How Oakland’s Most Famous Jazz Club Became a Hotspot for Hip-Hop

It was the final night of DJ Quik’s December residency at Yoshi’s, and he felt like stretching out.

Two songs into his set, the Compton-raised rap legend started conducting the band: first bringing the volume down, then leading his guitarist and keyboard player in back-to-back solos before pulling in the drums. He then turned the song’s West Coast rap rhythms upside down by grabbing some Latin percussion and twisting out an improvised solo of his own.

A grin spread across Quik’s face. “This is a jazz club, ain’t it?” he asked the crowd.

In fact, Yoshi’s is the oldest and most famous jazz club in Oakland. But lately, it’s been something else too: a home for hip-hop legends like Scarface, the Pharcyde and Ghostface Killah, usually with a live band. It’s a reinvention that’s been especially notable in the past year, and it’s been packing in grown fans who once ran in the streets but now prefer sitting at tables.

“There was definitely a certain effort with us to evolve our programming into more hip-hop and contemporary R&B bookings,” says Marc Zuazua, Yoshi’s director of marketing, in the club’s dining room before a recent Spice 1 show. After the pandemic, especially, he says, the crowds that once came to see traditional jazz artists, “who would do amazing for us in the past — like, those audiences weren’t coming back.”

Who were coming back were rap fans, especially to see the Bay Area’s own homegrown talent. Last year alone, Vallejo legend Mac Mall sold out a show. Oakland’s Richie Rich sold out two. Too Short sold out six.

It’s transformed not only box office revenues but the vibe inside the club, Zuazua says, with its traditional supper-club-style semicircle seating at tables and booths, and a menu featuring sushi and cocktails. Currently, Yoshi’s has hip-hop shows lined up with Mistah FAB (Jan. 22), the GZA (Feb. 8), and Twista (April 23).

As Hayward’s Spice 1 took the stage later in the night, he acknowledged the mostly full club, and its atmosphere.

“This is kind of an upscale type thing, man,” he said, “but we can get up out of our seats!”

As the bass line to “I Got 5 on It” kicked off the set, many folks did just that — dancing, singing along, filming. Over the next 45 minutes, while Spice 1 delivered 30-year-old hits like “187 Proof” and “Welcome to the Ghetto,” people who now qualify for AARP membership celebrated with abandon alongside a handful of younger fans, who swarmed the rapper in the Yoshi’s front lobby afterward to get a selfie.

It was a far cry from a straight-ahead jazz show at Yoshi’s, historically known for hosting golden-era legends like Pharoah Sanders, Roy Haynes, Charlie Haden or the esteemed McCoy Tyner, who once played an annual two-week residency at the club.

Even before the pandemic, several factors affected Yoshi’s ability to book traditional jazz. One was the 2013 opening of the SFJAZZ Center, which siphoned giants like Tyner across the Bay and into a brand new venue with a bigger backstage. Another was the high-profile collapse of Yoshi’s San Francisco, which kept some artists away from the Oakland club — even though the operations were basically separate entities.

And then there’s the simple fact that, despite contemporary jazz scenes in LA, Chicago and London gaining popularity with younger fans over the past decade, jazz remains a small sliver of overall music listening. The 1960s and ’70s jazz generation is getting older. Sanders, Haynes, Haden and Tyner, to count just four of hundreds, have all passed away. As Zuazua notes, many traditional jazz fans either live far away in the suburbs, remain scared by a media crime narrative about Oakland or have simply aged out of their nightclub-going years.

That’s unfortunate, because if your typical jazz-listening uncle came to a rap show at Yoshi’s, most of the time he’d witness a live band on par with a classic Prestige Records-era quintet.

Rappers at Yoshi’s are often backed by the go-to live hip-hop musical director for the Bay Area: Kev Choice. In fact, Choice was the first artist to regularly bring hip-hop to Yoshi’s, starting all the way back in 2008, with annual shows by his Kev Choice Ensemble that featured guests like Zumbi from Zion I, Phesto from Souls of Mischief, Silk-E from the Coup or Too Short.

“Hip-hop fans have grown, have matured, have come into a new space of wanting to see some of their favorite artists — maybe in a different context, or coming to life in a different way,” Choice says.

Yoshi’s isn’t alone in selling out shows by regional stars, like Oakland group the Delinquents in 2023. For the past several years, the Blue Note jazz club in New York has hosted rappers like Mos Def, Black Thought and Rakim. Yoshi’s San Francisco had even booked hip-hop acts a full 10 to 15 years ago: the Geto Boys, Public Enemy, Suga Free, Jay Electronica and KRS-One all appeared on its stage.

Of course, rap and jazz have overlapped since the dawn of the 1990s. Along with more R&B, smooth jazz and world music on Yoshi’s calendar, one could call the development part of a natural lineage, musically and culturally. Richie Rich, who once rapped over George Duke samples in the East Bay group 415, has been particularly strong in recommending Yoshi’s to other rappers, sometimes booked by outside promoters like AJ the Architect.

With change comes criticism, of course.

“There’s definitely older jazz fans out there that always have something to say on Facebook. ‘I remember when Yoshi’s was a jazz venue,’ you know,” says Zuazua. “But if they were to show up and not just be commenting on social media, we’d definitely be booking more jazz, and more blues.”

Echoing Choice — who also served as musical director for E-40’s recent Tiny Desk Concert at NPR — Zuazua says that while the “soundscape” has changed, the intensity, spontaneity and musical beauty Yoshi’s is known for is still very much present, especially with a live band.

“I’ve been going to hip-hop shows for as long as I can remember,” he says. “You go to a hip-hop show with a band, and that bass line is popping. There’s horns. It’s alive.”

Mistah FAB performs two shows with the Kev Choice Ensemble on Thursday, Jan. 22, at Yoshi’s (510 Embarcadero West, Oakland), at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Tickets and more information here.