an excellent superhero character to mock this sort of behavior. E-40 would later introduce Lieutenant Roast-a-Botch, who was Captain Save-a-hoe's opposite, while a rapper would adopt the radio edit name "Captain Save Em," as part of Ant Banks' short-lived TWDY group.

4. Souls of Mischief "'93 'Til Infinity"

Year: 1993
Produced By: A-Plus
Album: 93 'til Infinity
Label: Jive

"93 'til Infinity" is an undeniably dope laid-back track from a crew reppin' a city—Oakland—that gets "a little hectic," as they point out in the intro. Despite haling from a place best known for its aggressive gangsta rap and high crime rate, The Hieroglyphics crew provided a nice contrast to all the chaos, cusswords, and sideshows. Making the biggest national impact from Hiero was the four man crew of A-Plus, Opio, Phesto, and Tajai, collectively known as The Souls Of Mischief. Their emphasis on innovative rhyme schemes, and having fun, resonated from coast to coast and was on full display here. Their lyrics were witty, funny, and playful, while their chemistry and ease passing the microphone in mid-verse proved to be irresistible and sounded amazing.

3. Rappin' 4-Tay "Playaz Club"

Year: 1994
Produced By: Franky J, Cyrus Esteban
Album: Don't Fight the Feelin'
Label: Rag Top Records/Chrysalis

Arguably San Francisco's only real nationwide hit, "Playaz Club" is an ode to speakeasys that most likely never existed. 4-Tay imagines a world of dominoes, mink rugs, body rubs, and endless champagne. 3rd and Newcomb, shouted out at the end of the song as the location of Hunters Point's Player's Club, is home to Bayview Liquors. While Bayview Liquors is not a speakeasy, you can still buy San Francisco specialty cocktails there, like Cutty Bangs and What-it-dos: bags of mini-bottles of booze, with special mixers and a red cup. It's a party in a bag.

2. Too $hort "Cusswords"

Year: 1988
Produced By: Todd Shaw
Album: Life is...Too Short
Label: Jive

While East Coast rappers were scared to use cusswords on wax, Too $hort was in Oakland stringing together as many as he could—"motherfuck you damn shithead bitch"—eventually taking credit for making the word "bitch" or "beeyatch" as popular as it is today—which, whatever. This is also probably the first instance of a rapper claiming to have received fellatio from the First Lady, while accusing the president of dealing cocaine. Despite being ahead of his time with regard to cussing, $hort still had an old school attitude towards song length. Having the most raps, or being able to rap the longest, was still considered a worthwhile endeavor. At seven minutes forty-five seconds, with no throwaway lines, "Cusswords" is a whale of a song by today's standards.

1. Luniz "I Got 5 on It/I Got 5 on it Remix"

Year: 1995
Produced By: Tone Capone
Album: Operation Stackola
Label: Noo Trybe Records
Luniz - "I Got 5 On It"

Luniz f/ Too Short, Richie Rich, & E-40 - "I Got 5 On It (Remix)"

Few beats are so inextricably linked to a specific drug in the way that this song's sample of Club Nouveau's "Why You Treat Me So Bad" makes you think immediately of weed—something that made it an odd choice in more recent years, when Diddy sampled it for a heartfelt R&B collabo with R. Kelly, "Satisfy You." A remix featuring every rapper from the Bay Area who mattered at the time—Richie Rich, E-40, Dru Down, Spice 1, and Shock G, but not Too $hort, for he and Yukmouth had a long-standing beef—would be even more popular than the original in The Bay. This is a shame, because Yukmouth and Numskull really get in-depth on the topic of weed smoking etiquette on this track, with the mellifluous Mike Marshall hook as the icing on the cake—there's a lesson in here for everyone. This song was also wildly popular outside of the Bay Area, which is atypical of most Bay rappers' stories (you may have noticed this). Not only did Numskull and Yukmouth bump Michael Jackson from the top of the U.S. charts with this ode to going Dutch on a ten-sack, they also topped the charts in many European countries.

Townbiz

3 years ago

Serious you can tell who ever wrote this was white and from Frisco. I got nothing but love for the City but there were way too many Frisco songs on the list. First Willy Celly Cell and Dru Down didn’t have jheri curls…they were shirly locks (Not saying Shirly’s were better but they are different, if you know anything about anything you would know the difference). Not one 3xKrazy song made the list (Keep it on the Real, Sushine in the O, Hit the Gass just to name a few). Not one Richie Rich or 415 song made the list (Sideshow, Groupie ass bitch, Let’s Ride). Mac Mall had way better songs than ‘Lets get a telly’. What about ‘Sick with dis’, ‘Get Right’. What about Ray Luv’s ‘Gotta get my money on’, 11/5 ‘Gracia Vegas’. E-40’s ‘Sideways’. The mere fact that ‘Sideways’ is nowhere to be found further illustrates this dude lack of Bay Area rap knowledge. Sideways is a top 5 Bay Area rap song hands down.
Other song ommited due to ignorance

The Click – Hurricane, Mr. Flamboyant, Scandalous, Learn About it
Paris – The Devil made me do it
Spice 1 – 187 pure, Welcome to the Ghetto, Young Nigga, Jealous got me strapped, Strap on the side
Too Short – Getting It
Yuckmouth – Still Ballin
Mob Figaz – Hustle in the Rain, Soldiers paradise
5150 – Green and White

suckafree Townbiz
7 months ago
Talkin shit about Frisco then naming frisco songs?

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Saturday, October 26, 2013

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