{"id":446935,"date":"2026-08-29T05:46:47","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T05:46:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/446935\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T05:46:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T05:46:47","slug":"the-summer-of-hyphy-20-years-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/446935\/","title":{"rendered":"The summer of hyphy, 20 years later"},"content":{"rendered":"

Twenty years ago, in 2006, Oakland\u2019s hyphy movement gas, break, dipped<\/a> its way onto the national stage.<\/p>\n

What had been a regional phenomenon became something much more with the release of E-40\u2019s single \u201cTell Me When To Go.\u201d Filmed at various locations in Oakland, including the former 16th Street train station, the East Bay Dragons\u2019 headquarters, Youth UpRising, and Ben\u2019s Burgers, the video\u2019s cinematic look raised the bar for rap videos. Highly stylized and shot in monochromatic black and white, \u201cTell Me When To Go\u201d made Oakland look like an exotic, dynamic and vibrant place, where modern-day griots, dreadlock-shaking Black youth, and classic muscle cars were all part of tribal rituals set to the thumping beats of 808 drums.<\/p>\n

Which honestly wasn\u2019t that far from the truth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Often compared to Southern crunk for its uptempo energy, hyphy music differentiated itself as more than a backdrop for twerking in sweat-filled nightclubs. It was the soundtrack for a lifestyle whose cultural components include hardcore rap music made specifically for highsiding and sideshows; a unique form of movement known as turf dancing; and fashion that emphasized ghetto fabulousness \u2014 oversized sunglasses known as \u201cStunna Shades,\u201d loud-colored hoodies, ball caps, gold grills, and dangly chains.<\/p>\n

Hyphy also had its own coded language. \u201cTell Me When To Go<\/a>\u201d brought slang phrases like \u201cgo dumb,\u201d \u201cgas, break, dip,\u201d \u201cscraper,\u201d and \u201cyadadahmean\u201d into America\u2019s living rooms and commercial radio airwaves. Listeners could live vicariously through the eyes of E-40 sitting in his scraper \u201cwatching Oakland go wild.\u201d<\/p>\n

The song\u2019s anticipatory mood establishes itself through the repetition of the chorus \u201ctell me when to go\u201d and a Run-DMC sample (\u201cdumb, dumb dumb, dumb\u201d) before E-40 begins his narrative:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jesus Christ had dreads, so shake \u2018em
I ain\u2019t got none but I plan on growing some\u00a0
Imagine all the Hebrews going dumb
Sitting on top of chariots and turning tight ones<\/p>\n

The song featured a verse from Oakland rapper Keak Da Sneak, who reportedly originated the term \u201chyphy\u201d \u2014 a contraction of hyperactive \u2014 as a young child and was the first to use it in a rap song. Keak is also credited with originating \u201cfa sheezy,\u201d one of many Bay Area slang terms that soon found its way into wider usage. Keak\u2019s slang usage in \u201cTell Me When To Go\u201d was so prolific it seemed to call for a hood edition of Funk & Wagnalls:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cross game, you get flipped like a burger patty\u00a0
Or zig-zagged, pass me the big ol\u2019 fatty\u00a0<\/p>\n

To say the song\u2019s impact was monumental might be an understatement. It peaked at No. 35 on the Billboard Hot 100, setting up E-40\u2019s \u201cMy Ghetto Report Card\u201d album, which sold 94,000 copies its first week. That single and album have both since been certified platinum.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTell Me When To Go\u201d exemplified a year in which hyphy artists dominated local commercial radio airwaves, urban nightclubs and the streets, raising regional pride and creating expectations of a national resurgence of Bay Area hip-hop.<\/p>\n

An E-40 in-store appearance<\/a> at Emeryville\u2019s Tower Records in March 2006 drew 1,200 people, the overflow crowds spilling out into the parking lot of the Bay Street mall as the Yay Area Ambassador dutifully autographed hundreds of copies of his album with \u201cE-40. 2006. Yee.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Slim, Kada, Bobe, and Kuzzo Fly ghost riding in North Oakland during the filming of MTV\u2019s \u201cMy Block: The Bay\u201d in 2006. Credit: D-Ray<\/p>\n

\"\"Sideshow tricks during a December 2025 video shoot for \u201cTell Me When To Go.\u201d Credit: D-Ray<\/p>\n

A month after the song\u2019s release, MTV premiered \u201cMy Block: The Bay,\u201d a music documentary. Along with segments on E-40, \u201cI Gott Grapes\u201d rapper Nump, and turf dance pioneers the Anamaniakz, the show showcased Oakland talent: \u201cCrown Prince of Hyphy\u201d Mistah F.A.B., \u201cKing of the Super Duper Hyphy\u201d Keak Da Sneak, R&B singer Keyshia Cole, underground hip-hop duo Zion I, and OG pioneer Too $hort, as well as cameos from Town icons Hammer and Hieroglyphics.<\/p>\n

Host Sway, an Oakland native, interviewed Keak \u2014 sporting a white Randy Moss Raiders jersey \u2014 in the rapper\u2019s Walnut Street neighborhood, an area known as the Rolling 100s.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe music takes you there,\u201d Keak told Sway. \u201cI don\u2019t know what it is, but it got you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about hyphy fashion, Keak slyly replied, \u201cT-shirt, jeans, and Nikes. That\u2019s the turf code.\u201d<\/p>\n

The answer referenced his 2002 song \u201cWhite T-Shirt, Blue Jeans and Nikes<\/a>,\u201d often cited as one of the tracks that set off the hyphy movement.<\/p>\n

Mistah F.A.B.\u2019s segment in the documentary begins with him giving props to the late Mac Dre, the originator of the \u201cthizz face\u201d and the phrase \u201cghost ride the whip,\u201d who was murdered in Kansas City in 2004.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s somewhat of a martyr now,\u201d F.A.B. says solemnly. The next moment, he\u2019s animated again, running through slang terms like \u201cyadidamean,\u201d \u201cshaboobalaboopy,\u201d and \u201cyellow bus.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat it means is hyphy, go dumb, all at once,\u201d F.A.B. says. \u201cThe street, they took it like, \u2018I ride the yellow bus, too.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"On the set of the video for Mistah F.A.B.\u2019s \u201cGhost Ride It,\u201d released in late 2006, at Youth UpRising. Credit: D-Ray<\/p>\n

A nationwide audience also got to see a candy-painted, apple green \u201cscraper\u201d \u2014 an old school Falcon with 23-inch rims \u2014 and a demonstration of \u201cghost-riding 101.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zion I were more hyphy-adjacent than hyphy, but shared independent label status with the majority of the hyphy era artists and also appeared in the doc. In a segment filmed at Berkeley\u2019s Rasputin Records, the late emcee Zumbi explains, \u201cThe Bay Area\u2019s all about hustle and doing your thing, being original and unique.\u201d<\/p>\n

Too $hort gave a history lesson, explaining how he and his partner Freddy B got their start making homemade tapes in the early \u201880s. \u201cWe used to actually go to the turfs where the drug dealers sold dope,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s cash money in the dope turfs. And we\u2019d just hit \u2019em one at a time until all the tapes were gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

When $hort entered the rap game, he said, Oakland was filled with hustlers and colorful characters. \u201cIt was a lot of pride in street images.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

National television features were only the beginning of the Bay\u2019s resurgent year.<\/p>\n

In April, USA Today ran a front page feature on the movement. The buzz on hyphy was starting to grow as deafening as a grill-mounted speaker.<\/p>\n

In May, BET\u2019s \u201cRap City\u201d presented \u201cHyphy Week,\u201d featuring segments with Too $hort. Posted up at his alma mater Fremont High \u2014 he graduated in 1984, the year before his first official single, \u201cGirl (That\u2019s Your Life)\u201d dropped \u2014 $hort Dog takes the time to speak to some youngsters about leveraging hyphy\u2019s popularity for economic opportunity. \u201cSomebody gotta get some money off of this, because it\u2019s gonna come and go,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

July saw a feature on hyphy in the pages of Vibe magazine. F.A.B. was interviewed during a performance at a San Jose car show: \u201cI didn\u2019t think [mainstream audiences] were gonna go for it, because it\u2019s so wild.\u201d<\/p>\n

August extended hyphy culture\u2019s winning streak with new albums from Too $hort, Traxamillion and Beeda Weeda. By that time, $hort\u2019s single \u201cBlow the Whistle<\/a>\u201d had become his biggest in years.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m crazy, you don\u2019t wanna be like me
I come from East Oakland where the youngsters get hyphy<\/p>\n

One of the biggest summer songs of 2006 was The Federation\u2019s \u201cI Wear My Stunna Glasses at Night.<\/a>\u201d The song juxtaposed Fairfield rappers Stressmatic, Doonie Baby and Goldie Gold\u2019s descriptions of their oversized eyewear and its elaborate festoonings with a Rick Rock beat built around the pulsating synths of Corey Hart\u2019s 1984 hit \u201cSunglasses at Night.\u201d The song was leaked to the Internet, picked up by the mixtape DJ circuit, and lapped up by the clubs, eventually landing in heavy radio rotation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Guest rapper E-40 made a point to credit the Town during his verse.<\/p>\n

Hyphy started in the O
The whole Bay go stupid, I\u2019m from the Valley Joe
And you can put this in your hip-hop Bible
Keak Da Sneak said hyphy first on his album Sneakacydal<\/p>\n

\"\"Keak Da Sneak and E-40 in front of Oakland\u2019s 16th Street train station on the set of the music video for \u201cTell Me When To Go\u201d in December 2005. Credit: D-Ray<\/p>\n

Hyphy\u2019s summer sizzle extended past the fall and into the winter of \u201806. In September, DJ Shadow\u2019s \u201cThe Outsider<\/a>\u201d \u2014 featuring Keak Da Sneak, Turf Talk, E-40, the Federation, and the Animaniaks \u2014 was released reinforcing the \u201cEntroducing\u201d artist\u2019s Bay Area hip hop roots. October saw a new album by E-40 prot\u00e9g\u00e9 Turf Talk, while F.A.B. guested on the single \u201cHit \u2018Em\u201d with Zion I and the Grouch.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The movement almost took November off for Thizzgiving, but Keak Da Sneak managed to headline \u201cSuper Hyphy 13\u201d at Petaluma\u2019s Phoenix Theater. The year of unprecedented hyphyiness ended with Berkeley teenagers The Pack\u2019s \u201cSkateboards 2 Scrapers\u201d EP and F.A.B. dropping a new song and video, \u201cGhost Ride It.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTell Me When To Go\u201d and \u201cBlow the Whistle\u201d broke nationally. In addition to those two hits, the biggest local songs on KMEL \u2014 a tastemaker of urban contemporary radio \u2014 included F.A.B.\u2019s \u201cGhost Ride It,\u201d E-40\u2019s \u201cYay Area,\u201d Traxamillion featuring Mistah F.A.B. and Too $hort\u2019s \u201cSideshow,\u201d Keak Da Sneak\u2019s \u201cSuper Hyphy\u201d and \u201cOn Citas,\u201d The Team\u2019s \u201cJus Go,\u201d The Pack\u2019s \u201cI\u2019m Shinin,\u201d and The Federation\u2019s \u201c18 Dummy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

During this period, hyphy completely overshadowed any local rappers who didn\u2019t jump on the Yellow Bus, and often out-performed national artists in KMEL\u2019s market research \u2014 an important barometer for determining airtime. In an article for the Mercury News published in early 2007, hip-hop journalist and radio personality Davey-D proclaimed 2006 a \u201cbreakout year for Bay Area hip-hop.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the center of the storm<\/p>\n

\"\"Mistah F.A.B. performs in Las Vegas, February 2006. Credit: D-Ray<\/p>\n

Imagine being in the center of that storm, as F.A.B. was at that time, just 24 years old.<\/p>\n

At the end of 2006, Mistah F.A.B was the hottest young rapper in the Bay Area, hands down. As many as eight songs by him or featuring him were in regular radio rotation at one time, he recently told The Oaklandside.<\/p>\n

The North Oakland rapper started 2006 with \u201cThizz Nation Vol. 8,\u201d featuring the song \u201cYellow Bus.\u201d The album\u2019s cover featured a school bus perched on chrome Mag-type rims with the rapper towering above, ice-grilling with stunna shades on. That September, he signed a deal with Atlantic Records after a reputed bidding war. Throughout the year, he made appearances on songs by Traxamillion, E-40, Dem Hoodstarz, Rob Lo, Messy Marv, The Pack, and others. Songs from his 2005 album \u201cSon of a Pimp\u201d were still getting play on the radio and in clubs.<\/p>\n

His most significant achievement may have been uniting Oakland\u2019s different turfs \u2014 North, East, West \u2014 by featuring rappers G-Stack and Bavgate, representing rival neighborhoods, on the song \u201cN.E.W Oakland\u201d and by merging Vallejo thizz with Oakland hyphy juice. These efforts contributed to the sense that hyphy was a unifying force in Bay Area hip-hop.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes me down a cultural highway,\u201d F.A.B. said when asked what the word hyphy meant to him. The rapper was barely out of his teens when hyphy became a movement \u2014 roughly the same age as much of its core audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I revisit that highway, it\u2019s some of my fondest memories of a great childhood,\u201d he said. \u201cMy childhood in the music industry, in the infancy stages, I happened to play a significant part in spearheading hyphy nationwide and worldwide. When I look back on it, it was some fun times. It was some great, memorable times \u2014 and a lot of excitement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"A competitor in a turf dancing battle at Youth UpRising, 2007. Credit: D-Ray<\/p>\n

The word hyphy originally had negative connotations. Acting hyphy meant someone was doing too much, exhibiting rude or aggressive behavior or otherwise acting outside of societal norms. Sideshows, for instance, have become an Oakland cultural tradition, celebrated by rappers like Richie Rich and Too $hort and documented in the 2000 film \u201cSydwayz,\u201d but they are an outlaw tradition that has long raised public safety concerns and led to decades of enforcement attempts by Oakland police.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the infancy stages of hyphy, it wasn\u2019t something that the city was fond of,\u201d F.A.B. said. \u201cPeople were like, \u2018Yo bro, get on with that hyphy. We ain\u2019t on that type of stuff.\u2019 But we later dove into it and we owned it and it became our cultural language. It became the one thing that everybody from this area could identify and could relate to.\u201d<\/p>\n

F.A.B. started his hip-hop career as a battle rapper; his 2002 debut album \u201cNig-Latin\u201d was considered backpack rap. On its title track, he provides definitions for a running list of slang terms, from J-Cat (\u201cwuss\u201d) to tootsie (a hundred-dollar bill). It\u2019s a masterful and instructive display of linguistic fluidity.<\/p>\n

We from the ghetto, we understand this here
If you was from the ghetto you could understand this here
But you ain\u2019t so no don\u2019t try to talk this way
Or you just might find yourself chopped and laid.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The album\u2019s cover depicts F.A.B. looking more like a poetry slam contestant than a turf rapper. He\u2019s wearing a white golf cap with a plain white sweatshirt. Instead of a grill-revealing grin, he looks pensive, his arms casually folded. The beat on \u201cNig-Latin\u201d bears none of hyphy\u2019s signature elements \u2014 it\u2019s set to a synthesized steel drum pattern.<\/p>\n

The song clearly predates hyphy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018Sales started going through the roof\u2019<\/p>\n

\"\"At hyphy\u2019s peak, huge crowds of young people were throwing up the \u201cT,\u201d for Thizz. Summer Splash, August 2005, in Stockton, Calif. Credit: D-Ray<\/p>\n

Many consider \u201cGasoline,\u201d a 2003 E-40 song produced by Rick Rock, as the first true example of the hyphy sound. It\u2019s uptempo, with minimal instrumentation and almost no melody. The kick drums and synth hits are engineered to provide a bed for a subtle yet present low-end 808 drop.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Later that year, Rick Rock produced The Federation\u2019s \u201cHyphy<\/a>.\u201d While \u201cGasoline\u201d had been a cool street hit, \u201cHyphy\u201d careened onto the radio, demanding listeners\u2019 full attention. More uptempo and in your face, it sounded disruptive, like barely controlled chaos.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHyphy\u201d drew some inspiration from crunk, but tailored to fit the Bay Area\u2019s dynamic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As Rock told<\/a> Complex, \u201cIt\u2019s an energy that touches your chakras, your energy sources. Things that automatically make you feel great and you don\u2019t know why. Hyphy was a great time when we had our own sound signature. The world was like, \u2018That\u2019s theirs.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a new sound,\u201d F.A.B. said, one that followed a long drought of Bay Area hip-hop artists not being heard regularly on the commercial radio airwaves. Not only did hyphy energize local artists, but \u201cfor the fans to hear something that represented their culture,\u201d he said, \u201cI think they connected with it tremendously.\u201d<\/p>\n

By 2004, the hyphy surge was becoming a wave, and Rick Rock soon had a lot of co-signers. A slew of Bay Area producers \u2014 including Oakland\u2019s EA-Ski and CMT, San Jose\u2019s Traxamillion, East Palo Alto\u2019s Sean T., Berkeley\u2019s Young L, and Vallejo\u2019s Droop-E \u2014 fashioned their own variations on the sonic theme. Even Atlanta\u2019s Lil Jon \u2014 a crunk pioneer and frequent collaborator with E-40 and Too $hort \u2014 got in on the act.<\/p>\n

While many of the production styles and approaches were similar, East Oakland trio The Team developed a unique and original sound that drew on traditional hip-hop, funk influences, and a balance between street narratives and nightclub stunting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"A turf dance battle between Oakland and Memphis in West Oakland, March 2007. Credits: D-Ray<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

On The Team\u2019s 2004 album \u201cThe Negro League,\u201d Kaz Kyzer, Mayne Mannish, and Clyde Carson rapped convincingly about hustling and baller lifestyles \u2014 their gangster stories elevated by a swaggy sense of upscale savoir faire. The album\u2019s biggest hit, \u201cIt\u2019s Getting Hot,\u201d took up its own private booth at clubs and on the radio that year.<\/p>\n

That fifth of Hyp, that Swisher lit
That got her wildin\u2019 out
She wanna get ripped, go ask your chick
Find out how I get down
It\u2019s gettin\u2019 hot in here<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s Getting Hot\u201d wasn\u2019t just another street record, it was a club anthem about a crew that acted and dressed the part of gentlemen of leisure. It opened up new pathways for the smoother side of hyphy.<\/p>\n

All this club and radio play didn\u2019t necessarily translate to record sales, at first. According to Ill Trendz street promoter and Moses Music owner Sean Kennedy, mixtapes were selling well around 2003-2004, but \u201ceven when The Federation dropped \u2018Hyphy,\u2019 Oakland didn\u2019t really like The Federation\u2019s hyphy song. They felt like Vallejo and Fairfield had stolen Oakland\u2019s slang. That\u2019s the reason why Keak Da Sneak wrote \u2018Super Hyphy.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Local sales, Kennedy said, \u201cstarted to spike at the end of 2004 after Mac Dre died. That\u2019s when we started to see significant sales going to the Bay Area.\u201d Then, in the fall of 2005, he said, \u201cKeak Da Sneak dropped his record, and the sales started going through the roof.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSuper Hyphy\u201d originally appeared as a single on the \u201cDopegame\u201d compilation. Once it was remixed for single release, Rah Records boss Al Keyes reportedly spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on promotion, wrapping a van in graphics and sending Kennedy out to different markets to promote it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think they know, that\u2019s my word,\u201d Keak says in the chorus section, reclaiming ownership of both hyphy and \u201cfa sheezy.\u201d The verses are a labyrinth of seemingly fractured syntax, interior rhyme schemes, and stuttering cadences delivered by one of the most unique voices in the entire rap world.<\/p>\n

I mix big with husky brusky
Quarterbackin\u2019, trust me, rugby rush me
Color purple, still in the street, it\u2019s ugly
I don\u2019t know you, but you lovin\u2019 me, fresher than Doug E.
Look at what the motherfuckin\u2019 rap game done done to me
So go on, n*gga, run the beat, here comes Keak Da Sneak
Self-taught, when he do a technique, nothing but heat
Self-taught, what to do on this beat? This for the street\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of the year\u2019s most iconic hyphy albums was F.A.B\u2019s \u201cSon of a Pimp\u201d which featured a photo of his late father on the cover in front of an elongated American-made sedan. Released by Thizz Entertainment, it\u2019s become a period classic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The rapper described the album\u2019s lyrical content as diverse and multidimensional, with thought-provoking, socially-conscious material alongside more uptempo party-oriented fare. \u201cIt\u2019s probably only two or three songs that would be considered hyphy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Those three songs \u2014 \u201cSuper Sic Wit It,\u201d \u201cN.E.W. Oakland,\u201d and \u201cKicked out the Club\u201d \u2014 weren\u2019t just popular, they were genre-defining anthems that landed in rotation on commercial radio stations, lit up nightclubs, soundtracked the streets, and elevated F.A.B. to the forefront of the hyphy movement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t need no iron (Why?), I\u2019m already creased (Oh)
F-A-B what they call me, 40 say mouthpiece
I do the dummy, retarded, and ride the yellow bus
Put the town on, don\u2019t bother me, doin\u2019 hella much
High speed in my car, call it a scraper
Pop my Ps at your broad, cuff or I\u2019ll take her
I only roll wit\u2019 my folks, family, and next-of-kin
Ride away with a half, I\u2019m a Baydestrian\u00a0<\/p>\n

The aftermath<\/p>\n

The year 2007 started with high aspirations for the Bay Area\u2019s hyphy riders. F.A.B., Clyde Carson of The Team, and the A\u2019z all reportedly had major-label deals in the works. But the Federation\u2019s Warner Brothers debut, originally scheduled for November 2006, kept getting pushed back due to sample clearance issues.<\/p>\n

In summer 2007, hyphy remained tremendously popular locally, but the scene was starting to become saturated with similar-sounding songs. E-40\u2019s marketing campaign \u2014 and mainstream press attention \u2014 had come and gone. If the movement\u2019s national momentum was going to continue, it needed to penetrate other markets.<\/p>\n

Enter \u201cGhost Ride It<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the story goes, the song came about from a conversation between F.A.B. and Too $hort. The Oakland pioneer, living in Atlanta at the time, told F.A.B. folks down there wanted to know more about ghost riding, and encouraged him to do a song on the topic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

F.A.B. called producer Sean T., told him the concept, and days later they had recorded a song and sent it to radio, where it lit up request lines. The rapper took the song to Atlantic and pitched a video, but \u201cthey didn\u2019t seem too enthusiastic about it,\u201d F.A.B.\u2019s then manager, Chioke \u201cStretch\u201d McCoy, later told<\/a> SFGate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"MTV host Sway Calloway interviews Keak Da Sneak on his front steps in East Oakland for \u201cMy Block: The Bay\u201d in 2006, at hyphy\u2019s height. Credit: D-Ray<\/p>\n

F.A.B. and Stretch decided to shoot the video anyway, paying for it with their own money. They found the original car from the \u201cGhostbusters\u201d movie and had it transported to Los Angeles. They filmed scenes in downtown LA, with the concept being that F.A.B. would ride around teaching people how to ghost ride their whips. Additional scenes were shot in Oakland and San Francisco.<\/p>\n

The production crew overcame some issues: The car arrived needing repair to its front windshield, and a North Oakland location was shut down by the police for not having a permit. They also didn\u2019t secure the rights to use the \u201cGhostbusters\u201d logo or the theme song\u2019s licensing rights.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The finished video became one of the first to go viral on YouTube. MTV added it to their rotation. But after two deaths involving ghost riding were reported<\/a> by national media outlets, the song came under scrutiny. F.A.B. appeared on Fox News\u2019 \u201cHannity and Colmes\u201d to defend hyphy culture against ultraconservative wrath. Columbia Pictures, which had released \u201cGhostbusters,\u201d sent F.A.B. a cease-and-desist letter, and MTV pulled the video from rotation. After re-editing the video, the song returned to MTV. But Atlantic Records delayed F.A.B.\u2019s album, with no scheduled release date.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Undeterred, F.A.B. put out another album, \u201cDa Baydestrian,\u201d through local outlets Thizz and SMC. It was a solid release with diverse content, from the hyphy title song to more inspirational and conscious material like \u201cMy Life on Track.\u201d But the marketing budget was modest, and only one track, \u201cSideshow (Remix),\u201d made any noise on the radio.\u00a0<\/p>\n

F.A.B. then had the idea to pitch his own radio show to KMEL, the Bay\u2019s preeminent urban radio station. When the station turned him down, he took the concept to WYLD\u2019s program director, \u201cJazzy\u201d Jim Archer. Archer greenlit the show \u2014 and then the station fatefully decided to air it directly opposite one of KMEL\u2019s anchor shows, hosted by the station\u2019s music director, Big Von Johnson.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Johnson took it as a slight, as I reported<\/a> for SF Weekly at the time. In what appeared to be a retaliatory move, F.A.B.\u2019s songs were stripped from KMEL\u2019s rotation and his entire catalog was deleted from the station\u2019s database. This included not only his own records, but songs by other rappers, like Dem Hoodstarz\u2019 \u201cGrown Man (Remix),\u201d that F.A.B. appeared on.<\/p>\n

The beef created a domino effect on radio and in the record industry.<\/p>\n

Clyde Carson\u2019s deal with Columbia and the A\u2019z\u2019s deal with TVT both fizzled without producing commercially released albums. The Federation\u2019s debut album for Warner Bros. wasn\u2019t released until September 2007 and went nowhere. Major label interest in Keak Da Sneak ebbed due to contractual entanglements with several independent labels. \u201cWe needed a face for it. We needed a leader,\u201d Keak later told Complex.<\/p>\n

Hyphy artists were still selling out concerts in 2007 like the \u201cHella Fresh Fest\u201d at the Fillmore Auditorium and \u201cSuper Hyphy 17\u201d at the Phoenix Theater in Petaluma. But even if fans were still buying Mac Dre bobbleheads, Hyphy Juice energy drinks and \u201cGot Bay?\u201d t-shirts, local artists noticed a shift.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last couple of years, the Bay Area was heavily on the radio. This year, we\u2019re not so much on Bay Area radio, Zion I\u2019s Zumbi told<\/a> the East Bay Express in late 2007. \u201cJust because the radio ain\u2019t burning doesn\u2019t mean cats ain\u2019t hot, though.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHow can hyphy be dead?\u201d F.A.B. said<\/a> to the SF Chronicle in June 2007. \u201cThey ain\u2019t seen hyphy yet. Give us a chance to put a tour together.\u201d<\/p>\n

A national hyphy tour never happened. E-40 never even toured with The Federation when they were labelmates. Perhaps it was a matter of logistics. Perhaps it came down to the movement having no centralized organization. The unified front presented in the \u201cTell Me When To Go\u201d video had fractured like a car window hit by bippers.<\/p>\n

The following year, 2008, ended with no new national hits by any hyphy artist, dwindling radio support, and major-label cold feet over any substantial new investment in Bay Area hip-hop. The labels\u2019 reticence was compounded by an industry-wide 20% drop in rap sales compared to the previous year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Released from his deal with Atlantic, F.A.B. returned to making albums for local independent labels. Keak eventually landed a deal with Koch Records, but the resulting album, \u201cDeified,\u201d which featured a star-studded list of guest artists, from E-40 and Too $hort to Texas\u2019 Paul Wall and New York\u2019s Prodigy of Mobb Deep, was a commercial flop.\u00a0<\/p>\n

F.A.B. recently told The Oaklandside he was \u201cblacklisted\u201d from radio for more than a decade, and claims losing his record deal cost him millions of dollars.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re asking me to be transparent, I feel like they muted a voice that could talk about it, that could explain it, that would carry on tradition and culture and someone that would always put everybody else in the mix,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd when you take away leadership in that regard, then there\u2019s no structure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reliving those events, he said, is triggering. \u201cBecause you have to go back to a dark side of that road that we talked about where I was banned from the radio for like 13, 14 years. And I just felt like it was unjust. It was whatever lessons that life had wanted me to learn at that time, I had to adhere to it,\u201d he said. \u201cI felt it was egregious. I felt like it was wrong. I was befuddled for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

An East Oakland requiem<\/p>\n

F.A.B. would go on to release an album called \u201cHyphy Ain\u2019t Dead\u201d in 2009. And as it turns out, he wasn\u2019t delusional. Hyphy still lives.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The hyphy movement, i.e., the major label\u2013funded marketing campaign that raised the expectations of Bay Area artists and fans alike, had run its course. Maybe those expectations were always unrealistic. As former Warner Bros. director of A&R Orlando McGhee told Complex, \u201cWithout millions of dollars in marketing money, I don\u2019t know if the world would have embraced it on a larger scale.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the socioeconomic conditions that created hyphy organically in the Bay Area weren\u2019t going anywhere. Neither were the sideshows that met the need for a late-night dopamine release. Or the artistic expression of young people living on the margins of mainstream society, who had created a culture that represented them prior to any corporate interest.<\/p>\n

Originally posted<\/a> to YouTube in 2009, the Turf Feinz\u2019 low-production value \u201cRIP Rich D \u2014 Dancing in the Rain Oakland Streets,\u201d has since garnered almost 9 million views.\u00a0<\/p>\n

No words are spoken in the video, but none are needed. As cars pass by the corner of MacArthur Boulevard and 90th Avenue in East Oakland, two members of the dance crew appear on the sidewalk. What follows is a poignant expression of inner-city ballet at its most moving and inspirational. Arms and legs move sinuously, almost disconnected from the normal motions of a human body. Shifting, jutting, stretching, joints and muscles point at different angles, punctuated by sudden jet\u00e9s, pirouettes, en pointe toe extensions and drops to the sidewalk \u2014 it\u2019s a completely improvised turfing master class.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The dancers\u2019 movements occasionally carry them off the curb and out into the street, into the path of oncoming traffic, where the possibility of being hit by a car feels very real. The moves are intentional, signifying the danger inner-city kids must navigate daily.<\/p>\n

When the camera angle shifts to the other side of the street, two more Turf Feinz appear. They, too, honor the memory of Rich D with anguished yet resilient paragraphs written in turf dancing\u2019s movement language. It\u2019s exquisite, yet hard and unflinching. And it\u2019s as Oakland as Oakland gets.<\/p>\n

The viral popularity of \u201cRIP Rich D\u201d led to members of the Turf Feinz gaining international recognition<\/a> and performing in places like England and France \u2014 proof of hyphy\u2019s continued influence.<\/p>\n

The video was meant to be a tribute to a fallen friend and family member. It could easily be seen as a requiem for the hyphy movement itself.<\/p>\n

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