Bay Area rap history circa 92 – one of the earliest Peanut Butter Wolf related productions before he  was called Peanut Butter Wolf (PBW) was in 1992 when a young (pre Charizma affiliated) “Chris Cut” was doing engineering production for The Siggnett Posse from San Jose. In the video above DJ Marz talks about getting the crew’s tape back in the day that also had a vinyl release. Marz also recalls many legendary Bay rap spots in the reminisce clip that should make ol skool Bay fools smile in recognition. As far as the music (all good) among my faves is the opening song on Side A of the tape “Get Right To It (J-Wa nz + D-Flat)” which has a a funky distinctly Bay Area sound (a little APG and a little RBL sounding), The release was on Both Sides of the Bay label. It was recorded in Venus Studio San Jose. Talking with PBW recently he recalled that, “the lead MC from the group was the nephew of the lead singer of the Village People.” And will there ever be a Siggnett Posse reunion with PBW in the mix? Anything is possible. Start a FB petition and make it happen.

It was eighteen years ago. November 7th, 1992 – the Saturday after the Democrats had won the election – and Chuck D and Public Enemy were in Oakland performing at the Coliseum opening for U2. After the show I had the opportunity to sit down with Chuck D who was rap’s most consistant social/political observer at the time. I asked him if he thought that there would be any real changes with the (then) new changes in the US power structure with George H Bush out and Bill Clinton in and many other topical subjects for 1992 including his thoughts on Ice Cube, the Malcolm X movie soundtrack, and his old (pre PE) group’s music being used in a film without his blessing. The interview was originally published in the BOMB Hip-Hop magazine. Here is the interview exactly as it was conducted.

Billy Jam: Will there be any change with Bill Clinton as president instead of Bush?

Chuck D. I think it could’t get any worse .The Bush administration has been in effect for the last twelve years Reagan, Bush whatever you want to call it. I think that right now you got a person that made a lot of promises. so I think there’ll be pressure on him to live up to his promises so that’s got to be better than somebody that just basically said, ‘well, nah we ain’t gonna do that’.

Billy Jam: With homelessness, AIDS and everything getting increasingly out of hand do you think that a nineties revolution is quite likely?

Chuck D: Well I think it’ll get a lot worse before it gets better, because you got all the momentum from all that BS in the past so right now what the Clinton administration has to do is really like roll up their sleeves and get down to the nitty gritty and tell people that ‘ There ain’t gonna be no overnight fix’. – definetely not in this system. It got too many holes in this system. If there was really a revolution, what kind kind of revolution is it gonna be ? Is it going be for the better or is it going to be for the worse?So basically everybody got to be able to get to the table and that’s what I guess maybe the Clintion administration will offer, is that more people will be at the table trying to think out the situation rather than it be a little closed circle of elite for the elite and keep the money for the elite.

Billy Jam: Do you think that racisim in America will ever go away?

Chuck D: I don’t know I’ can’t predict the future right now. Will it go away in the next ten years? No, but people have to be educated. Right now people are trained and education is the next step. We’ve got to erase the training process People are trained pretty much like dogs, you know what I’m saying? So right now education could really turn a lot of people’s beliefs around and also you have to have a situation where the money is overturned from the rich down to the poor so everybody can have something and it just can’t happen just in this country , it has to be a worldwide thing too. People of color are catching hell all over and when they revolt there is usually a lot of death and bloodshed involved in their revolution. One thing that this administration offers is hope that everybody getting to the table and everybody airing out their problems so people could begin working on the solutions.

Billy Jam: Do you think that hip-hop culture, including rap and movies such as Boyz In The Hood and the recent Malcolm X are educating middle America?

Chuck D: Entertainment and the arts has been the thing that made white America 25 and under aware of a lot of situations that we have . That’s the difference, when before the arts and entertainment of Black people was limited in our anger. Now the arts and entertainment that we express has a lot of anger in it so it’s that combination of the Malcolm X and the Panther parties of the sixties that basically took it to the pulpit into speeches and now you’re
basically hearing it in entertainment which goes around the world so that that voice has to come out and it’s coming out by whatever means necessary.

Billy Jam: Speaking of Spike Lee’s Malcolm X. You were asked to do the theme song first, before Arrested Developement, true?

Chuck D: Of course, very true but because the was a conflict between Spike and the Nation (of Islam) I didn’t want to be in the middle of it. I didn’t want to get in a conflict of interest – nothing against Spike but I have my priorities and I have my own rules So when I finally got clearence I was like – well damn , what should I do? But I didn’t have enough time so I didn’t reach the deadline. I will say this though, me and Spike are still close as we ever can be. That was just a whole creative situation and I would say that when Spike made his selection with Arrested Development that he couldn’t have made a better selection. With us it would have been like ‘ yeah,here we go again’ but with Arrested Development it shows that Spike is on the cutting edge of what’s happening now . I like whatever they do because I think that they are one step ahead of a lot of other groups out there and I think Spike couldn’t have made a better choice even if he picked us. I’m just being a man and saying that as it is.

Billy Jam: Now a movie soundtrack that you, or rather your original band Spectrum City, are on is South Central. How do you feel about that 1984 recording being out there?

Chuck D: It was stupid. It was a just a record company that went and bought the rights of something that I did before and just wanted to sell a soundtrack and try to exploit me and I don’t know if I should sue ‘em or not but I would love to get a chance to sue ‘em when I get some time. When I stop touring I’ll start suing!

Billy Jam: Do you like Ice Cube’s new single “Wicked”

Chuck D: Yeah, I like it a whole lot. I like his album a whole lot cos he’s takin a step in another direction and people have got to understand that this is a music that will be judged later. It can’t be judged right now. It’s a music that’s too big to be judged now. Too many people are judging it for it’s present and forgetting about it’s past and always trying to guess it’s future and no music should have to go through that. The present should be enjoyed. The past should be appreciated and revered and the future should always be like – okay it’s only nothing but more exciting things to happen…..Hip-hop has to always be able to last, to always be able to try different things, to go in different areas, and still it must be able to bring people up. The problem is is that if it doesn’t bring people up it’s going to push people down. And if it push peoples down, people going to push it out.

Billy Jam: What about the future for you? What’s next?

Chuck D: Well, it’s been six years. We’ve continually been travelling. We’ve been around the world four times, 36 countries, 22 tours going on another one after this one’s over and I got to stop touring!…..What I want to do personally is a talk show similar to Larry King. That’s what turns me on. Maybe that or broadcasting sports or something like that.

With the omnipresent heavy editorializing of the current so-called “24 hour news cycle” with Cable News stations that appear to be less about objective reporting and more about over-simplified, eye-catching headlines it seems that the average newspaper reader is even less bothered by the circulation hungry, attention grabbing, sensationalist headlines (and content) of today’s tabloid newspapers.

Personally I am not shocked since I have no expectations. Instead it is with glee and much delight that I indulge in absorbing the liberties of so many of these so-called “news” outlets take these days with their editorializing. Best of all has to be the two main NYC tabloid dailies – the Daily News and the New York Post.

About a week or so ago one heading in the Daily News about a stabbing in Long Island had this glaring headline: “Knife-wiedling goons stab S.I. teen to death.” Goons? Talk about colorful language and talk about innocent until proven guilty! Ha ha ha. Of course the Murdoch (he of FOX News etc) owned New York Post is even worse, or better (in terms of guilty pleasures) when it comes to vivid language that veers far a field from objective reporting. 

One weekday about two months ago in the New York Post’s NYPD Daily Blotter five borough crime report, written by Jamie Schram and Matthew Nestel, under the Brooklyn section was this colorfully report of the scurrying, armed, pistol packing, i-Phone jacking, 11 muggings, creeping thug of a prowling punk. Wow! Have you ever read so much colorful language in so few words? Anyway here is the actual report as it was published:

Brooklyn–An armed thug prowling Bed-Stuy is responsible for 11 muggings in the last month, cops said yesterday.
The punk always strikes from behind, displaying a pistol before snatching loot and scurrying away.

The first attack took place at 7:40 p.m. on Dec. 9 on Macon Street near Nostrand Avenue. The robber crept up and threatened, “Give me your iPhone,” before snatching the device and fleeing on foot. Most recently, the punk mugged two people on Putnam Avenue and another on Hancock Street on Jan. 5, each time escaping with their wallets. The attacks took place 10 minutes apart just after 6 p.m.

Published in the Source magazine issue number 19 (March/April 1991) this is the Hip-Hop Slam Top Ten Chart from Feb 1991 – a time when the weekly Hip Hop Slam radio show broadcast on KUSF San Francisco. This chart included the still amazing sounding Tragedy/Intelligent Hoodlum track “Arrest The President” plus Bay Area/NorCal joints from the likes of Paris, Consolidated,  Homicide,MC Tom Slick, Audi & Mike Dee, Diceman P + DJ Ronski (the pick hit) and Digital Underground with the number one song (“Same Song”) that featured a then hardly known rapper called 2Pac. 

1) “Same Song” Digital Underground

2) “Dead Homiez” Ice Cube

3) “Step In The Arena” Gang Starr

4) “The Hate That Hate Made” Paris

5) “To My Donna” YBT

6) “Gots To Be Faithful” Audi & Mike Dee

7) “Arrest the President” Intelligent Hoodlum

8} “This Is A Collective” Consolidated

9) “The Melody” Homicide

10) “Crime Story” MC Tom Slick

PICK HIT: “Tommy Said” Diceman P & DJ Ronski

This review written by Billy Jam of the (then new) Bay Area Playaz compilation appeared in the underground Bay Area rapzine No Joke in its November 1995 issue back  when Mr Cee of RBL was still alive (he was killed on New Years Day 1996 about seven weeks after this was published) and when the most prolific Bay Area rap scene was at a real high point in both popularity and creativity. It was a different time for many reasons including the fact that people still bought (not download for free) their music – a time when CDs were popular but so too were cassettes and (to a lesser degree in terms of Bay rap releases) records.
  

Bay Area Playaz, the much anticipated compilation    about to drop from Anonymous Records, is the  ultimate Bay Area rap compilation containing as it  does, the best rappers and producers from the greater  Bay Area all delivering their very best (all original)  tracks! This impressive playlist, which tops all the  previously released Bay Area compilations, reads like a  who’s who of Bay Area rap. It includes triple-dope tracks from the likes of RBL Posse, Knumskull of the Luniz, JT The Bigga Figga, Master P and TRU, The Delinquents, Totally Insane, Guce, Sean T, GLP, Young Cellski, Hitman, The Link Crew, Mr. El, Sh’killa and talented newcomers, Street Thugs, whose song “Deep In The Game” could well be an underground smash.

From start to finish, Bay Area Playaz is one of those records that grabs your attention and never lets go. “It’s the sort of tape that you never want to hit fast forward on,” enthused project producer T. Cee. One of the reasons for this is the variety of sounds found on Bay Area Playaz courtesy of the various producers such as K-Lou, DJ Fuze, Cellski, Sean T, The Enhancer and JT.

With preview demo copies of Bay Area Playaz already a hot item on the rap underground circuit, pundits are picking their favorite tracks. Most seem to agree that RBL Posse, the popular Hunters Point duo comprised of Black C and Mr. Cee, have delivered one of their best tracks with “Miz Me” while the fun and cleverly scripted “Captain Wreck-A-Hoe” from Knumskull has already become other’s clear favorite on the compilation. Another crowd pleaser is the instantly engaging JT The Bigga Figga’s “X-Filez” which is also a tribute to KMEL, the station that helped launch the Fillmore rapper and his crew (the GLP) to national fame and fortune.

Another Priority Records artist, Richmond’s Master P and his posse TRU, also deliver some of their best work with the track, “I’m A Gee.” Other standout tracks include East Oakland power duo The Delinquents killer track “Can’t Be Stopped,” The Link Crew’s “The World In My Eyes” which is the album’s first single, East Palo Alto rapper Sean T’s “M Dash One” and Hitman’s “Everyday.” Bay Area Playaz is definitely the ultimate Bay Area rap compilation.

INSANE & D-MACK's Released in late 1995 by In It Fo Da Money Records

14 years ago, back in 1996 Hip Hop Slam was in the midst of producing the “Pirate Fuckin Radio” show – a 100 part underground, micro-broadcast radio series that was heard on such stations as Free Radio Berkeley, SF Liberation Radio, Free Radio Santa Cruz, KBUD Mendicino, 89.1FM Seattle, Flavor 919, and 909 The Bomb in Miami. Not surprisingly the focus was on Bay Area hip-hop of all styles. Here is the chart from almost exactly 14 years ago – from the week ending February 27, 1996 which included such releases as (in the #39 slot) the cassette full-length pictured above – by Insane & D-Mack “Lookin’ Fo Da DOPEMAN” which was released in late ‘95 on Fresno indie rap label In It Fo Da Money Records.

HIP HOP SLAM BAY AREA TOP 50 (2/27/96) (*=New Release)

1) 2Pac “All Eyez On Me” (Death Row)
2)* IMP “Ill Mannered Playas” (In-A-Minute)
3) Richie Rich “Half Thang” (41510/Shot)
4) Peanut Butter Wolf “Step On Our Ego” (South Paw)
5) Lil Gangsta P “meet the lil gangsta” (Erin)
6) The Dangerous Crew various (Dangerous/Jive)
7) Askari X “Message To The Black Man” (Slow Motion)
8  Hobo Junction “E.P.” (South Paw)
9) Various “The Dark Side EP” (Tough Street)
10) MadFace “Black Attracts Heat” (Corn Field)

11) Rappin’ 4-Tay “Aint No Playa” (Rag Top/Chrysalis)
12) The Click “Game Related” (Jive)
13) Conscious Daughters “Gamers” 12″ (Priority)
14) N.O.A. “forilla” (120)
15) Various ³”Bay Area 4080 Nation Wide” (promo-only tape)
16) Dr Octagon (feat Q-Bert) “Dr Octagonocologyst” (Bulk)
17) The Solesides Crew Presents (Solesides tape)
18)* Celly Cel “It’s goin’ down” (Sick Wid It/Jive)
19) The M.O.B.B. ³never trust them h*¹s² (Bounce)
20) Spice 1 “1990 Sick” (Jive)

21)* Funky Aztecs feat 2Pac “Slipping Into Darkness” (Conspiracy)
22) Kinfolks various (Extortion)
23) Game Related “Soak Game” (Big K)
24) JT The Bigga Figga “Dwellin’ in the Labb” (Get Low/Priority)
25) Suga T “Recognize” (Sick Wid It/Jive)
26) Get Low Playaz (GLP) “What we known fo” (Get Low)
27) Ironic “De Vallejo” (Conspiracy)
28) Tabb Doe “Reality Check” (Incognito)
29) Underground Rebellion “A-1Immaculate Funktism” (Treasure Line)
30) Souls of Mischief ³No Man’s Land² (Jive)

31)* Milkman feat Da Goonz “It’s on” (Major Music)
32)* Sacred Hoop demo tape (Miasmatic)
33) Silent Cries From The Ghetto/The Soundtrack various (Trigga Happy)
34)* Gansta Rhyme Posse “Skunk” (Strapped 4 Life)
35) J. Dubb ³Game Related² (Relentless)
36) Street Thugs “Not to be fu.?ed with” (Snake Pit)
37) Ant Banks (MC Breed) “Money…” (Jive)
38) Totally Insane ³Back Street Life² (In-A-Minute)
39) Insane & D-Mack “Lookin’ Fo The DOPEMAN” (In It Fo Da Money)
40) Tha Dangla (G-Note)

41) Bay Area Playaz various (Anonymous)
42) RBL Posse¹s Hitman ³Solo Creep² (The Right Way)
43)* Marv/Mitch & LeMay “Livin In THa Strange” (Out Tha Drout)
44) Tha Fast 1 (G-Note)
45)* Land Of Da Lost (Lic N’Snot Records)
46) Hook Boog “Kreepin while ya sleepin” (Abyssal Giantism)
48) Marty James “This is how it goes” (Black Diamond)
49) Mr X “One time at the door” (Jungle)
50) Skip Dog “Ist the money,then the power” (BodyBag)