How Young Bari and BossLife Big Spence’s ‘That's a Playa’ Took Over the Bay
Our current era is full of songs that become hits after going viral on TikTok. Meanwhile, since August of 2025, Oakland’s BossLife Big Spence and San Francisco’s Young Bari have worked their hit song “That’s a Playa” like it’s the old days.
They’ve done local radio hits and traveled for features on national video platforms. They’ve made made guest appearances at major events, like E-40’s recent set at the Oakland Arena and a Levi’s Super Bowl event in February. They even tapped rap legends Richie Rich, Too Short and E-40 for a remix, extending the song’s longevity.
Now, on Sept. 7, Spence and Bari are set to headline the second stage at the 14th annual Hiero Day, closing out a show with a lineup of talent that includes Mereba, DJ Jazzy Jeff and Killer Mike.
While many artists typically drop songs and then pray the algorithm helps them catch a wave, Spence and Bari say taking a single track and going on a “campaign” with it is the reason for its success. They even got a special shout out from one of the most popular comedians of the past two decades, Mike Epps.
It all started with a video of Epps responding to a question about which artists he’s listening to right now. Between mentions of Kendrick Lamar and Fetty P. Franklin,”It’s a young dude out of the Bay right now named Young Bari,” Epps says.
“When I seen that,” Bari tells me, “I was like, ‘I gotta make a clip of this instantly and post it, so people can know we moving right now!'”
Weeks later, when Epps was scheduled to come to the Bay for a show at Tommy T’s Comedy Club in Concord with an afterparty at Oakland’s M2 lounge, he told Spence, “Bro, we finna go pull up on Mike.”
Not only did they meet the award-winning actor and former host of HBO’s Def Comedy Jam, they performed that same night.
“I’m talking about a real campaign, bro,” Bari says, explaining their grind over the past year. “We was running it up,” he exclaims. “Whatever we had to do to get the record out, we did it.”
Spence, who made the original version of the song while working with producer PAY$EAN, points out an important aspect of their promotion: it’s all been out of their own pockets. “We really put our all into the record,” says Spence, “and I think the results you see are the results of that.”
Though they’re both Bay Area-raised students of hip-hop, the two artists come from different eras.
Spence, who started as a producer before stepping to the mic, has made his mark with tracks like “The Deal”by DaBoii (feat. Drakeo the Ruler) and “Pimpin’ Like Kenny Red” by Too Short (feat. Larry June). “I had a little success with my first single that I ever dropped, ‘10K,’” he says. “But the success of ‘That’s a Playa’ is totally different.”
That kind of success is a new experience for Spence. But Bari has been here before.
As a 10th grader at Berkeley High School, Spence saw Bari perform his classic track, “So Mobby.” At the time, Spence hadn’t been to many concerts, and “definitely no rap concerts,” he says. “So when [Bari] did that, I was just so impacted. I was like, ‘Man, one day I got to have it.'”
A recently shared video of Bari performing in 2009 shows just how lit audiences would get when “So Mobby” would come kabobulating through the speakers. Referenced in the 2012 E-40 track “Function” (feat. YG, Problem and IamSu!), the song still holds its weight in the Bay Area hall of game. And Bari’s stage show is partially to credit for it.
“I grew up in the turf dancing era,” he says. “If you was in the party being a wallflower, you getting cooked, you feel me?”
Bari, who recently released the P-Lo-produced song “IN TRAFFIC” (feat. Keak Da Sneak and DB Tha General) as well as “MOBBY MIYAZAKI” (a re-interpolation of “So Mobby” with Seiji Oda), possesses dance moves that entertain his peers and simultaneously pay homage to his Frisco roots.
“The Get Low,” he says, “that’s a neighborhood dance. My uncle J.D. Walker made that dance.” The key to hitting The Get Low, says Bari, is energy. “It’s a feeling.”
And it’s that same energy that led him to working with Big Spence.
While visiting the producer and going through beats, Spence played an unfinished version of “That’s a Playa.” Bari instantly felt it. “I seen the vision,” he says. “I heard the energy of it and I was like this is that sound.”
Between the mobby beat, Spence’s flossy lyrics and catchy hook, Bari could tell Spence was having fun in the studio. That’s the most important ingredient in making a song to dance to, Bari says: freeing yourself, and being unbothered by thoughts of going viral, or worry of any negative critiques. “You gotta cat off in the booth,” he says.
And, clearly, after you’re done having fun recording, you go to work.
With 12 months under their belts of pushing the song, their Hiero Day performance is big. While Bari has rocked the festival’s stage multiple times, Spence has only done so as a DJ. And for him, this year’s show is deeper than rap, as his late father was a huge fan of Hieroglyphics and Souls of Mischief.
“Everywhere I go I take him with me; every stage I’m on,” says Spence in respect to his father. “Plus I was born in ’93. So ‘93 ’til Infinity,’ that’s my jam.”
BossLife Big Spence and Young Bari perform Monday, Sept. 7, as part of Hiero Day at The Midway (900 Marin St, San Francisco). Tickets and more information here.