A very good friend of mine, Mr. Billy Jam, recently asked about my memories of Sac-Town hip hop, mainly back-in-the-day thoughts, before the local market was flooded with X-Raided, Brotha Lynch Hung, and C-Bo clones.

Ah, yes, I remember many things.

I remember when I heard the first Sac-Town hip hop artist's song played on the radio that I could recall: It was a "stop the Violence' type of song and it was produced by Cedric Singleton of Black Market Records. There were several rappers on the song, but one of them had an amazing, authoritative voice. His name was even memorable: Homicide. I disliked the song, but I loved Homicide's verse. Everyone else had written about staying out of trouble, just say no, go to school; but Homicide wrote about doing drive by shootings, going to jail, and dying. I could relate. You see, it was 1990, Spring, and I was 15 years old. I was in juvenile hall for gang-related offenses. Homicide spoke of my world. He touched me.

I remember a Sac-Town group named the Phonkee Socialistics who signed a deal with Priority Records, back in 1991. They were rather strange, I thought. They wore gas masks when they performed, and rapped that abstract bullshit, I thought at the time. Yet I was introduced to them by Brotha Lynch Hung in 1992 and one of my greatest memories to recall is a long ride to a house party I took with Lynch and the Socialistics. Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was playing and every last one of us in the car, all artists, all black kids, knew the words to the song. We banged our heads and screamed along with Kurt Cobain, in unison, as we rode to the party. I will never forget the energy I felt that night.

I remember DJ Tantrum, Percy Hunter, who made mixtapes in South Sac-Town. Percy did the beats, all samples laid via turntable mixing recorded on a Yamaha 4-track, with percussion from an Alysses drum machine. Percy's "studio," a far from soundproof, small room in his parents house, became a sanctuary for local artists eager to record songs of any kind or quality so long as their voices were heard. I made dozens of songs there, back in 1990. I remember hearing a song by Hip Hop/R&B group DRS on the radio, "That Gangsta Lean," and listening to their album in shock because they had turned my murderous song from Psycho Active, "That Sickness," into a love song! I was bitten by an R&B group, for Christ's sake! But I liked their songs a bit (pun intended).

I've always felt that Sac-Town rap artists have had unique deliveries and flow patterns, as far as styles of rap are concerned. C-Bo, Lynch, myself. we didn't sound like anyone else's style and flavor. Before us, Bay Area rappers were writing about drug dealing (415, Richie Rich), pimpin' (Too Short, etc), dancing (Hammer), or smokin' pot (MC Pooh). No one was HARD CORE, relentless, gangster with the rhymes until after Psycho Active. Check the dates of releases. The Lunis, 3X Krazy, Spice 1, all of the guys makin' dark music in the Bay started doin' it after the Sac-Town boys came with the Garden Blocc Siccness. We never got credit for that because we were all considered "Bay Area artists," so it was considered a new "Bay sound."

Problem with that is, Sac-Town isn't in the Bay. It's in the valley. River City, cuzzin. If we were not lumped with Bay artists, our influence and impact on Bay artists' music would have been more visible and understood.

Shame.

I remember when there was only one real Hip Hop label in Sac-Town. Black market. That was when creativity was kind, back in the early 90's. Now there are over a dozen labels in south Sac-Town alone. Maybe it's a little too easy to get a recording contract now-a-days. Not many guys are trying to be unique anymore. I am hopeful, though. There are some young guys in Sac Town who are pretty good. Watch out for T-Nutty, No Love, Smigg Dirtee, and The Trauma Unit. I like their unique deliveries.

Yes, when the Sac-Town scene was pure and everyone was broke and hungry.
It was the best of times. it was the worst of times.