City of Stars
S1: You are now listening to Meridian Arts and Arts.
S2: The story you're about to hear is true. It takes place in the wild world of rap , and contains mature content that may not be appropriate for all audiences , like NWA said.
S3: Parental discretion is advised.
UU: New York , San Diego move.
S4: And dance like yayo. Nobody move to Capitol Hill to be safe. So we keep it young and cherry as best available. We got that big money now we got a gang , Wu-Tang. We cut your face up. So come in peace or y'all might have to leave in peace.
S2: Peace , y'all. My name is Parker Edison. I'm an artist , and I'm fascinated by the impact of rap writers. Hip hop's 50th anniversary yielded a ton of articles and interviews on the subject. Being the black rap nerd that I am. I started to notice certain cities have something about their contribution that makes them unique. San Diego was one of those cities for a couple of reasons. I played my shows all over the country. Many a night has been spent in a van , taxi or green room with my crew and a shouting match about where S.D. sits in the world of rap and why I tapped in with some of those close friends I've been discussing rap with , and we put together this series to break it down for you. I'm gonna map the whole thing out , but here's the deal. This isn't the history of hip hop. This isn't a complete timeline , but it is what happened ? Some details will be left out when we talk about two live crew fighting for freedom of speech. We don't name all the other albums that could have been censored that year. Keep that in mind while you're listening to this. This is about San Diego rap and the incredible way it got where it is today. You ready ? Let's go. This is a San Diego story. Ghost story ? Your story. This episode brings us into the 20 tens , where the music industry has just undergone a major transformation due to the impact of Napster , the ability for average Joes to trade music with each other. We can record labels dramatically , making it possible for an unsigned rapper like Soulja Boy to use indie platforms like YouTube and other early digital media to gain widespread attention. This episode opened with a track from DJ intros 2007 Still Smoking mixtape featuring Wu-Tang , a collab that could only come about in this new lawless landscape. Back in episode eight , you were introduced to Arthur DJ Artistic Mitchell , locally known and internationally respected. He can testify to how wild things could get.
S5: Hey , this is DJ artistic Art Mitchell , San Diego best DJs , no circuit DJs and I'm so happy to be here with you on this beautiful day. So there was a place called The Loft , and I remember one spring break or something like that. They had killer priests performing their killer pieces , rocking and performing. And then there's , um , Mike on the stage , like on the ground , like with the cable attached to it. This guy like picks up the the mic. You know , he's like , yo yo you know what I'm saying ? Yo , I honor the Wu-Tang clan. I'm gonna honor these guys when I chop their head off. So they kind of stopped the music and this guy , like , gets up on the stage and it's like , well , what ? What's up ? This guy kicks the verse. We're like , ooh , kill a priest kicks the verse. Like , oh , this guy kicks the verse. We're like , oh , okay , kill a priest kicks a verse. We're like , okay. Then this guy kicks the verse and we're like , okay , it's on now. And then that's when Killer Priest did the , uh , rhyme that he does off of Jesus album , A judge wisely , uh , Two Pillars of Ivory and that guy that took the microphone jumped up on stage and went three rounds with killer priests at the loft with Black Mikey.
S4: It's not two bro. Friends stick together like super glue , making it for deep when jealousy and envy joins the crew , beginning to star the rumors about me. Smut to the fifth beat. My Jesus. Mikey , Mikey is on. Sean. Mikey stay drunk. But all this is said behind my back because they're punks. Man , I'm getting sick and tired of Jerry Springer trick , so I got a bully with him.
S2: D.J. artistic mention renowned rapper Black Mikey , a figure who's known by everyone you've heard from so far. Hailing from south east San Diego , Mikey spent his early teens running the streets and dodging police. A dedicated music fan , he unearthed his talent for rapping in 1990 during his first recording session. He's consistently released music since then and is still regarded as one of the city's most gifted emcees. The night with Wu-Tang took place at a downtown venue known as The Loft. I'll elaborate on it. In the second half of the show , I want to highlight some other happenings real quick. Back in episode seven , we introduced you to rapper producer Mr. Brady , who played a pivotal role in the town's glow up.
S1: Beat maker , Mr. Brady.
S6: Okay , the ASR convention downtown , that was a convention center and it was like clothing line. So all the all the big clothing , like independent clothing was back then. It was huge , just like cotton art. And I think I want to say tribal and then a whole bunch of people , but it was like a lot of skate , a lot of skate companies , a lot of independent , like clothing lines. But it's very hip hop oriented. In a lot of skaters. It was like combined. So it had so many people come in from all over the world , you know , at the time. So it was dope for Diego and like everybody would come out , you know what I'm saying ? And I'll never forget this , though. One year I was walking through the convention center and I heard some dude rapping. I was like , who's that ? They're like , are these dude named Tupac ? And they're like , oh , he's gotta be big one day or some shit. And he was rapping and shit and it was , it was Tupac in the booth. His bust in his deejay , artistic.
S5: So Deep Rooted was actually formed with Brady and Zohar. We had a collective urban ministry , and I can remember us opening up for Wu-Tang clan at fourth and be pass that Jailhouse and Brady started working together and they worked on some music and stuff. And Brady , like Joe , has , you know what I mean ? From the stuff that we did and Brady was a beast on the beats and stuff. And so they ended up kind of like working together. And then I believe Jo has met Brie , and then Brie did a couple songs and then they like , did some songs , and daemon was actually like , you know , helping them record it and doing some stuff like that. And then after they kind of did a project , they later on came to me and was like , yo , Art , you know , what do you do ? You want to be in the group. You know what I mean ? I was like , yeah , cool. You know , I I'll , I'll play my role and do what I can do. So that's kind of how I got involved in the group. They asked me , uh , to be a part of the group. And then , you know , we all pulled our resources together and we were able to have some success and accomplish some things as a team. Okay.
S7: Okay. Um , let me ask you this.
S5: Y'all.
S6: It's been a long time. Never left you. It's deep rooted back. Far better bless you in a national war. While taking it. We saw real with it of the South taking it. It's that far be all you feel it in your heart. Just like the innocent. And let the chronic spoil you. Do what every day beats a while I'm sure. Finally find our way. This is it. Your Illuminati. Lemonade. Illuminati ? Yeah. Drop a message and we still rock. Applauded. Come on.
S2: Deep rooted garnered national attention when their music video aired on MTV. On a local level , they secured the title of Best Hip Hop Album at the 2009 San Diego Music Awards. The group further solidified their success by winning Best Hip Hop at the 2010 VMAs , and made history as the first hip hop group to perform at the event. These experiences exemplify the remarkable journey rap has taken , evolving from basic 2 or 3 person performances in available spaces to rocking club stages , dominating TV and radio airwaves. I tell you what. We're gonna take a quick break so Chris can cue up a couple clips. We'll be right back. Sit tight. Welcome back. In our first half , we heard about a wild Wu-Tang moment. And I said I'd give you the science on the place where it happened. By now , you're fully aware how the underground improv was a hot spot for freestyle rap in the 90s and the 2000 , a new iteration popped up in downtown San Diego.
S8: You know what I mean ? Yeah , that's how we started out. At least pack of blacks and , um , TJ short for that guy. Pack of blacks as well. We first started out here. What was that , 2000 ? I think that was 2000. We started out. Yeah. Yeah. And still rocking. You know what I'm saying ? Here we are 24 years later.
S2: Just so I got it cuz run down a couple cats that you've worked with in your production life.
S8: I want to say , uh , you know , E-40. Uh , Nipsey Hussle. Now ? Of course. Yo , you know what I'm saying ? Andra day. Uh , and , uh , sugar free cocaine. Correct. Man , I don't want to leave nobody out. But , man , I probably could go on.
S2: We don't have time.
S8: We don't have one.
S2: I'm appreciating it. Um , this is a random one. Tell me about the loft.
S9: I can't remember how we found it , but we used to hang out downtown all the time. We were just going out there , you know , freestyling , rapping , hanging out , drinking , you know , doing the young thing. It was like a a room with , like a place with a bunch of computers you can use. But then they did open mic. It just kept growing and growing. I think it was already going. We found it and pretty much it kind of came where we kind of got ourselves together , found a name , used to sign up and go up there and perform , and it kind of it got pretty big. It was really eclectic. Everything , every all kind of different styles. But we kind of honed ours and we were able to like , we came up with the name there. We we were driving there , we got our kind of got broken in. You know , being on stage and , you know , building a rapport with the people coming to see us and stuff like that. So they got pretty big. We got involved in and it was , you know , pushing it and flyers and so on. You know , it was a good little situation. Uh.
S2: Initially , who was running it ? Layla.
S8: Layla. Shout out to Layla Aziz.
S2: Layla Aziz has been a key player on the scene from day one , constantly elevating. She's expanded out of the realm of rap and carved out a niche in social justice , specifically in the space of black and brown politics. We want to get her for an interview , but as I speak , she's prepping for a public convo with legendary feminist philosopher and cultural icon Angela Davis. I've never been so proud of being turned down.
S8: She was the ringleader because before that we was just doing open mics. When ? When Layla. When Layla got there as the first female of the crew. You know what I mean. Mhm. Uh , she that's when we actually started putting things together to open up the open mic and do it ourselves. I heard the loft.
S2: Was attempting to stream content at that time. I stream live episodes.
S8: We were streaming at that time. Uh , you know , I mean , that's that's before streaming was big , right ? Shout out to my dude John Martin. He , uh , they were streaming at that time to somewhere. Wow. You know , but I do remember that. Wow. That's huge. Yeah , it was.
S9: It was , it was big , man. Like , it was real good.
S2: We have this argument of whether or not San Diego is backpack or gangster.
S8: As a producer and being in the studio , you know , you get a lot more , you know , gangster rap than you do , you know , lyrical rap. Anytime when you're in day go , I mean , shoot , let's just think about it right now. I mean , our lead dude is Mitchie. You know what I'm saying ? It's hard to not follow suit when you have someone who's already been so successful in that path. You know what I'm saying ? So I know guys who were , you know , who were doing lyrical rap back then , now who are gangsta. It's not too far separated because all of these people who do gangsta rap now and who were lyrical then , they came from those communities. And , you know , that's what that's really what it is.
S2:
S8: Most of the people that you'll meet from Dago ain't from Diego. Mhm. There's so many different sounds Indigo you know , and that's , that's a lot of the reason why you're able to learn so much from other people without going anywhere else. You know what I'm saying ? Because you , you , you got all of these people right here in front of you.
S2: Remember that list of things that makes us different ? One San Diego rap life and San Diego street life weren't very close.
S10: Together to.
S2: San Diego.
S10: Has a knack for being criminally ahead of the mainstream. Three SD wrappers ten XL. Because our art and business acumen are often equally sharp for our love hate relationship with record labels. Five we're always in the right place because of our proximity to LA. We learn the way they do things and acknowledge that as the standard.
S2: Here's number six. Nowhere except Boston gets traffic like us. There's only one other place similar to us in the world of rap , and I have it on good authority that this fact influences our approach and the way we operate.
S11: My name is Dart Adams. I'm a historian , fact checker , researcher , journalist. I appear in documentaries , a lot of films , fact check books , any project , film , television. They want to get a timeline or facts straight about whether it be sports , the music industry , black music , continuum , anything I'm the guy to come to.
S10: Where does San Diego.
S2:
S11: So when I think about the San Diego scene , we thought it was just like , you know , black folks from , you know , the West Coast , what have you. But it's the time passed on and rolled out. We started realizing that San Diego was a different animal than other spots in California. There was a lot of Chicano acts , like , for instance , um , the first guys we hear from the SD area is , uh , Night owl , Johnny Z. There's this group called S Tech Tribe. There was a lot of , um , people that were , like , involved in gang culture because it was like a really big gang scene there. I know , like Mitchy Slick , who's from Strong Arm Steady is also from there , you know , of course , on the West Coast , everything is is like very different. Right. So but the thing is that when you grow up in Boston , the thing about Boston is Boston is a transient city. So it's considered a college town. But also it's a it's a media market. So you come here for work. You come here for college , you come here for school , or you move here for whatever reason. Opportunity. So that means that in Boston , we get everybody. We get people from California to get people from down south to get people from the Pacific Northwest. And when they used to come , they used to bring their music.
S2: Dark just shared a mind blowing comparison. I've never considered it until he said it , but Boston and San Diego are so incredibly similar. Boston has MIT , we have UCSD University. Their big brother is New York , ours. Los Angeles Canadian writer Alex Kuchma from Underground Vault said he was getting underground rap from two spots , one in San Diego and the other in Boston.
S12: When I mentioned hip hop shops , you guys had access hip hop. Like , if we're really going back to like my first introductions to San Diego rap , having the only two ways of acquiring music in Canada , being underground hip hop. Com and access hip Hop San Diego , it was San Diego and Boston. Those are the two places I could buy rap music.
S2: The perks of being a central hub are a reoccurring theme that we hear in the responses we get from guests. For example , in this interview with writer Jay Smith , talent manager and show promoter Tim. Time is money. Richardson speaks on labels , breaking new artists here.
S4: What artists were coming through , you know , at that time period.
S5: From big artists on down to small. So it was like , uh , like we introduced Mach ten before people really knew who Bakhtin was rapping Forte. Digable.
S4: Digable.
S5: Planets , Jeru the.
S4: Wu-Tang , you know , Big Pun.
S5:
S4: Who they were. Far side who writers , who writers , uh. E-40.
S6: E-40. Just.
S12: Just.
S4: Everybody who pretty much came through , um , because we had every record label. It was weird.
S2: So with all this going on , why isn't San Diego rap official ? Well , that's the thing. Maybe it is and has been all along. Maybe the fact that we have this much to talk about is actually evidence of our constant presence in every stage of hip hop. I say maybe because we're still not looking at the whole picture yet. The season's almost over , but I got a couple more things I want to show you. Like What is San Diego to Live Crew and the Constitution have in common ? Beer. Next week to find out. From Meridian Arts and KPBS. This is episode ten of Wrapped Diego A San Diego Story. In our next episode , we follow artists who stretch their illustrious careers by rereleasing their underground hits and new music. Plus , we revisit a legal case in which a San Diego rapper fought for more than just freedom of speech.
S9: The gun in mind my sense was a mixtape called.
S4: No Safety , which had a cover.
S9: The cover had.
S4: A gun on.
S9: The cover , you know what I'm saying ? Which was.
S4: A metaphor. Obviously they didn't know it was a revolver. Which or revolver has no safety wrap.
S2: Diego is a co-production of KPBS and Meridian Arts. Host and co-creator Parker Edison. Episodes. Written by Jay Smith , Kris Reyes , Don Jaeger , and Stephen Fleck's extra. Special thanks to guest writer Melody Harold. Editing by Platform Collection. Music soundtrack by Monday Adams. Executive producer for KPBS is Lisa Jane Morissette , KPBS director of audio programming and Operations. Technical and operational support provided by KPBS technical producer sound designer Adrian Villalobos and KPBS producer Julio Ortiz Franco. This programming is made possible in part by the KPBS Explore Content Fund. Shout out to no particular order to lyrical groove , sound collage , Don Elway , the knee highs , Adonis the Hottest , Marty McFly , Quang Vu , SD raps Serge recognize in casino's YouTube page. See how soon.
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S11: To the hard rock. From the center of the grid. Like the Allspark. Ever changing , ever turned in. You got used to be under construction.
S4: Till we get to maximum safe distance. If you think.
S11: That God of the owl shaft is come when the grease pops up , beat them like slots. Or even just a copper pot to the body.
S4: Drops to nobody talks no longer. Feel the urge to impart wisdom. They don't listen. I'd rather dismember your anatomy and revel in the decomposition we take ridiculous lounge.
S11: With the meticulous eviscerate thoughts like.
S4: Burn it down synthesis. Severed appendages lay strewn across limitless pages that resemble your forehead. When the hemorrhaging gotta temper. Flip the receptacle and ended up injured the whole equation equally and return to sender.
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S4: In the Iceman , we keep it thorough , like a neurosurgeon playing operation. Which sounds funny , but we're nothing to play with. Like Doctor Giggles , you need to be Jeffrey Leary , like Dahmer. Looking for vitals ? Check the answer to the riddle. No soul in the middle. Red cat with a bad dribble that got smacked. The bits and kibbles. We got it on. Smash like beef in a form and griddle. You suck like a Bissell. Keep knocking on the squad like a missile is whatever they put in the fire. When they created Aids. I don't care anymore. Like Germans on London Air race. Wherever it's hitting. Sketch said it's time for frosty to get them. So spitting at them like I was splitting the atom a venomous 40. You knew eventually I'd have more to say. Mortified because of what I personify more everyday. What's more , I don't play like Charlie Whitehurst on Sunday. I make sense like Korean Nike factory workers pay.
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