Five Top-Tier Bay Area Rappers Unite Under ‘1 Umbrella’

It’s a Thursday night in late January, and the members of the newly formed rap supergroup 1 Umbrella are scattered around an EMPIRE recording studio in San Francisco.

Cameras and lights are mounted in one room. A TV showing a basketball game is on nearby. The crew is in that limbo native to recording studios: both working hard and somehow simultaneously chilling.

22nd Jim shakes my hand, casually walking past en route to change his outfit. Out back, ALLBLACK gives me a big dap and a hug near people rolling Backwoods. Back inside, behind the bar, Zaybang mixes a pitcher filled with Sprite and a few other liquids. I congratulate Lil Yee on his latest solo project, LIFE AFTER DEATH, inspired by surviving a recent shooting.

But we’re not here to talk about last year, nor solo projects. We’re discussing how these four artists, plus Lil Bean (who’d arrive later), have sparked fire in the Bay with their new supergroup, 1 Umbrella.

The group’s debut self-titled album drops Friday, Feb. 6, followed a record signing event the next day at Amoeba Music in San Francisco.

Guests on 1 Umbrella include Larry June, 1100 Himself and Rexx Life Raj. With production from the likes of Reece Beats, Brutal Money and EazyDrez, the album will undoubtedly be played boisterously from the sound systems of fly cars for months to come.

To hear the group tell it, their music isn’t “gangsta rap” and it “fasho ain’t hyphy.” It’s lifestyle rap over heavy bass. It’s turf-repping, in-your-face bravado trash talking that comes from “diary entries” based on lived experiences. Above all, it’s a polished glimpse of modern rap from the Bay, made by artists who’ve amplified local street culture for many moons.

And to think, it all came together so organically.

“I commented on his post, ‘1 umbrella,’” Lil Bean tells me as I sit down with the group’s five members. “That was a bar,” adds Zaybang of the comment that set this alliance in motion.

The members of the group, all with well-decorated solo careers, had already collaborated on one-off songs here and there. But late last year, when 22nd Jim released the video for the song “Cash Sh*t” (featuring Lil Yee and Lil Bean), Lil Bean added his comment to an Instagram post, and it was up from there.

While there’s been a handful of hip-hop supergroups in California alone — including Westside Connection, T.W.D.Y. and Mount Westmore — when asked who he’d compare the collective to, ALLBLACK pulls an even deeper reference.

“I listen to a lot of ’70s and ’80s R&B,” he says, leaning back in a folding chair while describing the groups cohesiveness. “I would say we’re the S.O.S. Band … [or] like the Stylistics, you know I mean?”

Supergroups are often manufactured by a manager or label, says Zaybang, but 1 Umbrella came about naturally. “We frequent each other’s sessions,” says the Frisco lyricist, adding that even when they’re not on a track, they offer each other creative feedback.

Assisting this effort is EMPIRE itself, and its studio. Zaybang says the project technically could have been possible without EMPIRE, but “having a space to come together without even thinking about it, it gives us a good environment where, you feel me, we’re chillin, there’s snacks, and we can just park our whips…”

Breaking it down in sports terms, Lil Yee interjects, “This is a layup, it’s accessible. Everything else would have been a three-pointer.”

To their point, Vallejo rapper DaBoii, who appears on one of the album’s singles, “The Blueprint,” sat in the next room as we talked.

A far reach from Bay Area gangsta rap of the late ’80s and early ’90s, but clearly influenced by the mobb music of the late ’90s, 1 Umbrella’s music comes from young men who grew up during the hyphy era of the early 2000s.

Asked what statement the project makes, Zaybang and Lil Yee reply in tandem, “It’s a new Bay.” 22nd Jim adds, “It’s a new wave, a new sound.”

“We give all respect to our legends,” says Lil Yee, naming artists he idolizes as predecessors like E-40, Messy Marv and the Jacka. “They put on for us.”

Wearing a monochrome black outfit accented by a bulky Cuban link chain, Lil Yee refers to the hyphy era as the Bay’s collective past. “It’s like an ancestor to us,” he says — adding that it’s still in us, and, if provoked, “we can show you the real definition of hyphy.”

When I mention that the video for E-40’s “Tell Me When To Go” dropped exactly 20 years ago, 22nd Jim replies, “We was riding bikes in that video.”

But times have changed. Many young hip-hop heads in the Bay strive for high-end fashion and foreign cars, not Vans and scrapers. Summing it up in another sports metaphor, Lil Yee says, “Niggas don’t hoop in Chucks no more.”

There’s something to be said about the Bay being pigeonholed to a popular narrative from two decades ago, especially now.

The Bay’s influence in music — and popular culture as a whole — is arguably more prominent than it’s ever been, says 22nd Jim as he leans forward in his seat. “You got my nigga Ryan [Coogler], he got 16 Oscar [nominations],” he points out. “You got Kehlani, you even got LaRussell doing what he’s doing.” Add to that the success of musicians Miles Minnick, JANE HANDCOCK, Ovrkast. and actor Yahya Abdul-Mateen II.

Wearing jet black sunglasses, a baseball hat and a huge chain with an even bigger “22nd” medallion, Jim adds, “There’s room for everyone to eat.”

With the table set, it’s clear that the 1 Umbrella ensemble is ready to feast.

A listening party and record signing event for 1 Umbrella takes place Saturday, Feb. 7, at Amoeba Records (1855 Haight St., San Francisco). Details and more information here.