At NBA All-Star Weekend, True Bay Area Culture Thrived — If You Knew Where to Find It
East Oakland Rapper Paris Nights Brings Back That ’90s Feel
A South San Francisco Rapper Turned His Sneaker Collection Into an Album
A Lakeview Rap Legend Returns With a Live Band
Here’s What Bay Area Rappers Are Eating (According to Their Lyrics)
Jay Caspian Kang Loves Bay Area Food — But Isn’t Shy About Bashing It
How the Rap Group 51.50 Put Marin City on the Map
P-Lo Is Feeding the Bay Area With More Than Just His Music
In Conversation: Black C and Mac Mall on Their Bay Area Rap Memoirs
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"content": "\u003cp>On Wednesday afternoon, hundreds of basketball fanatics snaked around San Francisco’s Chinatown, awaiting the limited edition release of Nike’s Kobe Bryant “Year of the Snake” sneakers. Red and gold lanterns dangled above the narrow streets — where the city’s Lunar New Year parade would commence just days later — providing a natural and calculated backdrop for the shoe behemoth’s latest Asian-inspired drop. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To celebrate the moment, a nearby mural was unveiled by local artists \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/tdk\">TDK Vogue\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/twinwallsmuralcompany/?hl=en\">Twin Walls\u003c/a>, depicting the late Bryant surrounded by Asian children, a black mamba and Chinese iconography. This clash of a global corporation and the multicultural, street-level talent of the Bay served as a bold reminder of the Bay Area’s vibrantly diverse, creatively imbued enclaves and intersections — just in time for NBA All-Star Weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Spanning three days, the annual showcase of the most skilled basketballers in the world completely took over the Bay Area this past weekend, with hundreds of high-profile events scattered throughout greater San Francisco and Oakland. It provided no shortage of after-hours shenanigans that showcased the most eccentric — and most embarrassing — elements of today’s Bay Area culture in a series of concerts, parties and “activations” for fans visiting from around the globe (the NBA reported 34 nations in attendance at the weekend’s games).\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13971951\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.kobemural.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1500\" height=\"2000\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13971951\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.kobemural.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.kobemural-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.kobemural-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.kobemural-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.kobemural-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.kobemural-1152x1536.jpg 1152w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Kobe Bryant tribute mural titled ‘Mamba Mentality’ at Willie ‘Woo Woo’ Wong Playground in San Francisco’s Chinatown. The mural was completed by Elaine Chu and Marina Perez-Wong of Twin Walls, TDK Vogue and Joseph Lopez for a Nike event held during NBA All-Star Weekend. \u003ccite>(Alan Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The weekend kicked off with the Rising Stars Game on Friday, which saw the NBA’s youngest talents going head-to-head against each other, with the victors facing off against the league’s most established stars in Sunday’s big game. Vallejo’s own rising star, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/larussell\">LaRussell\u003c/a>, stole the show with a halftime performance of a previously unreleased song based on All- Star Weekend. “I used to watch All-Star from the house, now we here” he announced to the crowd, before performing an acoustic version of “GT Coupe” from his extensive catalog.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, LaRussell was a major force throughout the weekend, popping up as a guest at Jordan Brand-sponsored events, and delivering a cathartic, out-of-body live performance for a VIP crowd at Stephen Curry’s Club Thirty — the 11-time All-Star’s pop-up lounge hosted at Splash, a mega sports bar that just opened next door to Chase Center. With appearances from \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/saweetie\">Saweetie\u003c/a>, Too Short, P-Lo, Money B of Digital Underground, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/mistah-fab\">Mistah F.A.B.\u003c/a> and Richie Rich, LaRussell lifted the predominantly Bay Area crowd with live-band renditions of regional anthems, including 2Pac’s “I Get Around,” P-Lo’s “Put Me On Something,” Mistah F.A.B.’s “N.E.W Oakland” and Mac Dre’s “Get Stupid.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rest of the weekend contained Bay Area Easter eggs and overt hat-tips alike to the region’s unique sound and history. Visuals of the Bay’s iconic bridges and architecture flashed on the arena jumbotron while Bay Area classics from Tony Bennett’s “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” to E-40’s “Tell Me When To Go” blared from the stadium-capacity speakers. Subtle touches, like ongoing audio clips of Too $hort instructing referees to “blow the whistle” during Saturday’s Three-Point Contest, added to the thoughtful incorporation of Bay Area culture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13971956\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.saweetie.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13971956\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.saweetie.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.saweetie-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.saweetie-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.saweetie-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.saweetie-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.saweetie-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.saweetie-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Saweetie performs during the 74th NBA All-Star Game at Chase Center on Feb. 16, 2025 in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For Sunday’s marquee game, a skit by onetime Bay Area resident Katt Williams about the Golden Gate Bridge set a comedic tone. E-40 and hall-of-famers Chris Mullin and Barry Bonds followed by introducing Raphael Saadiq for a pregame performance of Bay Area music, including covers of rock legends Metallica, Steve Miller, Santana and the Doobie Brothers. Oakland R&B legends En Vogue joined Saweetie, Too Short and E-40 for the halftime show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it wasn’t all as smoothly executed as a Steph Curry layup in the paint; there were plenty of hollow moments and figurative air balls, too. The weekend’s most-publicized events and primetime headliners hinged on \u003ca href=\"https://48hills.org/2025/02/why-is-sfs-nba-all-star-weekend-musical-lineup-so-meh/\">sauceless “meh” celebrities like Flo Rida and the Chainsmokers\u003c/a> rather than utilizing the Bay’s rich plentitude of local, fan-favorite artistry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This meant the best happenings transpired off-site, often by invitation from local figures and entities who made a genuine effort to appease the Bay Area audience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13971701'] A Marshawn Lynch event in Alameda featuring \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13913821/endeavors-agency-oakland-assan-jethmal-rozz-nash\">Hueman\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13957194/seiji-oda-bay-area-rap-lo-fi-minimalist-hyphy\">Seiji Oda\u003c/a>, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13920049/sydney-welchs-photography-features-the-latest-wave-of-bay-area-talent\">Sydney Welch\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13955802/bay-area-rappers-food-lyrics-illustrations-e-40-larry-june\">Larry June\u003c/a>’s (free) sold-out show at August Hall with his latest collaborators, \u003ca href=\"https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/larry-june-2-chainz-the-alchemist-life-is-beautiful/\">2Chainz and the Alchemist\u003c/a>. San Francisco designer \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13929529/sewing-new-life-into-levis-jeans\">Paolo Cui\u003c/a>’s involvement with Nike Tech Fleece to make customized, Japanese sashiko-sewn gear for NBA All-Stars like Victor Wembanyama. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13936639/jubo-iguanas-filipino-burrito-juborrito-collaboration-san-jose\">Jubo Clothing\u003c/a>’s “For The Soil” drop. Filmmakers like \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13928650/pens-pals-putting-on-for-tehran-in-the-bay\">Mohammad Gorjestani\u003c/a> and rappers like P-Lo (who \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13971354/p-lo-for-the-soil-warriors-golden-state-entertainment-nba-all-star-weekend\">just released an album with the Golden State Warriors\u003c/a>) appearing at the Union and Jordan Brand sneaker release party at the St. Joseph’s Art Society. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the quick-thrill moments of seeing a towering NBA legend like Tracy McGrady casually strolling past you on the street, the weekend’s magic was most palpable outside of the high-altitude stratosphere. Those priced out of the arena populated smaller experiences and All-Star themed parties at satellite venues, helping the Bay Area’s endlessly divergent culture to stand out. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13971952\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.line_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2000\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13971952\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.line_.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.line_-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.line_-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.line_-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.line_-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.line_-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.line_-1920x1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fans line up for an NBA All-Star Weekend event at Foot Locker in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Alan Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Finding genuine community in a time of perilous, unyielding, AI-boosted capitalism feels harder than ever. For every community-centered, person-to-person interaction I had with local clothing designers, artists and advocates, I received an invitation from a faceless PR account for a brand-sponsored champagne tasting or corporate-funded afterparty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At its worst, NBA All-Star in the Bay Area felt like “a big-ass commercial” (as my colleague \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13969956/nba-all-star-game-different-bay-area-oakland-san-francisco\">Pendarvis Harshaw pointed out\u003c/a> during Saturday’s Dunk Contest). Picture a high-culture experience nefariously mixed with big-business interests, plus influencers like Mr. Beast and Kai Cenat, and packaged as sports entertainment. It’s harder than ever in our world to tell what’s for profit and what’s for poetry. Who does it for the love of the game of basketball, and who’s doing it to play the game of networking and market share? \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I congratulated a local friend in the arts community who’d just finished a big brand sneaker collab for All-Star Weekend in their hometown of San Francisco, they responded with a somber reality: “Meh this was kinda wack… but I’m sure [visitors] can watch the influencers play.” As a voracious consumer of the NBA, and its constellation of stars and brand identities, to hear a trusted community member say their work was undervalued, even dismissed, gave me pause. That feeling was amplified throughout All-Star weekend, and that’s part of what we navigate daily as Bay Area people. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13971950\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.bus_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2000\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13971950\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.bus_.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.bus_-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.bus_-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.bus_-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.bus_-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.bus_-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.bus_-1920x1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Hoopbus, a basketball nonprofit, appeared at Bay Area schools and hosted free community events during NBA All-Star Weekend. \u003ccite>(Alan Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But it still felt hella good to see people come together like a giant regional family, proudly flaunting on a national stage our art, our spirit, our showmanship and our care for collective Bay Area success. I romped around in a newly released \u003ca href=\"https://www.lidshd.com/products/nba-all-star-nba-asg-x-grateful-dead-9forty-a-frame\">Grateful Dead All-Star snapback\u003c/a>, dapping people up in a city that felt more activated than I can remember in years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a chance for us to show the industry what we have to offer,” LaRussell shared on stage. “Our light and our love.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When stripped away of all the corporate elements, that’s exactly what we did, and continue to do, as a community: supply enough game and hustle to remain long after the NBA leaves town.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"title": "At NBA All-Star Weekend, True Bay Area Culture Thrived — If You Knew Where to Find It | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>On Wednesday afternoon, hundreds of basketball fanatics snaked around San Francisco’s Chinatown, awaiting the limited edition release of Nike’s Kobe Bryant “Year of the Snake” sneakers. Red and gold lanterns dangled above the narrow streets — where the city’s Lunar New Year parade would commence just days later — providing a natural and calculated backdrop for the shoe behemoth’s latest Asian-inspired drop. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To celebrate the moment, a nearby mural was unveiled by local artists \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/tdk\">TDK Vogue\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/twinwallsmuralcompany/?hl=en\">Twin Walls\u003c/a>, depicting the late Bryant surrounded by Asian children, a black mamba and Chinese iconography. This clash of a global corporation and the multicultural, street-level talent of the Bay served as a bold reminder of the Bay Area’s vibrantly diverse, creatively imbued enclaves and intersections — just in time for NBA All-Star Weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Spanning three days, the annual showcase of the most skilled basketballers in the world completely took over the Bay Area this past weekend, with hundreds of high-profile events scattered throughout greater San Francisco and Oakland. It provided no shortage of after-hours shenanigans that showcased the most eccentric — and most embarrassing — elements of today’s Bay Area culture in a series of concerts, parties and “activations” for fans visiting from around the globe (the NBA reported 34 nations in attendance at the weekend’s games).\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13971951\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.kobemural.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1500\" height=\"2000\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13971951\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.kobemural.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.kobemural-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.kobemural-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.kobemural-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.kobemural-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.kobemural-1152x1536.jpg 1152w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Kobe Bryant tribute mural titled ‘Mamba Mentality’ at Willie ‘Woo Woo’ Wong Playground in San Francisco’s Chinatown. The mural was completed by Elaine Chu and Marina Perez-Wong of Twin Walls, TDK Vogue and Joseph Lopez for a Nike event held during NBA All-Star Weekend. \u003ccite>(Alan Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The weekend kicked off with the Rising Stars Game on Friday, which saw the NBA’s youngest talents going head-to-head against each other, with the victors facing off against the league’s most established stars in Sunday’s big game. Vallejo’s own rising star, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/larussell\">LaRussell\u003c/a>, stole the show with a halftime performance of a previously unreleased song based on All- Star Weekend. “I used to watch All-Star from the house, now we here” he announced to the crowd, before performing an acoustic version of “GT Coupe” from his extensive catalog.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, LaRussell was a major force throughout the weekend, popping up as a guest at Jordan Brand-sponsored events, and delivering a cathartic, out-of-body live performance for a VIP crowd at Stephen Curry’s Club Thirty — the 11-time All-Star’s pop-up lounge hosted at Splash, a mega sports bar that just opened next door to Chase Center. With appearances from \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/saweetie\">Saweetie\u003c/a>, Too Short, P-Lo, Money B of Digital Underground, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/mistah-fab\">Mistah F.A.B.\u003c/a> and Richie Rich, LaRussell lifted the predominantly Bay Area crowd with live-band renditions of regional anthems, including 2Pac’s “I Get Around,” P-Lo’s “Put Me On Something,” Mistah F.A.B.’s “N.E.W Oakland” and Mac Dre’s “Get Stupid.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rest of the weekend contained Bay Area Easter eggs and overt hat-tips alike to the region’s unique sound and history. Visuals of the Bay’s iconic bridges and architecture flashed on the arena jumbotron while Bay Area classics from Tony Bennett’s “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” to E-40’s “Tell Me When To Go” blared from the stadium-capacity speakers. Subtle touches, like ongoing audio clips of Too $hort instructing referees to “blow the whistle” during Saturday’s Three-Point Contest, added to the thoughtful incorporation of Bay Area culture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13971956\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.saweetie.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13971956\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.saweetie.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.saweetie-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.saweetie-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.saweetie-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.saweetie-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.saweetie-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.saweetie-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Saweetie performs during the 74th NBA All-Star Game at Chase Center on Feb. 16, 2025 in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For Sunday’s marquee game, a skit by onetime Bay Area resident Katt Williams about the Golden Gate Bridge set a comedic tone. E-40 and hall-of-famers Chris Mullin and Barry Bonds followed by introducing Raphael Saadiq for a pregame performance of Bay Area music, including covers of rock legends Metallica, Steve Miller, Santana and the Doobie Brothers. Oakland R&B legends En Vogue joined Saweetie, Too Short and E-40 for the halftime show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it wasn’t all as smoothly executed as a Steph Curry layup in the paint; there were plenty of hollow moments and figurative air balls, too. The weekend’s most-publicized events and primetime headliners hinged on \u003ca href=\"https://48hills.org/2025/02/why-is-sfs-nba-all-star-weekend-musical-lineup-so-meh/\">sauceless “meh” celebrities like Flo Rida and the Chainsmokers\u003c/a> rather than utilizing the Bay’s rich plentitude of local, fan-favorite artistry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This meant the best happenings transpired off-site, often by invitation from local figures and entities who made a genuine effort to appease the Bay Area audience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp> A Marshawn Lynch event in Alameda featuring \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13913821/endeavors-agency-oakland-assan-jethmal-rozz-nash\">Hueman\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13957194/seiji-oda-bay-area-rap-lo-fi-minimalist-hyphy\">Seiji Oda\u003c/a>, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13920049/sydney-welchs-photography-features-the-latest-wave-of-bay-area-talent\">Sydney Welch\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13955802/bay-area-rappers-food-lyrics-illustrations-e-40-larry-june\">Larry June\u003c/a>’s (free) sold-out show at August Hall with his latest collaborators, \u003ca href=\"https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/larry-june-2-chainz-the-alchemist-life-is-beautiful/\">2Chainz and the Alchemist\u003c/a>. San Francisco designer \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13929529/sewing-new-life-into-levis-jeans\">Paolo Cui\u003c/a>’s involvement with Nike Tech Fleece to make customized, Japanese sashiko-sewn gear for NBA All-Stars like Victor Wembanyama. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13936639/jubo-iguanas-filipino-burrito-juborrito-collaboration-san-jose\">Jubo Clothing\u003c/a>’s “For The Soil” drop. Filmmakers like \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13928650/pens-pals-putting-on-for-tehran-in-the-bay\">Mohammad Gorjestani\u003c/a> and rappers like P-Lo (who \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13971354/p-lo-for-the-soil-warriors-golden-state-entertainment-nba-all-star-weekend\">just released an album with the Golden State Warriors\u003c/a>) appearing at the Union and Jordan Brand sneaker release party at the St. Joseph’s Art Society. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the quick-thrill moments of seeing a towering NBA legend like Tracy McGrady casually strolling past you on the street, the weekend’s magic was most palpable outside of the high-altitude stratosphere. Those priced out of the arena populated smaller experiences and All-Star themed parties at satellite venues, helping the Bay Area’s endlessly divergent culture to stand out. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13971952\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.line_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2000\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13971952\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.line_.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.line_-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.line_-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.line_-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.line_-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.line_-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.line_-1920x1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fans line up for an NBA All-Star Weekend event at Foot Locker in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Alan Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Finding genuine community in a time of perilous, unyielding, AI-boosted capitalism feels harder than ever. For every community-centered, person-to-person interaction I had with local clothing designers, artists and advocates, I received an invitation from a faceless PR account for a brand-sponsored champagne tasting or corporate-funded afterparty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At its worst, NBA All-Star in the Bay Area felt like “a big-ass commercial” (as my colleague \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13969956/nba-all-star-game-different-bay-area-oakland-san-francisco\">Pendarvis Harshaw pointed out\u003c/a> during Saturday’s Dunk Contest). Picture a high-culture experience nefariously mixed with big-business interests, plus influencers like Mr. Beast and Kai Cenat, and packaged as sports entertainment. It’s harder than ever in our world to tell what’s for profit and what’s for poetry. Who does it for the love of the game of basketball, and who’s doing it to play the game of networking and market share? \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I congratulated a local friend in the arts community who’d just finished a big brand sneaker collab for All-Star Weekend in their hometown of San Francisco, they responded with a somber reality: “Meh this was kinda wack… but I’m sure [visitors] can watch the influencers play.” As a voracious consumer of the NBA, and its constellation of stars and brand identities, to hear a trusted community member say their work was undervalued, even dismissed, gave me pause. That feeling was amplified throughout All-Star weekend, and that’s part of what we navigate daily as Bay Area people. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13971950\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.bus_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2000\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13971950\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.bus_.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.bus_-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.bus_-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.bus_-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.bus_-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.bus_-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/NBAAllStar.bus_-1920x1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Hoopbus, a basketball nonprofit, appeared at Bay Area schools and hosted free community events during NBA All-Star Weekend. \u003ccite>(Alan Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But it still felt hella good to see people come together like a giant regional family, proudly flaunting on a national stage our art, our spirit, our showmanship and our care for collective Bay Area success. I romped around in a newly released \u003ca href=\"https://www.lidshd.com/products/nba-all-star-nba-asg-x-grateful-dead-9forty-a-frame\">Grateful Dead All-Star snapback\u003c/a>, dapping people up in a city that felt more activated than I can remember in years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a chance for us to show the industry what we have to offer,” LaRussell shared on stage. “Our light and our love.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>For anyone questioning whether the next generation will pick up the baton of quality hip-hop music — with clever lyrics, dope beats and fly music videos — look no further than East Oakland’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/paris.nights/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Paris Nights\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nights, who’s scheduled to headline \u003ca href=\"https://yoshis.com/events/buy-tickets/daboydame-playtoomuch-presents-paris-nights-feat-nique/detail?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaYhpM3JWBkeZlgXV1aHE-oYBETBVc6xUCKMS1PhfrmdOdkOTReIoAe27IY_aem_HXxpFDYZUMRe8Vf-66fYhg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">at Yoshi’s in Oakland on Nov. 5\u003c/a>, is setting the internet ablaze with her original verses and short video renditions of classic R&B and hip-hop tracks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In one video, she sits on a staircase as she drops bars over the beat to \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka5ZRdszKlo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Keith Sweat’s “Make It Last Forever.”\u003c/a> In another, she floats over the instrumental to \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W60kx6VA0E\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Lauryn Hill’s “Ex-Factor” \u003c/a>as she reads a book under a palm tree at Oakland’s Eastshore Park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uopc9JIbmSw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Nights’ version of D’Angelo’s “Lady”\u003c/a> features her dressed in her finest neo-soul-inspired earth tone turtleneck and hat, standing in a downtown Oakland BART station while spitting bars about how this guy needs to recognize that she’s the one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qok5Rcn4rq4\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qok5Rcn4rq4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">her version of Jay-Z’s “Excuse Me Miss,”\u003c/a> Nights brings us back to the turn of the millennium. Styled in an argyle sweater vest, glasses, box braids and skirt, she sits on bleachers at a park as she breaks a portable CD player out of her backpack. She then proceeds to spit lyrics about a lavish lifestyle over The Neptunes’ multi-platinum production.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of all of the videos she’s posted so far, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZiNf2OnfJE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Nights’ version of DMX’s “How’s It Going Down”\u003c/a> has garnered the most attention. With hundreds of thousands of views across multiple platforms, she clearly tapped into something that the people like.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With the DMX freestyle,” says Nights during a recent call, “I kind of switched it up a little bit by incorporating more acting.” She says she was intentional about bringing more of “a cinematic feel” to the production.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The video opens with the instrumental thumping as the words “Oakland, CA 1998” appear on the screen. Nights, standing at a corner on the cusp of Oakland’s Chinatown, recites a verse full of clever cadences and nimble rhyme schemes. While the bars are one thing, the aesthetic of the video is where she wins: Donning big bamboo earrings and a pair of baggy jeans, she uses a pay phone to act as if the verse is a message to a man on the other end of the line. The music video is even shot with a darkened filter, creating moody lighting similar to that of the original video, directed by Hype Williams.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZiNf2OnfJE\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nights was a baby when many of her reference tracks dropped, but through the guidance of her mother, she’s been set on the right path. And now with her own music, Nights is looking to be a continuation of that vibe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just want to bring them back to a time that felt good for them,” Nights says, referring to folks who miss the music of the late ’90s and early ’00s. “Back when it wasn’t just about Instagram or social media in general, when it was just a fun time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A student of the game since she was a child, Nights looked up to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13953284/nicki-minaj-review-oakland-arena-pink-friday-2-tour\">Nicki Minaj’s\u003c/a> music when she was in 5th grade . Aware of other women in the rap game — Lil Kim, Foxy Brown, Eve and others who predated Minaj — Nights fell in love with Nicki’s rhyme patterns and voice inflections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, Nights wrote her very first rap to the sound of “Dear Old Nicki,” off Minaj’s \u003cem>Pink Friday\u003c/em> album.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now 26, Nights sees that by paying homage to the people who influenced her she can explore another layer of her own artistry. And the listeners appreciate her doing so. \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“\u003c/span>I found a way to kind of grab the audience’s attention,” says Nights, “by showing them another piece of me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After dropping her 2022 solo album of all original music, titled \u003ca href=\"https://open.spotify.com/album/4KG4dClU4DmUtGr9cAzAHX\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>Thank Me Now\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, and putting out two mixtape projects in subsequent years (\u003ca href=\"https://open.spotify.com/album/1i8NsFPXIr4mJ1vljxFrJt?si=snY-8fg-RjS-MFdi4DdAvg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Full Package: Act I\u003c/a> in 2023 and \u003ca href=\"https://open.spotify.com/album/7b8f4dCFRTPXc0YL0zjuEn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Full Package: Act II\u003c/a> earlier this year), Nights is on the verge of dropping more tracks for her fans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have another Full Package: Act III,” she says. “We don’t have a specific [release] date yet, but it’s done.\u003ci>“\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_PkmlAeS9g\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As buzz around her name grows, Nights’ layers of talent continue to show. Earlier this year she performed her original song “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh9yu9UV-5I\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">From, Your Daughter”\u003c/a> on the major music video platform On The Radar. A month later she was featured on the song and in the movie-like music video for DaBoyDame’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fl5KlkyCxts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">“Grand Finale”\u003c/a> track, alongside E-40, Symba and Chippass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13966594,arts_13953284,arts_13934715']\u003c/span>\u003c/span>A proud product of East Oakland and well connected to her Bay Area community, Nights isn’t hesitant to point out that her sound isn’t the norm for this region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With a combination of a gravelly delivery, punchy lyrics and clever similes, mixed with fly fashion and fully fleshed out concepts for music videos, Nights says, “I’m showing them there’s different versions of an Oakland girl. We don’t just all sound the same.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Very clear on how she’s moving as an artist, Nights adds, “I’m opening people’s ears, just showing people that you can be different.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Paris Nights will perform at Yoshi’s in Oakland on Nov. 5. For tickets and info, \u003ca href=\"https://yoshis.com/events/buy-tickets/daboydame-playtoomuch-presents-paris-nights-feat-nique/detail?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaYhpM3JWBkeZlgXV1aHE-oYBETBVc6xUCKMS1PhfrmdOdkOTReIoAe27IY_aem_HXxpFDYZUMRe8Vf-66fYhg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">click here\u003c/a>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>For anyone questioning whether the next generation will pick up the baton of quality hip-hop music — with clever lyrics, dope beats and fly music videos — look no further than East Oakland’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/paris.nights/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Paris Nights\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nights, who’s scheduled to headline \u003ca href=\"https://yoshis.com/events/buy-tickets/daboydame-playtoomuch-presents-paris-nights-feat-nique/detail?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaYhpM3JWBkeZlgXV1aHE-oYBETBVc6xUCKMS1PhfrmdOdkOTReIoAe27IY_aem_HXxpFDYZUMRe8Vf-66fYhg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">at Yoshi’s in Oakland on Nov. 5\u003c/a>, is setting the internet ablaze with her original verses and short video renditions of classic R&B and hip-hop tracks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In one video, she sits on a staircase as she drops bars over the beat to \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka5ZRdszKlo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Keith Sweat’s “Make It Last Forever.”\u003c/a> In another, she floats over the instrumental to \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W60kx6VA0E\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Lauryn Hill’s “Ex-Factor” \u003c/a>as she reads a book under a palm tree at Oakland’s Eastshore Park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uopc9JIbmSw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Nights’ version of D’Angelo’s “Lady”\u003c/a> features her dressed in her finest neo-soul-inspired earth tone turtleneck and hat, standing in a downtown Oakland BART station while spitting bars about how this guy needs to recognize that she’s the one.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/Qok5Rcn4rq4'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/Qok5Rcn4rq4'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qok5Rcn4rq4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">her version of Jay-Z’s “Excuse Me Miss,”\u003c/a> Nights brings us back to the turn of the millennium. Styled in an argyle sweater vest, glasses, box braids and skirt, she sits on bleachers at a park as she breaks a portable CD player out of her backpack. She then proceeds to spit lyrics about a lavish lifestyle over The Neptunes’ multi-platinum production.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of all of the videos she’s posted so far, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZiNf2OnfJE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Nights’ version of DMX’s “How’s It Going Down”\u003c/a> has garnered the most attention. With hundreds of thousands of views across multiple platforms, she clearly tapped into something that the people like.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With the DMX freestyle,” says Nights during a recent call, “I kind of switched it up a little bit by incorporating more acting.” She says she was intentional about bringing more of “a cinematic feel” to the production.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The video opens with the instrumental thumping as the words “Oakland, CA 1998” appear on the screen. Nights, standing at a corner on the cusp of Oakland’s Chinatown, recites a verse full of clever cadences and nimble rhyme schemes. While the bars are one thing, the aesthetic of the video is where she wins: Donning big bamboo earrings and a pair of baggy jeans, she uses a pay phone to act as if the verse is a message to a man on the other end of the line. The music video is even shot with a darkened filter, creating moody lighting similar to that of the original video, directed by Hype Williams.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/ZZiNf2OnfJE'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/ZZiNf2OnfJE'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Nights was a baby when many of her reference tracks dropped, but through the guidance of her mother, she’s been set on the right path. And now with her own music, Nights is looking to be a continuation of that vibe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just want to bring them back to a time that felt good for them,” Nights says, referring to folks who miss the music of the late ’90s and early ’00s. “Back when it wasn’t just about Instagram or social media in general, when it was just a fun time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A student of the game since she was a child, Nights looked up to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13953284/nicki-minaj-review-oakland-arena-pink-friday-2-tour\">Nicki Minaj’s\u003c/a> music when she was in 5th grade . Aware of other women in the rap game — Lil Kim, Foxy Brown, Eve and others who predated Minaj — Nights fell in love with Nicki’s rhyme patterns and voice inflections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, Nights wrote her very first rap to the sound of “Dear Old Nicki,” off Minaj’s \u003cem>Pink Friday\u003c/em> album.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now 26, Nights sees that by paying homage to the people who influenced her she can explore another layer of her own artistry. And the listeners appreciate her doing so. \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“\u003c/span>I found a way to kind of grab the audience’s attention,” says Nights, “by showing them another piece of me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After dropping her 2022 solo album of all original music, titled \u003ca href=\"https://open.spotify.com/album/4KG4dClU4DmUtGr9cAzAHX\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>Thank Me Now\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, and putting out two mixtape projects in subsequent years (\u003ca href=\"https://open.spotify.com/album/1i8NsFPXIr4mJ1vljxFrJt?si=snY-8fg-RjS-MFdi4DdAvg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Full Package: Act I\u003c/a> in 2023 and \u003ca href=\"https://open.spotify.com/album/7b8f4dCFRTPXc0YL0zjuEn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Full Package: Act II\u003c/a> earlier this year), Nights is on the verge of dropping more tracks for her fans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have another Full Package: Act III,” she says. “We don’t have a specific [release] date yet, but it’s done.\u003ci>“\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/u_PkmlAeS9g'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/u_PkmlAeS9g'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>As buzz around her name grows, Nights’ layers of talent continue to show. Earlier this year she performed her original song “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh9yu9UV-5I\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">From, Your Daughter”\u003c/a> on the major music video platform On The Radar. A month later she was featured on the song and in the movie-like music video for DaBoyDame’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fl5KlkyCxts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">“Grand Finale”\u003c/a> track, alongside E-40, Symba and Chippass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/span>A proud product of East Oakland and well connected to her Bay Area community, Nights isn’t hesitant to point out that her sound isn’t the norm for this region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With a combination of a gravelly delivery, punchy lyrics and clever similes, mixed with fly fashion and fully fleshed out concepts for music videos, Nights says, “I’m showing them there’s different versions of an Oakland girl. We don’t just all sound the same.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Very clear on how she’s moving as an artist, Nights adds, “I’m opening people’s ears, just showing people that you can be different.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Paris Nights will perform at Yoshi’s in Oakland on Nov. 5. For tickets and info, \u003ca href=\"https://yoshis.com/events/buy-tickets/daboydame-playtoomuch-presents-paris-nights-feat-nique/detail?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaYhpM3JWBkeZlgXV1aHE-oYBETBVc6xUCKMS1PhfrmdOdkOTReIoAe27IY_aem_HXxpFDYZUMRe8Vf-66fYhg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">click here\u003c/a>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "A South San Francisco Rapper Turned His Sneaker Collection Into an Album",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/justpaulnow/?img_index=1\">San Francisco-born artist Paul Solis\u003c/a> first fell in love with hip-hop and basketball as a youth who grew up on the Peninsula during the mall-going culture of the ’90s.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Back then, Raekwon and Ghostface Killah of the indomitable Wu-Tang Clan were two of the flyest humans to traverse the planet. With tri-colored Polo jackets, Nike visors, baggy jeans and wheat-hued Timberland stompers, the rappers helped to define a New York street aesthetic that is still heralded in fashion circles today. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Meanwhile, saucy NBA players like Penny Hardaway, Jason Kidd and Charles Barkley began rocking signature pairs of Nikes and revolutionizing the way athletes could express themselves off the court.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Solis grew obsessed with it all, regularly visiting shops where he could baptize himself in the freshest gear. His go-to spot became Niketown on Post Street, where he would camp out overnight for sought-after footwear and apparel.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLJdIK6PAbM\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Solis — whose hip-hop nom de guerre is \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/justpaulnow/?img_index=1\">JustPaulNow\u003c/a> — has stitched that energy into his most recent album, \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Swoosh Pack \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(named after Nike’s timeless insignia). \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The 11-track project is a sentimental look at the MC’s childhood fascination-turned-spending addiction. Each song is titled after a specific sneaker — or a sneaker-related memory — in Solis’ collection. The Devin Booker 1s. The Air Force 180s. The Uptempos.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960756\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1707px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960756\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Swoosh2-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"a group of three rappers stand outside in San Francisco-themed apparel\" width=\"1707\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Swoosh2-scaled.jpg 1707w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Swoosh2-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Swoosh2-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Swoosh2-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Swoosh2-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Swoosh2-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Swoosh2-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Swoosh2-1920x2880.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1707px) 100vw, 1707px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">ShootYourShot Records co-founders Charles “CeeRock” Ubungen (right) and Paul “JustPaulNow” Solis (center) stand with Fredo Algebra (left) outside of their studio in South San Francisco. \u003ccite>(@80_west_collective)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Produced by New Zealand’s uber-smooth Kowhai, who connected with Solis online, \u003cem>Swoosh Pack\u003c/em> features Union City battle rapper \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/fredoalgebra/?hl=en\">Fredo Algebra\u003c/a>, Frisco spitter \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/jbillion\">J-Billion\u003c/a> and Solis’ longtime childhood friend, Charles “\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/ceerock/reels/?locale=%25E5%2588%25B6%25E4%25BD%259C%25E4%25B8%2580%25E4%25B8%25AA%25E9%2598%25BF%25E8%2581%25944%25E9%2585%258BPSGobank%25E9%2593%25B6%25E8%25A1%258C%25E5%25AF%25B9%25E8%25B4%25A6%25E5%258D%2595%25E3%2580%2596%25E5%25AE%25A2%25E6%259C%258D%25E5%25A8%2581%25E4%25BF%25A1%252BTG%252F%25E9%25A3%259E%25E6%259C%25BA%253A%2540buth2788%25E3%2580%2597dGXbi%7B%3F%3F%3F%3F1%7DRvPtN%258C%25E5%25AF%25B9%25E8%25B4%25A6%25E5%258D%2595%25E3%2580%2596%25E5%25AE%25A2%25E6%259C%258D%25E5%25A8%2581%25E4%25BF%25A1%252BTG%252F%25E9%25A3%259E%25E%25A2%25E6%259C%258D%25E5%25A8%2581%25E4%25BF%25A1%252BTG%252F%25E9%25A3%259E%25E6%259C%25BA%253Aw.instagram.com%2Fbluegodzi%2F%3Flocale%3D%25E5%2588%25B6%25E4%25BD%259C%25E4%25B8%2580%25E4%25B8%25AA%25E9%2598%25BF%25E8%2581%2594%25E9%2585%258BPSGobank%25E9%2593%25B6%25E8%25A1%258C%25E5%25AF%25B9%25E8%25B4%25A6%25E5%258D%2595%25E3%2580%2596%25E5%25AE%25A2%25E6%259C%258D%25E5%25A8%2581%25E4%25BF%25A1%252BTG%252F%25E9%25A3%259E%25E6%259C%25BA%253A%2540buth2788%25E3%2580%2597dGXbi%7B%3F%3F%3F%3F1%7D1VzTx\">CeeRock\u003c/a>” Ubungen.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The LP is a trademark collaboration with Ubungen, who is also a sound engineer and videographer. \u003c/span>It’s not the homegrown duo’s first effort, though. Together, they’ve been \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">dabbling in Golden Era, boom-bap music and showcasing the Peninsula’s fashion-driven subculture.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Music meets fashion at Shoot Your Shot Records\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Solis and Ubungen have known each other since adolescence, and have been in the local circuit for decades. They’ve performed alongside national acts like Curren$y and The Cool Kids, and have established themselves as de facto Bay Area shopping plugs for artists on tour here.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In 2018, Solis and Ubungen co-founded \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/shootyourshotrecords/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Shoot Your Shot Records\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Together, they run the independent label from a DIY studio located on the poetically named Victory Avenue in South San Francisco. It’s where they record music and film a live series called “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/@shootyourshotTV\">Hat Chat\u003c/a>” with \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fredo Algebra\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a fellow fashionista who designs baseball caps for streetwear boutiques around the country. When their crew isn’t making music, the rappers discuss the Bay’s latest fitted clothing releases and trends on YouTube. They also\u003c/span> occasionally host pop-up events for exclusive drops at spots like \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/1985gallery/\">Gallery 1985, an independent sneaker shop in Daly City\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Prior to \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Swoosh Pack\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, Solis delivered no shortage of fashion-forward albums like \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Arc’teryx To The Neck\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (a slick reference to the Canadian outdoor apparel company with a dash of Bay Area slang) and regionally popular singles like “Jordan Poole,” a former Golden State Warrior known for his drip.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960760\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960760\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Swoosh1-1-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"a pile of Nikes sneakers in the center of an empty room\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1589\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Swoosh1-1-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Swoosh1-1-800x497.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Swoosh1-1-1020x633.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Swoosh1-1-160x99.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Swoosh1-1-768x477.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Swoosh1-1-1536x954.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Swoosh1-1-2048x1272.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Swoosh1-1-1920x1192.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">From Jordan XIIIs to Nike Foamposites, Paul “JustPaulNow” Solis’s latest album is an ode to his sneaker collection. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Paul Solis)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Over six years, Shoot Your Shot has evolved into a multimedia platform for like-minded artists. \u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Swoosh Pack\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is simply their latest, most polished offering.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘The Nikes on my feet keep my cypher complete’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>It’s easy for music about the halcyon days to get lost in a meaningless glorification of the past. What \u003cem>Swoosh Pack\u003c/em> excels in, though, is balancing nostalgia with an intimate kind of reflection and vulnerability. \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The album is introspective and thoughtful in ways one might not expect for an album dedicated to branded footwear.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In “Campouts,” \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Solis references selling sneakers to pay rent and sipping E&J while camping out in Union Square to cop the Jordan Laser 4s and other lionized sneaker releases of yore. The rapper outlines an era of early MySpace, before you could just order UberEats and had to “camp out for kicks with the homies” to be a part of the culture. “Man, I really miss this thing of ours,” he croons on the hook, providing a window into the kind of human connectivity that feels absent today.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuSyl115XII\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the title track, Solis goes even further into his past. Slant rhymes\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> like “Just me and my mom on those lonely nights / engulfed in pop culture as an only child” provide a depth that goes beyond a show of bravado and clout chasing. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are moments of levity and geeking out as well. On “Air Force 180s,” for example, Solis’s flow \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">is simplistic, clean and to the point: “vintage mountain North Face with the ladder locks from 94 / two tone Rangers [fitted hat] when I step up to the batter’s box… keep a clean fade, Nike Air bubbles what I’m standing on.” [aside postid='arts_13961014']\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For the unenlightened, it may sound like a litany of gibberish. But for true sultans of coolness, Solis’ outline of individual style are a feast of references — like the ultra-specific fashion terminology of a throwback North Face jacket that features a certain kind of buttoning system for ultimate cold-weather functionality. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">By the album’s end, it’s easy to appreciate the rapper’s attachment to sneakers and fashion accoutrements as not simply material objects, but as artifacts of memory, of pride, of a time and place that hold power whenever he wears them. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And we get to wear that power as listeners, too.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/justpaulnow/?img_index=1\">San Francisco-born artist Paul Solis\u003c/a> first fell in love with hip-hop and basketball as a youth who grew up on the Peninsula during the mall-going culture of the ’90s.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Back then, Raekwon and Ghostface Killah of the indomitable Wu-Tang Clan were two of the flyest humans to traverse the planet. With tri-colored Polo jackets, Nike visors, baggy jeans and wheat-hued Timberland stompers, the rappers helped to define a New York street aesthetic that is still heralded in fashion circles today. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Meanwhile, saucy NBA players like Penny Hardaway, Jason Kidd and Charles Barkley began rocking signature pairs of Nikes and revolutionizing the way athletes could express themselves off the court.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Solis grew obsessed with it all, regularly visiting shops where he could baptize himself in the freshest gear. His go-to spot became Niketown on Post Street, where he would camp out overnight for sought-after footwear and apparel.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/LLJdIK6PAbM'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/LLJdIK6PAbM'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Solis — whose hip-hop nom de guerre is \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/justpaulnow/?img_index=1\">JustPaulNow\u003c/a> — has stitched that energy into his most recent album, \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Swoosh Pack \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(named after Nike’s timeless insignia). \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The 11-track project is a sentimental look at the MC’s childhood fascination-turned-spending addiction. Each song is titled after a specific sneaker — or a sneaker-related memory — in Solis’ collection. The Devin Booker 1s. The Air Force 180s. The Uptempos.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960756\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1707px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960756\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Swoosh2-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"a group of three rappers stand outside in San Francisco-themed apparel\" width=\"1707\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Swoosh2-scaled.jpg 1707w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Swoosh2-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Swoosh2-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Swoosh2-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Swoosh2-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Swoosh2-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Swoosh2-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Swoosh2-1920x2880.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1707px) 100vw, 1707px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">ShootYourShot Records co-founders Charles “CeeRock” Ubungen (right) and Paul “JustPaulNow” Solis (center) stand with Fredo Algebra (left) outside of their studio in South San Francisco. \u003ccite>(@80_west_collective)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Produced by New Zealand’s uber-smooth Kowhai, who connected with Solis online, \u003cem>Swoosh Pack\u003c/em> features Union City battle rapper \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/fredoalgebra/?hl=en\">Fredo Algebra\u003c/a>, Frisco spitter \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/jbillion\">J-Billion\u003c/a> and Solis’ longtime childhood friend, Charles “\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/ceerock/reels/?locale=%25E5%2588%25B6%25E4%25BD%259C%25E4%25B8%2580%25E4%25B8%25AA%25E9%2598%25BF%25E8%2581%25944%25E9%2585%258BPSGobank%25E9%2593%25B6%25E8%25A1%258C%25E5%25AF%25B9%25E8%25B4%25A6%25E5%258D%2595%25E3%2580%2596%25E5%25AE%25A2%25E6%259C%258D%25E5%25A8%2581%25E4%25BF%25A1%252BTG%252F%25E9%25A3%259E%25E6%259C%25BA%253A%2540buth2788%25E3%2580%2597dGXbi%7B%3F%3F%3F%3F1%7DRvPtN%258C%25E5%25AF%25B9%25E8%25B4%25A6%25E5%258D%2595%25E3%2580%2596%25E5%25AE%25A2%25E6%259C%258D%25E5%25A8%2581%25E4%25BF%25A1%252BTG%252F%25E9%25A3%259E%25E%25A2%25E6%259C%258D%25E5%25A8%2581%25E4%25BF%25A1%252BTG%252F%25E9%25A3%259E%25E6%259C%25BA%253Aw.instagram.com%2Fbluegodzi%2F%3Flocale%3D%25E5%2588%25B6%25E4%25BD%259C%25E4%25B8%2580%25E4%25B8%25AA%25E9%2598%25BF%25E8%2581%2594%25E9%2585%258BPSGobank%25E9%2593%25B6%25E8%25A1%258C%25E5%25AF%25B9%25E8%25B4%25A6%25E5%258D%2595%25E3%2580%2596%25E5%25AE%25A2%25E6%259C%258D%25E5%25A8%2581%25E4%25BF%25A1%252BTG%252F%25E9%25A3%259E%25E6%259C%25BA%253A%2540buth2788%25E3%2580%2597dGXbi%7B%3F%3F%3F%3F1%7D1VzTx\">CeeRock\u003c/a>” Ubungen.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The LP is a trademark collaboration with Ubungen, who is also a sound engineer and videographer. \u003c/span>It’s not the homegrown duo’s first effort, though. Together, they’ve been \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">dabbling in Golden Era, boom-bap music and showcasing the Peninsula’s fashion-driven subculture.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Music meets fashion at Shoot Your Shot Records\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Solis and Ubungen have known each other since adolescence, and have been in the local circuit for decades. They’ve performed alongside national acts like Curren$y and The Cool Kids, and have established themselves as de facto Bay Area shopping plugs for artists on tour here.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In 2018, Solis and Ubungen co-founded \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/shootyourshotrecords/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Shoot Your Shot Records\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Together, they run the independent label from a DIY studio located on the poetically named Victory Avenue in South San Francisco. It’s where they record music and film a live series called “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/@shootyourshotTV\">Hat Chat\u003c/a>” with \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fredo Algebra\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a fellow fashionista who designs baseball caps for streetwear boutiques around the country. When their crew isn’t making music, the rappers discuss the Bay’s latest fitted clothing releases and trends on YouTube. They also\u003c/span> occasionally host pop-up events for exclusive drops at spots like \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/1985gallery/\">Gallery 1985, an independent sneaker shop in Daly City\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Prior to \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Swoosh Pack\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, Solis delivered no shortage of fashion-forward albums like \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Arc’teryx To The Neck\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (a slick reference to the Canadian outdoor apparel company with a dash of Bay Area slang) and regionally popular singles like “Jordan Poole,” a former Golden State Warrior known for his drip.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960760\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960760\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Swoosh1-1-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"a pile of Nikes sneakers in the center of an empty room\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1589\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Swoosh1-1-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Swoosh1-1-800x497.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Swoosh1-1-1020x633.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Swoosh1-1-160x99.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Swoosh1-1-768x477.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Swoosh1-1-1536x954.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Swoosh1-1-2048x1272.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Swoosh1-1-1920x1192.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">From Jordan XIIIs to Nike Foamposites, Paul “JustPaulNow” Solis’s latest album is an ode to his sneaker collection. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Paul Solis)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Over six years, Shoot Your Shot has evolved into a multimedia platform for like-minded artists. \u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Swoosh Pack\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is simply their latest, most polished offering.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘The Nikes on my feet keep my cypher complete’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>It’s easy for music about the halcyon days to get lost in a meaningless glorification of the past. What \u003cem>Swoosh Pack\u003c/em> excels in, though, is balancing nostalgia with an intimate kind of reflection and vulnerability. \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The album is introspective and thoughtful in ways one might not expect for an album dedicated to branded footwear.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In “Campouts,” \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Solis references selling sneakers to pay rent and sipping E&J while camping out in Union Square to cop the Jordan Laser 4s and other lionized sneaker releases of yore. The rapper outlines an era of early MySpace, before you could just order UberEats and had to “camp out for kicks with the homies” to be a part of the culture. “Man, I really miss this thing of ours,” he croons on the hook, providing a window into the kind of human connectivity that feels absent today.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/XuSyl115XII'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/XuSyl115XII'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>On the title track, Solis goes even further into his past. Slant rhymes\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> like “Just me and my mom on those lonely nights / engulfed in pop culture as an only child” provide a depth that goes beyond a show of bravado and clout chasing. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are moments of levity and geeking out as well. On “Air Force 180s,” for example, Solis’s flow \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">is simplistic, clean and to the point: “vintage mountain North Face with the ladder locks from 94 / two tone Rangers [fitted hat] when I step up to the batter’s box… keep a clean fade, Nike Air bubbles what I’m standing on.” \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For the unenlightened, it may sound like a litany of gibberish. But for true sultans of coolness, Solis’ outline of individual style are a feast of references — like the ultra-specific fashion terminology of a throwback North Face jacket that features a certain kind of buttoning system for ultimate cold-weather functionality. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">By the album’s end, it’s easy to appreciate the rapper’s attachment to sneakers and fashion accoutrements as not simply material objects, but as artifacts of memory, of pride, of a time and place that hold power whenever he wears them. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And we get to wear that power as listeners, too.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>It was a scene straight out of the Apollo Theater: A full band on stage, vamping a steady groove. Two female backup singers approaching the mic with a singing chant: “Cell-ski… Cell-ski…” And then, walking in from the wings and past the rhythm section, Cellski himself, launching into “It’s On,” the first track from his 1994 album \u003cem>Mr. Predicter\u003c/em>. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a February night earlier this year at a packed-to-the-gills Brick & Mortar Music Hall in San Francisco, but with the band in the pocket and Cellski on his game — and the crowd in the palm of his hand — the show felt timeless. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13922141']Now, Cellski’s back for a victory lap, and he’s bringing a lineup of rap veterans along. When he performs in San Francisco on Saturday, he’ll be joined by C-Bo, Dru Down, RBL Posse, D-Lo, J Stalin, B-Legit, Ramirez 187 and other special guests. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And then there’s the band, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/topchefsband/\">Top Chefs\u003c/a>, a tight ensemble of younger musicians from the Frisco collective \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/family-not-a-group\">Family Not a Group\u003c/a>. Part of what made the February show a success was its cross-generational aspect: today’s upcoming hip-hop artists backing up the legends and soaking up game.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With so many guests on this weekend’s bill, it’s unclear whether Cellski will perform \u003cem>Mr. Predicter\u003c/em> in its entirety, as he recently did to celebrate its 30th anniversary. But expect hits from the canon of San Francisco rap, tributes to the recently departed Lakeview rapper \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfHv9mNs98Y\">Baldhead Rick\u003c/a>, and Cellski, a true street legend, leading the party. \u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Cellski performs with the Top Chefs and a slate of guests on Saturday, June 15, at the Midway in San Francisco. \u003ca href=\"https://www.tixr.com/groups/midwaysf/events/chemical-baby-presents-cellski-friends-101696\">Tickets and details here\u003c/a>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>It was a scene straight out of the Apollo Theater: A full band on stage, vamping a steady groove. Two female backup singers approaching the mic with a singing chant: “Cell-ski… Cell-ski…” And then, walking in from the wings and past the rhythm section, Cellski himself, launching into “It’s On,” the first track from his 1994 album \u003cem>Mr. Predicter\u003c/em>. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a February night earlier this year at a packed-to-the-gills Brick & Mortar Music Hall in San Francisco, but with the band in the pocket and Cellski on his game — and the crowd in the palm of his hand — the show felt timeless. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Now, Cellski’s back for a victory lap, and he’s bringing a lineup of rap veterans along. When he performs in San Francisco on Saturday, he’ll be joined by C-Bo, Dru Down, RBL Posse, D-Lo, J Stalin, B-Legit, Ramirez 187 and other special guests. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And then there’s the band, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/topchefsband/\">Top Chefs\u003c/a>, a tight ensemble of younger musicians from the Frisco collective \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/family-not-a-group\">Family Not a Group\u003c/a>. Part of what made the February show a success was its cross-generational aspect: today’s upcoming hip-hop artists backing up the legends and soaking up game.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With so many guests on this weekend’s bill, it’s unclear whether Cellski will perform \u003cem>Mr. Predicter\u003c/em> in its entirety, as he recently did to celebrate its 30th anniversary. But expect hits from the canon of San Francisco rap, tributes to the recently departed Lakeview rapper \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfHv9mNs98Y\">Baldhead Rick\u003c/a>, and Cellski, a true street legend, leading the party. \u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Cellski performs with the Top Chefs and a slate of guests on Saturday, June 15, at the Midway in San Francisco. \u003ca href=\"https://www.tixr.com/groups/midwaysf/events/chemical-baby-presents-cellski-friends-101696\">Tickets and details here\u003c/a>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "bay-area-rappers-food-lyrics-illustrations-e-40-larry-june",
"title": "Here’s What Bay Area Rappers Are Eating (According to Their Lyrics)",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dropcap]W[/dropcap]hen conveying what it means to really be from the Bay Area, I often return to this simple yet revelatory \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/mac-dre\">Mac Dre\u003c/a> lyric: “In the Bay Area, we dance a little different.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whether it’s in our music, political activism or technological contributions, there’s a certain out-of-box forwardness that tends to manifest from Bay Area minds — a distinguishable pride in how we approach everything with a savvy sprinkling of game, hustlership and top-tier ideation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The same can be said for the Bay Area’s food scene, which ranks among the nation’s best and most imaginative. From sourdough bread to the eternal Mission-style burrito, the Bay’s foodmakers have often been ahead of the curve, helping to revolutionize menus nationwide with their fresh farm-to-table approach. To borrow from the great Mac, one could say that in the Bay Area, we \u003ci>eat\u003c/i> a little different.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13907726,arts_13934248']\u003c/span>It’s no surprise, then, that in the history of local rap, food has always been a strong reference point — a metaphorical kitchen for creative exchange. An endless platter of well-seasoned slang. For decades, our rappers have delivered punchlines involving sauce, lasagna and \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMah0rX6pGU\">lumpia\u003c/a>; dropped verses that generously reference \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkBJR5L2nas\">desserts and bakeries\u003c/a>; and supplied entire songs about stacking bread, cheese and lettuce as lucrative sandwiches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/bay-area-rap-shrimp-crab-17915372.php\">Food-loving Bay Area rappers\u003c/a> have always been bold when it comes to transmorphing culinary items and kitchen utensils into slang that others then appropriate and even misuse (see: “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13908052/food-doesnt-slap\">food doesn’t slap\u003c/a>”). Shock G once talked about getting busy in a Burger King bathroom and declared, “I like my oatmeal lumpy.” On “Dreganomics,” Mac Dre himself asked, “What’s spaghetti without the sauce?” We’ve got Suga T (sweet) and Spice 1 (hot). Berner founded \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/cookiessf/?hl=en\">Cookies\u003c/a>. And just a few weeks ago, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13900085/stunnaman02-and-the-big-steppin-energy-in-the-room\">Stunnaman02\u003c/a> dropped a whole series of viral videos centered on his latest single. His focus? \u003ca href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@jayworrld/video/7340701934355254574\">Eating a salad\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s a unifying ethos in Bay Area food and rap: \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6GU3PmttyI\">Everybody eats\u003c/a>. So here’s a brief ode to some of our region’s most skilled vocabulary chefs and the tasteful ways they’ve reimagined the ingredients of language that are possible in a kitchen — and the recording studio.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956090\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956090\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/E40-Color-1.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration of the rapper E-40 in sunglasses and a beige apron, holding a glass of red wine. In front of him are a burrito and a grilled cheese sandwich.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/E40-Color-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/E40-Color-1-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/E40-Color-1-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/E40-Color-1-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/E40-Color-1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/E40-Color-1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/E40-Color-1-1920x1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">E-40 might be the most prolific inventor of food-related slang words in the English language. He’s a head chef in the Bay Area’s rap kingdom. \u003ccite>(Torre / @torre.pentel)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>E-40: Green eggs, hams, candy yams, Spam, cheese, peanut butter and jam on “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etIBcRriUJY\">The Slap\u003c/a>”\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“Digital scale, green eggs and hams / Yams, candy yams, Spam, damn! / Loaded, my cheese, peanut butter and jam / Sammich, mannish, me and my Hispanics / Vanish, talkin’ in codes like we from different planets.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though it may sound like gibberish to the uninitiated, rest assured that \u003ca href=\"https://firstwefeast.com/eat/2013/12/food-rap-decoded-with-e-40-video\">99.99% of anything 40 Water vocalizes has a cleverly associative meaning\u003c/a>. For anyone who has listened to one of the more than 25 studio albums from Vallejo’s kingpin, you’ve surely heard him mention food — perhaps in a variety of languages (some real, some ingeniously invented). In addition to the smorgasbord he notes above in “The Slap,” he has pioneered rhymes across generations that give new meanings to Gouda, feta, mozzarella, lettuce, bread, sausage, salami, paninis, spaghetti, tacos and enchiladas — ad infinitum. Unsurprisingly, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13907726/e-40-goon-with-the-spoon-bay-area-rappers-food-entrepreneurs-hustle\">Mr. Fonzarelli is an actual purveyor of foods and beverages\u003c/a>, with a line of products that includes malt liquor, ice cream and burritos; he even co-owns \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/thelumpiacompany/\">The Lumpia Company\u003c/a>. There’s no one with a bigger million-dollar mouthpiece who can distribute as much word candy (“S-L-A-N-G”) quite as flavorfully as the Goon With The Spoon himself.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Andre Nickatina: TOGO’s #41 sandwich with the hot peppers on “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FU1XdPE6lM\">Fa Show\u003c/a>”\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“Baby don’t act dumb, I’m number 41, high stepper / TOGO’s sandwich with the hot peppers / At 90 degrees I might freeze, so when it’s hot I sport leather.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fillmore’s finest, and among \u003ca href=\"https://www.passionweiss.com/2016/11/17/andre-nickatina/\">the most criminally underrated San Francisco rappers in history\u003c/a>, Andre Nickatina has always had a penchant for the spicy, the flavorful, the extemporaneously saucy. From rapping about eating Cap’n Crunch around drug dealers to sarcastically handing out Baskin Robbins dollars to his enemies, Nicky Nicotine (formerly known as Dre Dog) raps about food as casually as any rapper would ever dare. Unlike many of today’s international rap personalities, who seem to only eat at \u003ca href=\"https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/6frbt9/why_are_rappers_obsessed_with_nobu_sushi/\">high-priced sushi conglomerates\u003c/a>, Nickatina is a Bay Area real one, electing to stay fed at a regional sandwich chain from San Jose. The enigmatic “number 41” on the \u003ca href=\"https://www.togos.com/menu/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwoPOwBhAeEiwAJuXRh69gJ2fS8J9qmnAKJEnCmI5720psTxEmhEmkgFAemWoe3auyNuuxExoCTm0QAvD_BwE\">Togo’s menu\u003c/a> has since been discontinued, but a spokesperson for the restaurant IDed it as a sirloin steak and mushroom sandwich that was introduced as a seasonal special back in 2002 — the same year “Fa Show” was released. There is no doubt it must’ve been fire, given its endorsement by a legend who knows how to professionally “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8TXpoi-goE\">Break Bread\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956088\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956088\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/KAMAIYAH-Color-1.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration of the rapper Kamaiyah eating from a plate of chicken alfredo tucked under her arm. Next to her is a bottle of champagne.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/KAMAIYAH-Color-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/KAMAIYAH-Color-1-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/KAMAIYAH-Color-1-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/KAMAIYAH-Color-1-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/KAMAIYAH-Color-1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/KAMAIYAH-Color-1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/KAMAIYAH-Color-1-1920x1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kamaiyah’s album covers often feature food, Hennessey and champagne — a reflection of the rapper’s saucy, bossy lifestyle. \u003ccite>(Torre / @torre.pentel)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Kamaiyah: Champagne and chicken on “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yls2dMJ63tM\">Whatever Whenever\u003c/a>”\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“Just drink champagne with all my chicken meals.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s fitting that East Oakland’s Kamaiyah — who cooked up the searingly hot single “How Does It Feel” on her transcendent debut, \u003ci>A Good Night in the Ghetto\u003c/i> — continued to double down on aspirational living and good eating with her sophomore release, \u003ci>Got It Made\u003c/i>. As always, the bodacious trapper rhymes over a synth-laced, floaty-spaceship soundscape while bragging about her California riches — and cuisine. The music video for “Whatever Whenever” features Kamaiyah roaming the untainted grounds of a Napa Valley-esque chateau. Her album covers over the years have also featured bags of potato chips, Hennessy and double-fisted bottles of champagne. It’s always bottoms up when Kamaiyah is on the track.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Too $hort: Macaroni, steak and collard greens on “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ru5B8cFskaw\">All My B*tches Are Gone\u003c/a>”\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“Eat some shit up / macaroni, steak, collard greens, or whatever the fuck.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With over 35 years of classic albums like \u003ci>Cocktails\u003c/i> and \u003ci>Gettin’ It\u003c/i>, there’s no doubt that Short Dogg knows how to feed his multi-generational fanbase. He doesn’t shy away from straightforward lyrics — or having a large appetite for nefarious activities — and he has continued to make seasoned slaps for precisely 225,000 hours and counting (“get a calculator, do the math”). This OG’s plate of choice includes classic soul food staples served with a slab of steak. As the veteran unmistakably outlines on “This How We Eat”: “We make money, we eat, we feed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956087\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956087\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/LARRY-JUNE-Color-1.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration of the rapper Larry June in an SF Giants cap, holding a crab cracker in one hand and a fork in the other. In front of him is a whole lobster on a plate.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/LARRY-JUNE-Color-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/LARRY-JUNE-Color-1-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/LARRY-JUNE-Color-1-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/LARRY-JUNE-Color-1-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/LARRY-JUNE-Color-1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/LARRY-JUNE-Color-1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/LARRY-JUNE-Color-1-1920x1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Besides establishing himself as the healthiest rapper in Bay Area lore, Larry June is also known for sporting vintage muscle cars and cracking lobsters in Sausalito as part of his luxurious lifestyle. \u003ccite>(Torre / @torre.pentel)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Larry June: Crab legs on “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luIhlZBrJos\">Lifetime Income\u003c/a>”\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“This not my girlfriend, we just eatin’ crab legs.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you know Larry June, then you know he’s all about smoothies, green teas, organic juices and oranges (yee hee!). But just as buttery are his numerously silky references to luxury meals and late-night outings with a seemingly endless rotation of women friends. Without question, the Hunters Point rapper has one of the healthiest appetites of anyone around a microphone, regularly dropping rhymes about his organic sustenance. Since Uncle Larry makes a living off his out-of-pocket food references, he merits an honorable mention for dropping other absolute bangers like “I might write a motherfuckin’ smoothie book or somethin’ … Sell this shit for thirty dollars” and “Watermelon juice riding bikes with my latest chick / I don’t do the clubs that often, I got a check to get.” It’s fitting that \u003ca href=\"https://uproxx.com/music/larry-june-interview-san-francisco/\">he also co-owns Honeybear Boba in the Dogpatch\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Iamsu!: Chicken strips and Moscato on “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQcxMU3uvLg\">Don’t Stop\u003c/a>”\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“Keep it real I don’t brag though… / Chicken strips, no escargot / [sippin’] on the Moscato.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To be fair, this lyric is from a young, mixtape-era Iamsu! and might not reflect the current palate of the multi-platinum rapper and producer from Richmond. (In fact, that’s probably true of every rapper on this list, so take these lyrics with a grain of salt.) But when I first heard this song in my 20s, it’s a line that did — and still does — resonate for its unglamorized celebration of living on a low-budget microwaveable diet while maintaining a glimmer of high-life ambition. Personally, I’d take chicken strips over escargot nine out of ten times. And, from the sound of it, so would Suzy 6 Speed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956086\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956086\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/PLO-Color-1.jpg\" alt=\"The rapper P-Lo wiggles his fingers in delight over a plate of chicken wings sitting on a bed of dollar bills.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/PLO-Color-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/PLO-Color-1-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/PLO-Color-1-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/PLO-Color-1-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/PLO-Color-1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/PLO-Color-1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/PLO-Color-1-1920x1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">P-Lo often raps about his love of chicken (chicken adobo, fried chicken, chicken wings), and his favorite food-related slang word is also “chicken” (as a stand in for “money”). \u003ccite>(Torre / @torre.pentel)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>P-Lo: Chicken wings in the strip club on “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-ajtPhAQ1U\">Going To Work\u003c/a>”\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“In the strip club eating chicken wings.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13938479']\u003c/span>There may not be another rapper on this list with as much love for chicken wings as Pinole’s P-Lo. For starters, the lyricist and producer launched a transnational food tour, teaming up with Filipino restaurants around the U.S. and Canada to deliver collaborative one-off dishes, including \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13935891/p-lo-senor-sisig-filipino-food-tour-oakland\">his own spicy sinigang wings at Señor Sisig in Oakland\u003c/a>. If that’s not enough, he has popped up on popular social media channels like \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/bayareafoodz/?hl=en\">Bay Area Foodz\u003c/a> as \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJYkVcpM6E0\">he searches for the best wings around the Yay\u003c/a>. His songs are even featured on \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/reel/CwyzdhfrNCE/\">national commercials for Wingstop\u003c/a>. For P-Lo, it’s always time to bring back the bass — and taste.\u003cb>\u003ci>\u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Guap (formerly Guapdad 4000): Chicken adobo on “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DaovaJgytE\">Chicken Adobo\u003c/a>”\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“How I fell in love with you it was beautiful / Like chicken adobo how you fill me up.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the Black Filipino American rapper from West Oakland, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13905208/a-new-generation-of-filipino-hip-hop-builds-on-a-deep-bay-area-legacy\">food has always played a central role in his upbringing\u003c/a>. The anime-loving, Marvel comics fan grew up in a Filipino household eating champorado, and his songs have never shied away from references to his dual cultures. In what might be his most well-known song, Guap equates romantic satiation to filling up on a bowl of chicken adobo. His love of food goes beyond the booth — he recently spoke out on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13950363/keith-lee-tiktok-oakland-sf-bay-area-struggles\">the recent Keith Lee fiasco\u003c/a>, and he also put together\u003ca href=\"https://trippin.world/guide/oaklands-top-food-joints-with-rapper-guapdad-4000\"> a map of his favorite places to eat around The Town\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Cellski: Canadian bacon, hash browns and cheddar cheese on “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6wFRZOd7n8\">Chedda\u003c/a>”\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“Gotta get the cheddar, fuck the [federals].”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As most food mentions in Bay Area rap goes, Cellski’s mention of this quintessentially North American breakfast combo isn’t exactly a homage to the real ingredients, as much as it is a reference to his hustling. His 1998 \u003ca href=\"https://www.discogs.com/release/841568-Cellski-Canadian-Bacon-Hash-Browns/image/SW1hZ2U6NDg3ODMxNzk=\">album cover\u003c/a> for \u003ci>Canadian Bacon & Hash Browns \u003c/i>features a cartoon depiction of the rapper getting pulled over and arrested by a Canadian mountie, with an open trunk revealing pounds of medicinal herbs. Nonetheless, there’s a good chance that the veteran San Francisco spitter actually does like to carry Canadian bacon, hash browns and cheddar around — \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13922141/cellskis-big-mafi-burgers-come-with-a-side-of-sf-rap-history\">he’s a part-time foodie who runs his own burger pop-up, after all\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956089\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956089\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DRU-DOWN-Color-1.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration of the rapper Dru Down in gold sunglasses and a black trench coat, holding an ice cream cone in one hand and an ice cream sundae on the table in front of him.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DRU-DOWN-Color-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DRU-DOWN-Color-1-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DRU-DOWN-Color-1-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DRU-DOWN-Color-1-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DRU-DOWN-Color-1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DRU-DOWN-Color-1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DRU-DOWN-Color-1-1920x1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In a famous 1996 beef, Dru Down and the Luniz accused New Orleans rapper Master P (who started his musical career in the Bay Area) for stealing their concept of the “Ice Cream Man” — slang for a narcotics dealer. \u003ccite>(Torre / @torre.pentel)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Dru Down: Ice cream on “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uNv2qAje-Q\">Ice Cream Man\u003c/a>” (with the Luniz)\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“Get your ice cream, ice cream / Not Ice-T, not Ice Cube, ice cream.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not intended for children, the classic 1993 anthem off Dru Down’s \u003ci>Fools From The Street \u003c/i>paints a startling picture of addiction and illicit drug distribution around Oakland in the wake of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan’s War on Drugs. Despite its unapologetic content, “Ice Cream Man” went on to establish an indisputably popular food motif in national rap music: ice cream as a stand-in for drug dealing. Since the production includes an audio sampling of an ice cream truck’s inimitable tune, listening to it evokes a sense of nostalgia for the frozen treat — and for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop\">golden-era Bay Area hip-hop\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "A brief look at some of the Bay Area’s most notoriously hungry rappers — and the foods they’ve lyricized about.",
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"title": "Bay Area Rappers and Food Lyrics | KQED",
"description": "A brief look at some of the Bay Area’s most notoriously hungry rappers — and the foods they’ve lyricized about.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">W\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>hen conveying what it means to really be from the Bay Area, I often return to this simple yet revelatory \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/mac-dre\">Mac Dre\u003c/a> lyric: “In the Bay Area, we dance a little different.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whether it’s in our music, political activism or technological contributions, there’s a certain out-of-box forwardness that tends to manifest from Bay Area minds — a distinguishable pride in how we approach everything with a savvy sprinkling of game, hustlership and top-tier ideation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The same can be said for the Bay Area’s food scene, which ranks among the nation’s best and most imaginative. From sourdough bread to the eternal Mission-style burrito, the Bay’s foodmakers have often been ahead of the curve, helping to revolutionize menus nationwide with their fresh farm-to-table approach. To borrow from the great Mac, one could say that in the Bay Area, we \u003ci>eat\u003c/i> a little different.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>It’s no surprise, then, that in the history of local rap, food has always been a strong reference point — a metaphorical kitchen for creative exchange. An endless platter of well-seasoned slang. For decades, our rappers have delivered punchlines involving sauce, lasagna and \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMah0rX6pGU\">lumpia\u003c/a>; dropped verses that generously reference \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkBJR5L2nas\">desserts and bakeries\u003c/a>; and supplied entire songs about stacking bread, cheese and lettuce as lucrative sandwiches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/bay-area-rap-shrimp-crab-17915372.php\">Food-loving Bay Area rappers\u003c/a> have always been bold when it comes to transmorphing culinary items and kitchen utensils into slang that others then appropriate and even misuse (see: “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13908052/food-doesnt-slap\">food doesn’t slap\u003c/a>”). Shock G once talked about getting busy in a Burger King bathroom and declared, “I like my oatmeal lumpy.” On “Dreganomics,” Mac Dre himself asked, “What’s spaghetti without the sauce?” We’ve got Suga T (sweet) and Spice 1 (hot). Berner founded \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/cookiessf/?hl=en\">Cookies\u003c/a>. And just a few weeks ago, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13900085/stunnaman02-and-the-big-steppin-energy-in-the-room\">Stunnaman02\u003c/a> dropped a whole series of viral videos centered on his latest single. His focus? \u003ca href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@jayworrld/video/7340701934355254574\">Eating a salad\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s a unifying ethos in Bay Area food and rap: \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6GU3PmttyI\">Everybody eats\u003c/a>. So here’s a brief ode to some of our region’s most skilled vocabulary chefs and the tasteful ways they’ve reimagined the ingredients of language that are possible in a kitchen — and the recording studio.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956090\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956090\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/E40-Color-1.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration of the rapper E-40 in sunglasses and a beige apron, holding a glass of red wine. In front of him are a burrito and a grilled cheese sandwich.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/E40-Color-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/E40-Color-1-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/E40-Color-1-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/E40-Color-1-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/E40-Color-1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/E40-Color-1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/E40-Color-1-1920x1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">E-40 might be the most prolific inventor of food-related slang words in the English language. He’s a head chef in the Bay Area’s rap kingdom. \u003ccite>(Torre / @torre.pentel)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>E-40: Green eggs, hams, candy yams, Spam, cheese, peanut butter and jam on “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etIBcRriUJY\">The Slap\u003c/a>”\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“Digital scale, green eggs and hams / Yams, candy yams, Spam, damn! / Loaded, my cheese, peanut butter and jam / Sammich, mannish, me and my Hispanics / Vanish, talkin’ in codes like we from different planets.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though it may sound like gibberish to the uninitiated, rest assured that \u003ca href=\"https://firstwefeast.com/eat/2013/12/food-rap-decoded-with-e-40-video\">99.99% of anything 40 Water vocalizes has a cleverly associative meaning\u003c/a>. For anyone who has listened to one of the more than 25 studio albums from Vallejo’s kingpin, you’ve surely heard him mention food — perhaps in a variety of languages (some real, some ingeniously invented). In addition to the smorgasbord he notes above in “The Slap,” he has pioneered rhymes across generations that give new meanings to Gouda, feta, mozzarella, lettuce, bread, sausage, salami, paninis, spaghetti, tacos and enchiladas — ad infinitum. Unsurprisingly, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13907726/e-40-goon-with-the-spoon-bay-area-rappers-food-entrepreneurs-hustle\">Mr. Fonzarelli is an actual purveyor of foods and beverages\u003c/a>, with a line of products that includes malt liquor, ice cream and burritos; he even co-owns \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/thelumpiacompany/\">The Lumpia Company\u003c/a>. There’s no one with a bigger million-dollar mouthpiece who can distribute as much word candy (“S-L-A-N-G”) quite as flavorfully as the Goon With The Spoon himself.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Andre Nickatina: TOGO’s #41 sandwich with the hot peppers on “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FU1XdPE6lM\">Fa Show\u003c/a>”\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“Baby don’t act dumb, I’m number 41, high stepper / TOGO’s sandwich with the hot peppers / At 90 degrees I might freeze, so when it’s hot I sport leather.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fillmore’s finest, and among \u003ca href=\"https://www.passionweiss.com/2016/11/17/andre-nickatina/\">the most criminally underrated San Francisco rappers in history\u003c/a>, Andre Nickatina has always had a penchant for the spicy, the flavorful, the extemporaneously saucy. From rapping about eating Cap’n Crunch around drug dealers to sarcastically handing out Baskin Robbins dollars to his enemies, Nicky Nicotine (formerly known as Dre Dog) raps about food as casually as any rapper would ever dare. Unlike many of today’s international rap personalities, who seem to only eat at \u003ca href=\"https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/6frbt9/why_are_rappers_obsessed_with_nobu_sushi/\">high-priced sushi conglomerates\u003c/a>, Nickatina is a Bay Area real one, electing to stay fed at a regional sandwich chain from San Jose. The enigmatic “number 41” on the \u003ca href=\"https://www.togos.com/menu/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwoPOwBhAeEiwAJuXRh69gJ2fS8J9qmnAKJEnCmI5720psTxEmhEmkgFAemWoe3auyNuuxExoCTm0QAvD_BwE\">Togo’s menu\u003c/a> has since been discontinued, but a spokesperson for the restaurant IDed it as a sirloin steak and mushroom sandwich that was introduced as a seasonal special back in 2002 — the same year “Fa Show” was released. There is no doubt it must’ve been fire, given its endorsement by a legend who knows how to professionally “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8TXpoi-goE\">Break Bread\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956088\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956088\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/KAMAIYAH-Color-1.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration of the rapper Kamaiyah eating from a plate of chicken alfredo tucked under her arm. Next to her is a bottle of champagne.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/KAMAIYAH-Color-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/KAMAIYAH-Color-1-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/KAMAIYAH-Color-1-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/KAMAIYAH-Color-1-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/KAMAIYAH-Color-1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/KAMAIYAH-Color-1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/KAMAIYAH-Color-1-1920x1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kamaiyah’s album covers often feature food, Hennessey and champagne — a reflection of the rapper’s saucy, bossy lifestyle. \u003ccite>(Torre / @torre.pentel)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Kamaiyah: Champagne and chicken on “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yls2dMJ63tM\">Whatever Whenever\u003c/a>”\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“Just drink champagne with all my chicken meals.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s fitting that East Oakland’s Kamaiyah — who cooked up the searingly hot single “How Does It Feel” on her transcendent debut, \u003ci>A Good Night in the Ghetto\u003c/i> — continued to double down on aspirational living and good eating with her sophomore release, \u003ci>Got It Made\u003c/i>. As always, the bodacious trapper rhymes over a synth-laced, floaty-spaceship soundscape while bragging about her California riches — and cuisine. The music video for “Whatever Whenever” features Kamaiyah roaming the untainted grounds of a Napa Valley-esque chateau. Her album covers over the years have also featured bags of potato chips, Hennessy and double-fisted bottles of champagne. It’s always bottoms up when Kamaiyah is on the track.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Too $hort: Macaroni, steak and collard greens on “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ru5B8cFskaw\">All My B*tches Are Gone\u003c/a>”\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“Eat some shit up / macaroni, steak, collard greens, or whatever the fuck.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With over 35 years of classic albums like \u003ci>Cocktails\u003c/i> and \u003ci>Gettin’ It\u003c/i>, there’s no doubt that Short Dogg knows how to feed his multi-generational fanbase. He doesn’t shy away from straightforward lyrics — or having a large appetite for nefarious activities — and he has continued to make seasoned slaps for precisely 225,000 hours and counting (“get a calculator, do the math”). This OG’s plate of choice includes classic soul food staples served with a slab of steak. As the veteran unmistakably outlines on “This How We Eat”: “We make money, we eat, we feed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956087\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956087\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/LARRY-JUNE-Color-1.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration of the rapper Larry June in an SF Giants cap, holding a crab cracker in one hand and a fork in the other. In front of him is a whole lobster on a plate.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/LARRY-JUNE-Color-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/LARRY-JUNE-Color-1-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/LARRY-JUNE-Color-1-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/LARRY-JUNE-Color-1-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/LARRY-JUNE-Color-1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/LARRY-JUNE-Color-1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/LARRY-JUNE-Color-1-1920x1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Besides establishing himself as the healthiest rapper in Bay Area lore, Larry June is also known for sporting vintage muscle cars and cracking lobsters in Sausalito as part of his luxurious lifestyle. \u003ccite>(Torre / @torre.pentel)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Larry June: Crab legs on “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luIhlZBrJos\">Lifetime Income\u003c/a>”\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“This not my girlfriend, we just eatin’ crab legs.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you know Larry June, then you know he’s all about smoothies, green teas, organic juices and oranges (yee hee!). But just as buttery are his numerously silky references to luxury meals and late-night outings with a seemingly endless rotation of women friends. Without question, the Hunters Point rapper has one of the healthiest appetites of anyone around a microphone, regularly dropping rhymes about his organic sustenance. Since Uncle Larry makes a living off his out-of-pocket food references, he merits an honorable mention for dropping other absolute bangers like “I might write a motherfuckin’ smoothie book or somethin’ … Sell this shit for thirty dollars” and “Watermelon juice riding bikes with my latest chick / I don’t do the clubs that often, I got a check to get.” It’s fitting that \u003ca href=\"https://uproxx.com/music/larry-june-interview-san-francisco/\">he also co-owns Honeybear Boba in the Dogpatch\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Iamsu!: Chicken strips and Moscato on “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQcxMU3uvLg\">Don’t Stop\u003c/a>”\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“Keep it real I don’t brag though… / Chicken strips, no escargot / [sippin’] on the Moscato.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To be fair, this lyric is from a young, mixtape-era Iamsu! and might not reflect the current palate of the multi-platinum rapper and producer from Richmond. (In fact, that’s probably true of every rapper on this list, so take these lyrics with a grain of salt.) But when I first heard this song in my 20s, it’s a line that did — and still does — resonate for its unglamorized celebration of living on a low-budget microwaveable diet while maintaining a glimmer of high-life ambition. Personally, I’d take chicken strips over escargot nine out of ten times. And, from the sound of it, so would Suzy 6 Speed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956086\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956086\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/PLO-Color-1.jpg\" alt=\"The rapper P-Lo wiggles his fingers in delight over a plate of chicken wings sitting on a bed of dollar bills.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/PLO-Color-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/PLO-Color-1-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/PLO-Color-1-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/PLO-Color-1-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/PLO-Color-1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/PLO-Color-1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/PLO-Color-1-1920x1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">P-Lo often raps about his love of chicken (chicken adobo, fried chicken, chicken wings), and his favorite food-related slang word is also “chicken” (as a stand in for “money”). \u003ccite>(Torre / @torre.pentel)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>P-Lo: Chicken wings in the strip club on “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-ajtPhAQ1U\">Going To Work\u003c/a>”\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“In the strip club eating chicken wings.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>There may not be another rapper on this list with as much love for chicken wings as Pinole’s P-Lo. For starters, the lyricist and producer launched a transnational food tour, teaming up with Filipino restaurants around the U.S. and Canada to deliver collaborative one-off dishes, including \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13935891/p-lo-senor-sisig-filipino-food-tour-oakland\">his own spicy sinigang wings at Señor Sisig in Oakland\u003c/a>. If that’s not enough, he has popped up on popular social media channels like \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/bayareafoodz/?hl=en\">Bay Area Foodz\u003c/a> as \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJYkVcpM6E0\">he searches for the best wings around the Yay\u003c/a>. His songs are even featured on \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/reel/CwyzdhfrNCE/\">national commercials for Wingstop\u003c/a>. For P-Lo, it’s always time to bring back the bass — and taste.\u003cb>\u003ci>\u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Guap (formerly Guapdad 4000): Chicken adobo on “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DaovaJgytE\">Chicken Adobo\u003c/a>”\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“How I fell in love with you it was beautiful / Like chicken adobo how you fill me up.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the Black Filipino American rapper from West Oakland, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13905208/a-new-generation-of-filipino-hip-hop-builds-on-a-deep-bay-area-legacy\">food has always played a central role in his upbringing\u003c/a>. The anime-loving, Marvel comics fan grew up in a Filipino household eating champorado, and his songs have never shied away from references to his dual cultures. In what might be his most well-known song, Guap equates romantic satiation to filling up on a bowl of chicken adobo. His love of food goes beyond the booth — he recently spoke out on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13950363/keith-lee-tiktok-oakland-sf-bay-area-struggles\">the recent Keith Lee fiasco\u003c/a>, and he also put together\u003ca href=\"https://trippin.world/guide/oaklands-top-food-joints-with-rapper-guapdad-4000\"> a map of his favorite places to eat around The Town\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Cellski: Canadian bacon, hash browns and cheddar cheese on “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6wFRZOd7n8\">Chedda\u003c/a>”\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“Gotta get the cheddar, fuck the [federals].”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As most food mentions in Bay Area rap goes, Cellski’s mention of this quintessentially North American breakfast combo isn’t exactly a homage to the real ingredients, as much as it is a reference to his hustling. His 1998 \u003ca href=\"https://www.discogs.com/release/841568-Cellski-Canadian-Bacon-Hash-Browns/image/SW1hZ2U6NDg3ODMxNzk=\">album cover\u003c/a> for \u003ci>Canadian Bacon & Hash Browns \u003c/i>features a cartoon depiction of the rapper getting pulled over and arrested by a Canadian mountie, with an open trunk revealing pounds of medicinal herbs. Nonetheless, there’s a good chance that the veteran San Francisco spitter actually does like to carry Canadian bacon, hash browns and cheddar around — \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13922141/cellskis-big-mafi-burgers-come-with-a-side-of-sf-rap-history\">he’s a part-time foodie who runs his own burger pop-up, after all\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956089\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956089\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DRU-DOWN-Color-1.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration of the rapper Dru Down in gold sunglasses and a black trench coat, holding an ice cream cone in one hand and an ice cream sundae on the table in front of him.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DRU-DOWN-Color-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DRU-DOWN-Color-1-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DRU-DOWN-Color-1-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DRU-DOWN-Color-1-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DRU-DOWN-Color-1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DRU-DOWN-Color-1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DRU-DOWN-Color-1-1920x1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In a famous 1996 beef, Dru Down and the Luniz accused New Orleans rapper Master P (who started his musical career in the Bay Area) for stealing their concept of the “Ice Cream Man” — slang for a narcotics dealer. \u003ccite>(Torre / @torre.pentel)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Dru Down: Ice cream on “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uNv2qAje-Q\">Ice Cream Man\u003c/a>” (with the Luniz)\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“Get your ice cream, ice cream / Not Ice-T, not Ice Cube, ice cream.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not intended for children, the classic 1993 anthem off Dru Down’s \u003ci>Fools From The Street \u003c/i>paints a startling picture of addiction and illicit drug distribution around Oakland in the wake of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan’s War on Drugs. Despite its unapologetic content, “Ice Cream Man” went on to establish an indisputably popular food motif in national rap music: ice cream as a stand-in for drug dealing. Since the production includes an audio sampling of an ice cream truck’s inimitable tune, listening to it evokes a sense of nostalgia for the frozen treat — and for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop\">golden-era Bay Area hip-hop\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "jay-caspian-kang-asian-food-san-jose-hella-hungry",
"title": "Jay Caspian Kang Loves Bay Area Food — But Isn’t Shy About Bashing It",
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"headTitle": "Jay Caspian Kang Loves Bay Area Food — But Isn’t Shy About Bashing It | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003ci>¡Hella Hungry! is a series of interviews with Bay Area foodmakers exploring the region’s culinary innovations through the mouth of a first-generation local.\u003c/i>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Inside \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://gangnamtofuusa.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Gangnam Tofu\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a destination-worthy Korean restaurant in an otherwise unremarkable El Cerrito strip mall, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/jaycaspiankang?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Jay Caspian Kang\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> orders a round of shareable dishes — galbi, honey-cheese fried chicken and budae jjigae (a wartime-era stew of mixed meats and noodles) — for us to split. As the lunch crowd pours in behind him, Kang tells me why he likes Gangnam over most other Asian eateries in the area: “I just want to eat standard Korean food that’s prepared well.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Though he surprisingly prefers his spicy food mild, the Korean-born \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://goodbye.substack.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">podcast host\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, novelist and \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">New Yorker \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">staff writer serves plenty of hot takes on everything from the shortcomings of technology (he’s an aspiring luddite) to the most underrated rap albums of the past quarter century (he stands with Mos Def in the internet feud against Drake). And when it comes to the hypocrisies of Bay Area politics, he especially \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/london-breeds-cynical-swing-to-the-right\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">doesn’t hold back\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13950802\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13950802\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-09-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-09-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-09-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-09-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-09-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-09-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-09-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-09-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Best known for articles he’s written for national publications such as the New Yorker, Kang has lived in Berkeley since 2019. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Having settled in Berkeley after years of living in New York City and Los Angeles, Kang has developed a genuine appreciation for the Bay Area’s microcultures. Despite growing up on the East Coast and often writing about topics of national interest, Kang has in many ways become a quintessential Northern Californian: In his free time, you might find him surfing or wandering the aisles at Berkeley Bowl.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And yet, he’s also someone who brings a worldly outsider’s unflinching perspective to controversial Bay Area topics such as the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/what-does-californias-homeless-population-actually-look-like\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">housing crisis\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/28/magazine/where-does-affirmative-action-leave-asian-americans.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">affirmative action\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. He’ll even let you know that \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/jaycaspiankang/status/1740961971498074151\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the Asian food in Las Vegas is better than the Bay Area’s\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Perhaps \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13950363/keith-lee-tiktok-oakland-sf-bay-area-struggles\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">our region needs that tough love\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> now more than ever.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">While talking to the sports-loving dad and low-key hip-hop historian about the highs and lows of Bay Area living, I remembered why I love this quirky region so deeply, despite its complex truths. Here’s what everyone’s favorite \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/jaycaspiankang\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Tyler Hansborough evangelist\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.houseofstrauss.com/p/hos-jay-caspian-kang\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">reformed online troll\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> has to say about the state of the Bay — and its food offerings — in these precarious times.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">********\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alan Chazaro: You were born in Korea, grew up in North Carolina and have lived in a ton of places. How long have you been in the Bay Area?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jay Caspian Kang: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I went to college in New England, and then I went to New York for grad school. But after that, I moved out to California and lived here in San Francisco for six, seven years. I was working as a high school teacher. Then I moved to L.A., back to New York, and then right before the pandemic we moved back out here to Berkeley. It’s been four years now. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13950796\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13950796\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-03-KQED.jpg\" alt='Hand pointing to the \"honey cheese chicken\" on Korean restaurant menu.' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-03-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-03-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-03-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-03-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-03-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-03-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-03-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Perusing the menu at GangNam Tofu . \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You’ve written about \u003c/b>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/22/magazine/writing-the-wave.html\">\u003cb>your passion for surfing\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003cb> in the Bay. What draws you to that?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’m not a good surfer, but yeah, I spend most of my time thinking about surfing. For years, I just went to Ocean Beach all the time, and you get used to it and, you know, you learn how to avoid trouble. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I go once or twice a week. That’s the only way you can do it: You have to prioritize it. Or else, if you don’t, then you don’t ever go. If I get a Zoom call, I’ll just cancel that. You have to live with some of the consequences after, but surfing is very necessary for my mental well-being.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>It sounds like you’ve reached some kind of Zen mindstate. Did you achieve that when you were living in Los Angeles?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I don’t really like to drive. And I’ve never liked Hollywood culture. I just find that the people I vibe most with are generally up here.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Who do you think is a good example of the Bay Area’s creativity and open-mindedness?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Look at MC Hammer. He grew up doing that boogaloo style of dancing in East Oakland. He downloaded that as a kid. He blew it up into worldwide fame in a modified kind of way. Now that he’s old, his presence on social media is just showing all these old videos of guys from his neighborhood dancing. I find it amazing that he’s willing to go back and show these kids from his block who were his influences, and he’s basically showing how that made him who he is. That’s community, music coming out of community. He’s interesting because he’s like the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13909788/mc-hammer-oakland-redman-too-short-crips-louis-burrell-mc-serch-hit-e40\">most Oakland dude ever\u003c/a>, but he’s not always seen as being affiliated with that (laughs). \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13950797\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13950797\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-04-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-04-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-04-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-04-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-04-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-04-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-04-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-04-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kang and KQED reporter Alan Chazaro put in their order. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The Bay is weird like that. There’s a lot of different characters here.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It is weird. It’s interesting how someone like E-40 has become this sort of mascot as a rapper. He’s the dude. He’s like an entire persona. And people love him because he goes to all the games. I’ve never seen Too $hort at a game. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Did you grow up listening to a lot of Bay Area rap out on the East Coast?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I grew up listening to whatever you imagine a 44-year-old man would listen to (laughs). A Tribe Called Quest. Wu-Tang. Mobb Deep. Then you had the Bay Area, so there was like “Blowjob Betty” or whatever, and you would listen to it, and it was crazy because it was just so nasty. Luniz, Del [the Funky Homosapien]. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Del is the one I personally listened to the most. I still listen to him. The Deltron 3030 album is brilliant. The production on that album is \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">fucking\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> crazy. The whole concept is weird. [Bay Area producer] Dan the Automator had been messing with concept albums for a while. That was just a cool kind of rap with enough label support to make weird shit. That was before MF DOOM and all those dudes. It’s like Del imagining the future, and Del is awesome. He kills it. That album is low-key one of the 20 best rap albums ever. I hesitate to put it higher because is it as important as, say, KRS One? I don’t know. Listening to those KRS One albums can feel like you’re just doing your homework. I bet more people enjoyed Deltron 3030.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What’s more Bay Area than an Asian American producer teaming up with a nerdy Black dude from East Oakland to make a futuristic album about a fictional dystopian society?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Totally. And these guys were getting deeply influenced by the shit that’s happening with \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13812554/how-daly-citys-filipino-mobile-dj-scene-changed-hip-hop-forever\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Filipino DJs in Daly City\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Every city has some version of that, but it’s so interesting in the Bay because it really is so multiracial. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>I wonder if the Bay Area still represents that as much as it once did. You commented on the whole \u003c/b>\u003cb>fiasco with TikTok food critic Keith Lee’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13950363/keith-lee-tiktok-oakland-sf-bay-area-struggles\">recent Bay Area visit\u003c/a>\u003c/b>\u003cb>. He said the Bay is “not a place for tourists” right now. What do you think about that?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There’s no question that the Bay Area is going through a difficult time right now. If Keith Lee went to the Tenderloin and parts of East Oakland, which it seems like he did — or even if he went to 24th and Mission, which is highly trafficked — people when they come to the Bay Area and see that, it’s shocking to them. You have to be real about it. You don’t see that in New York. You see it in L.A. but it’s mostly in the Skid Row area. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Bay Area has had these issues for a long time, but it was more contained and it didn’t feel like it was as big of a problem. When I moved to San Francisco around 2002, I got off BART at 16th Street. I was like, \u003cem>Wow, this is kind of wild\u003c/em>. And now that has really expanded to a lot of places where a lot more people go. So in the Bay, you get these people coming for conferences or just visiting to see Fisherman’s Wharf, and chances are the hotel is going to be in Union Square or directly in the Tenderloin. So when you leave your hotel, you’re seeing really bad shit. That shocks outsiders and contributes to an unfair narrative. If you put all of the hotels in L.A. on Skid Row, everyone would be saying the same thing about L.A. But at the same time, I think it’s good to bring attention to this problem: We have completely out-of-control homelessness in one of the richest cities in America, and that paradox and contradiction is impossible to resolve.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The way out of it is going to be super messy and will create reactionary elements. People like [\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">San Fransicko \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">author] Michael Shellenberger believe all these \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/Michael-Shellenberger-s-narrative-of-California-17172493.php\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">drug addicts should just be put in jail.\u003c/span>\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://invisiblepeople.tv/san-francisco-mayor-london-breed-joins-calls-to-punish-homeless-people-overturn-martin-v-boise/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">London Breed sometimes feels that way, too\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. But I think overall, those people are underestimating that the San Francisco Bay Area is a very progressive place. They will never accept us locking up these people. And that’s a good thing. The idea that you’re going to lock up the poor and throw away the key, it’s just not going to happen. Right now we’re in a period of extremes: of extreme cynicism and despair. And for good reason, because it’s fucking bad, you know? But I still wouldn’t trade places with anyone to live somewhere else in this country. It’s a trade-off.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13950799\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13950799\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-06-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-06-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-06-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-06-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-06-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-06-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-06-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-06-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gangnam Tofu’s version of budae jjigae is a soft tofu stew loaded with sausage and noodles. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Despite our struggles, there’s so much to discover here and so many pockets of rich culture. You actually \u003c/b>\u003cb>had a take\u003c/b>\u003cb> that most of the \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/jaycaspiankang/status/1740965943998927231\">Asian food in the Bay Area is bad\u003c/a>, outside of in San Jose. I’m not sure many outsiders, or even locals, would voice that.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So here’s the thing. This is just my theory. Immigrant food is only really good in a certain time period after the people who are making it have immigrated here. For example, new Chinese populations in the United States will have much better food in their restaurants, and in those areas where they are living, than older, established Chinese populations. And the reason for that is very simple. It’s that food on the mainland continues to evolve, right? But the immigrants who have been living here for decades don’t. They’re frozen in time. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13904835,arts_13950363,arts_13938479']My parents left Korea in 1978, and they never go back except for a little visit throughout 25 years. And by 1999, their understanding of Korean cuisine is basically frozen in 1978, because every single other person who owns a Korean restaurant also came around that same time, because there was a big wave of immigration from ’75 to ’79. I know that in San Francisco you have a multi-generational embedded Chinese population. But at this point, like, what are we even eating? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A lot of Chinese restaurants [in San Francisco] feel like they’re a movie set or something. It’s very charming, but it’s very old school. In the Richmond, there are places you can find that are exceptions to that. But right now, the cradle for the best Chinese food is from Cupertino to Mountain View, all around Silicon Valley. And the reason for that is because there are a lot of new Chinese immigrants that are coming to work there. In addition to that, there’s this \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13904913/vietnamese-drinks-boba-che-guide-san-jose\">Vietnamese mall culture in San Jose\u003c/a>. It’s getting a little old-fashioned, but it’s still super vibrant. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[pullquote size=\"large\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Jay Caspian Kang\"]‘Food on the mainland continues to evolve, right? But the immigrants who have been living here for decades don’t. They’re frozen in time.’[/pullquote]I just don’t find anything like that out here in the East Bay. We have taqueros in people’s backyards, and that’s very distinct and fully immigrant-driven, so that feels fresh in the cycle. But with Korean food, you have all these restaurants, but the issue is that they’ve all been here for so long that nothing has been updated. They’re basically selling food from the ’80s — but Korean food updates, even the standard dishes. When something comes straight from there and lands here, it feels exciting. That doesn’t happen as much up here as it does around San Jose. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13904835/san-jose-immigrant-food\">The restaurants down there are fire\u003c/a>. Unfortunately I can’t go to Cupertino for lunch.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13950795\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13950795\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Two men seated across from each other inside a Korean restaurant.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-02-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-02-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-02-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-02-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-02-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-02-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Many Korean restaurants in the Bay Area are selling a version of Korean food that has been frozen in time since the 1980s, Kang says. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>So what are you working on next? What’s on your mind as a locally-based journalist with a national platform?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I write a lot about homelessness, so I’d like to continue to write and think about that. There’s tiny amounts of progress finally being made. It’s actually better than it was. For years here, we kind of felt like it could only get worse. But there are tiny indications things are getting a little bit better, that some of these interventions are working. People are just going to have to get used to the idea that the hotel down the street from their house where nobody ever stayed, that’s now a place for the people in the encampment that you didn’t like. They now live there. If you don’t like that, then I’m sorry. Obviously it’s going to take many, many years. And so following that is very interesting to me. They actually are reversing this thing that seems impossible to fix. I’m also going to write a lot about the upcoming election. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You’ve had a decades-long career in this industry, which is currently struggling as \u003c/b>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11973593/l-a-times-layoffs-decimate-journalists-of-color\">\u003cb>layoffs are decimating newsrooms across the country\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003cb>. What keeps you going?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I feel the need to write a lot. I used to write very infrequently, and I found that I actually enjoyed writing much more. It’s a way to organize one’s life. Having something to put out and putting it out feels good. Sometimes it’s not great, because you might only have a week to do it. But I’m learning to be fine with that and understanding the job is not to make everything perfect. I’ve really embraced that.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"wDYxhc\" lang=\"en-US\" data-attrid=\"kc:/local:lu attribute list\" data-md=\"205\" data-hveid=\"CB4QAA\" data-ved=\"2ahUKEwiGt_a2mIOEAxV_LUQIHYdKB3wQ1rkBegQIHhAA\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"TLYLSe MaBy9\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"CJQ04\">\u003cem>Gangnam Tofu Korean Cuisine (11740 San Pablo Ave. Suite C, El Cerrito) is open Mon.–Fri. from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 5 to 9 p.m.; Sat. and Sun. from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003ci>¡Hella Hungry! is a series of interviews with Bay Area foodmakers exploring the region’s culinary innovations through the mouth of a first-generation local.\u003c/i>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Inside \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://gangnamtofuusa.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Gangnam Tofu\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a destination-worthy Korean restaurant in an otherwise unremarkable El Cerrito strip mall, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/jaycaspiankang?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Jay Caspian Kang\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> orders a round of shareable dishes — galbi, honey-cheese fried chicken and budae jjigae (a wartime-era stew of mixed meats and noodles) — for us to split. As the lunch crowd pours in behind him, Kang tells me why he likes Gangnam over most other Asian eateries in the area: “I just want to eat standard Korean food that’s prepared well.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Though he surprisingly prefers his spicy food mild, the Korean-born \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://goodbye.substack.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">podcast host\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, novelist and \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">New Yorker \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">staff writer serves plenty of hot takes on everything from the shortcomings of technology (he’s an aspiring luddite) to the most underrated rap albums of the past quarter century (he stands with Mos Def in the internet feud against Drake). And when it comes to the hypocrisies of Bay Area politics, he especially \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/london-breeds-cynical-swing-to-the-right\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">doesn’t hold back\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13950802\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13950802\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-09-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-09-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-09-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-09-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-09-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-09-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-09-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-09-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Best known for articles he’s written for national publications such as the New Yorker, Kang has lived in Berkeley since 2019. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Having settled in Berkeley after years of living in New York City and Los Angeles, Kang has developed a genuine appreciation for the Bay Area’s microcultures. Despite growing up on the East Coast and often writing about topics of national interest, Kang has in many ways become a quintessential Northern Californian: In his free time, you might find him surfing or wandering the aisles at Berkeley Bowl.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And yet, he’s also someone who brings a worldly outsider’s unflinching perspective to controversial Bay Area topics such as the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/what-does-californias-homeless-population-actually-look-like\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">housing crisis\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/28/magazine/where-does-affirmative-action-leave-asian-americans.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">affirmative action\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. He’ll even let you know that \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/jaycaspiankang/status/1740961971498074151\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the Asian food in Las Vegas is better than the Bay Area’s\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Perhaps \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13950363/keith-lee-tiktok-oakland-sf-bay-area-struggles\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">our region needs that tough love\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> now more than ever.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">While talking to the sports-loving dad and low-key hip-hop historian about the highs and lows of Bay Area living, I remembered why I love this quirky region so deeply, despite its complex truths. Here’s what everyone’s favorite \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/jaycaspiankang\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Tyler Hansborough evangelist\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.houseofstrauss.com/p/hos-jay-caspian-kang\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">reformed online troll\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> has to say about the state of the Bay — and its food offerings — in these precarious times.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">********\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alan Chazaro: You were born in Korea, grew up in North Carolina and have lived in a ton of places. How long have you been in the Bay Area?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jay Caspian Kang: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I went to college in New England, and then I went to New York for grad school. But after that, I moved out to California and lived here in San Francisco for six, seven years. I was working as a high school teacher. Then I moved to L.A., back to New York, and then right before the pandemic we moved back out here to Berkeley. It’s been four years now. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13950796\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13950796\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-03-KQED.jpg\" alt='Hand pointing to the \"honey cheese chicken\" on Korean restaurant menu.' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-03-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-03-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-03-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-03-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-03-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-03-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-03-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Perusing the menu at GangNam Tofu . \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You’ve written about \u003c/b>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/22/magazine/writing-the-wave.html\">\u003cb>your passion for surfing\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003cb> in the Bay. What draws you to that?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’m not a good surfer, but yeah, I spend most of my time thinking about surfing. For years, I just went to Ocean Beach all the time, and you get used to it and, you know, you learn how to avoid trouble. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I go once or twice a week. That’s the only way you can do it: You have to prioritize it. Or else, if you don’t, then you don’t ever go. If I get a Zoom call, I’ll just cancel that. You have to live with some of the consequences after, but surfing is very necessary for my mental well-being.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>It sounds like you’ve reached some kind of Zen mindstate. Did you achieve that when you were living in Los Angeles?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I don’t really like to drive. And I’ve never liked Hollywood culture. I just find that the people I vibe most with are generally up here.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Who do you think is a good example of the Bay Area’s creativity and open-mindedness?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Look at MC Hammer. He grew up doing that boogaloo style of dancing in East Oakland. He downloaded that as a kid. He blew it up into worldwide fame in a modified kind of way. Now that he’s old, his presence on social media is just showing all these old videos of guys from his neighborhood dancing. I find it amazing that he’s willing to go back and show these kids from his block who were his influences, and he’s basically showing how that made him who he is. That’s community, music coming out of community. He’s interesting because he’s like the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13909788/mc-hammer-oakland-redman-too-short-crips-louis-burrell-mc-serch-hit-e40\">most Oakland dude ever\u003c/a>, but he’s not always seen as being affiliated with that (laughs). \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13950797\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13950797\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-04-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-04-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-04-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-04-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-04-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-04-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-04-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-04-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kang and KQED reporter Alan Chazaro put in their order. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The Bay is weird like that. There’s a lot of different characters here.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It is weird. It’s interesting how someone like E-40 has become this sort of mascot as a rapper. He’s the dude. He’s like an entire persona. And people love him because he goes to all the games. I’ve never seen Too $hort at a game. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Did you grow up listening to a lot of Bay Area rap out on the East Coast?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I grew up listening to whatever you imagine a 44-year-old man would listen to (laughs). A Tribe Called Quest. Wu-Tang. Mobb Deep. Then you had the Bay Area, so there was like “Blowjob Betty” or whatever, and you would listen to it, and it was crazy because it was just so nasty. Luniz, Del [the Funky Homosapien]. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Del is the one I personally listened to the most. I still listen to him. The Deltron 3030 album is brilliant. The production on that album is \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">fucking\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> crazy. The whole concept is weird. [Bay Area producer] Dan the Automator had been messing with concept albums for a while. That was just a cool kind of rap with enough label support to make weird shit. That was before MF DOOM and all those dudes. It’s like Del imagining the future, and Del is awesome. He kills it. That album is low-key one of the 20 best rap albums ever. I hesitate to put it higher because is it as important as, say, KRS One? I don’t know. Listening to those KRS One albums can feel like you’re just doing your homework. I bet more people enjoyed Deltron 3030.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What’s more Bay Area than an Asian American producer teaming up with a nerdy Black dude from East Oakland to make a futuristic album about a fictional dystopian society?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Totally. And these guys were getting deeply influenced by the shit that’s happening with \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13812554/how-daly-citys-filipino-mobile-dj-scene-changed-hip-hop-forever\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Filipino DJs in Daly City\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Every city has some version of that, but it’s so interesting in the Bay because it really is so multiracial. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>I wonder if the Bay Area still represents that as much as it once did. You commented on the whole \u003c/b>\u003cb>fiasco with TikTok food critic Keith Lee’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13950363/keith-lee-tiktok-oakland-sf-bay-area-struggles\">recent Bay Area visit\u003c/a>\u003c/b>\u003cb>. He said the Bay is “not a place for tourists” right now. What do you think about that?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There’s no question that the Bay Area is going through a difficult time right now. If Keith Lee went to the Tenderloin and parts of East Oakland, which it seems like he did — or even if he went to 24th and Mission, which is highly trafficked — people when they come to the Bay Area and see that, it’s shocking to them. You have to be real about it. You don’t see that in New York. You see it in L.A. but it’s mostly in the Skid Row area. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Bay Area has had these issues for a long time, but it was more contained and it didn’t feel like it was as big of a problem. When I moved to San Francisco around 2002, I got off BART at 16th Street. I was like, \u003cem>Wow, this is kind of wild\u003c/em>. And now that has really expanded to a lot of places where a lot more people go. So in the Bay, you get these people coming for conferences or just visiting to see Fisherman’s Wharf, and chances are the hotel is going to be in Union Square or directly in the Tenderloin. So when you leave your hotel, you’re seeing really bad shit. That shocks outsiders and contributes to an unfair narrative. If you put all of the hotels in L.A. on Skid Row, everyone would be saying the same thing about L.A. But at the same time, I think it’s good to bring attention to this problem: We have completely out-of-control homelessness in one of the richest cities in America, and that paradox and contradiction is impossible to resolve.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The way out of it is going to be super messy and will create reactionary elements. People like [\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">San Fransicko \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">author] Michael Shellenberger believe all these \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/Michael-Shellenberger-s-narrative-of-California-17172493.php\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">drug addicts should just be put in jail.\u003c/span>\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://invisiblepeople.tv/san-francisco-mayor-london-breed-joins-calls-to-punish-homeless-people-overturn-martin-v-boise/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">London Breed sometimes feels that way, too\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. But I think overall, those people are underestimating that the San Francisco Bay Area is a very progressive place. They will never accept us locking up these people. And that’s a good thing. The idea that you’re going to lock up the poor and throw away the key, it’s just not going to happen. Right now we’re in a period of extremes: of extreme cynicism and despair. And for good reason, because it’s fucking bad, you know? But I still wouldn’t trade places with anyone to live somewhere else in this country. It’s a trade-off.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13950799\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13950799\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-06-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-06-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-06-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-06-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-06-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-06-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-06-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-06-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gangnam Tofu’s version of budae jjigae is a soft tofu stew loaded with sausage and noodles. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Despite our struggles, there’s so much to discover here and so many pockets of rich culture. You actually \u003c/b>\u003cb>had a take\u003c/b>\u003cb> that most of the \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/jaycaspiankang/status/1740965943998927231\">Asian food in the Bay Area is bad\u003c/a>, outside of in San Jose. I’m not sure many outsiders, or even locals, would voice that.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So here’s the thing. This is just my theory. Immigrant food is only really good in a certain time period after the people who are making it have immigrated here. For example, new Chinese populations in the United States will have much better food in their restaurants, and in those areas where they are living, than older, established Chinese populations. And the reason for that is very simple. It’s that food on the mainland continues to evolve, right? But the immigrants who have been living here for decades don’t. They’re frozen in time. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>My parents left Korea in 1978, and they never go back except for a little visit throughout 25 years. And by 1999, their understanding of Korean cuisine is basically frozen in 1978, because every single other person who owns a Korean restaurant also came around that same time, because there was a big wave of immigration from ’75 to ’79. I know that in San Francisco you have a multi-generational embedded Chinese population. But at this point, like, what are we even eating? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A lot of Chinese restaurants [in San Francisco] feel like they’re a movie set or something. It’s very charming, but it’s very old school. In the Richmond, there are places you can find that are exceptions to that. But right now, the cradle for the best Chinese food is from Cupertino to Mountain View, all around Silicon Valley. And the reason for that is because there are a lot of new Chinese immigrants that are coming to work there. In addition to that, there’s this \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13904913/vietnamese-drinks-boba-che-guide-san-jose\">Vietnamese mall culture in San Jose\u003c/a>. It’s getting a little old-fashioned, but it’s still super vibrant. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘Food on the mainland continues to evolve, right? But the immigrants who have been living here for decades don’t. They’re frozen in time.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>I just don’t find anything like that out here in the East Bay. We have taqueros in people’s backyards, and that’s very distinct and fully immigrant-driven, so that feels fresh in the cycle. But with Korean food, you have all these restaurants, but the issue is that they’ve all been here for so long that nothing has been updated. They’re basically selling food from the ’80s — but Korean food updates, even the standard dishes. When something comes straight from there and lands here, it feels exciting. That doesn’t happen as much up here as it does around San Jose. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13904835/san-jose-immigrant-food\">The restaurants down there are fire\u003c/a>. Unfortunately I can’t go to Cupertino for lunch.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13950795\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13950795\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Two men seated across from each other inside a Korean restaurant.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-02-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-02-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-02-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-02-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-02-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/240122-GAGNAM-TOFU-MD-02-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Many Korean restaurants in the Bay Area are selling a version of Korean food that has been frozen in time since the 1980s, Kang says. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>So what are you working on next? What’s on your mind as a locally-based journalist with a national platform?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I write a lot about homelessness, so I’d like to continue to write and think about that. There’s tiny amounts of progress finally being made. It’s actually better than it was. For years here, we kind of felt like it could only get worse. But there are tiny indications things are getting a little bit better, that some of these interventions are working. People are just going to have to get used to the idea that the hotel down the street from their house where nobody ever stayed, that’s now a place for the people in the encampment that you didn’t like. They now live there. If you don’t like that, then I’m sorry. Obviously it’s going to take many, many years. And so following that is very interesting to me. They actually are reversing this thing that seems impossible to fix. I’m also going to write a lot about the upcoming election. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You’ve had a decades-long career in this industry, which is currently struggling as \u003c/b>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11973593/l-a-times-layoffs-decimate-journalists-of-color\">\u003cb>layoffs are decimating newsrooms across the country\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003cb>. What keeps you going?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I feel the need to write a lot. I used to write very infrequently, and I found that I actually enjoyed writing much more. It’s a way to organize one’s life. Having something to put out and putting it out feels good. Sometimes it’s not great, because you might only have a week to do it. But I’m learning to be fine with that and understanding the job is not to make everything perfect. I’ve really embraced that.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"wDYxhc\" lang=\"en-US\" data-attrid=\"kc:/local:lu attribute list\" data-md=\"205\" data-hveid=\"CB4QAA\" data-ved=\"2ahUKEwiGt_a2mIOEAxV_LUQIHYdKB3wQ1rkBegQIHhAA\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"TLYLSe MaBy9\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"CJQ04\">\u003cem>Gangnam Tofu Korean Cuisine (11740 San Pablo Ave. Suite C, El Cerrito) is open Mon.–Fri. from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 5 to 9 p.m.; Sat. and Sun. from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "How the Rap Group 51.50 Put Marin City on the Map",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Editor’s note: This story is part of \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop\">That’s My Word\u003c/a>\u003cem>, KQED’s year-long exploration of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop\">Bay Area hip-hop\u003c/a> history.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]B[/dropcap]efore Ryan Rollins became Ryan D of the rap group 51.50 Illegally Insane, he was a kid from a musical, churchgoing household in tiny Marin City, just north of San Francisco. His mother taught piano lessons, and he sang in choir. “We always had pianos in the house, I was always around music,” says Ryan, who today lives in Fairfield. “But as soon as the breakdance era hit, I was breaking.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Breakdancing soon led to rapping, and Ryan bought a Roland TR-808, the drum machine whose percussive possibilities catalyzed the development of hip-hop. He soon linked up with one of the only other kids in Marin City with an 808: Darren “Klark Gable” Page, with whom he’d start the greatest rap group ever to come out of Marin City.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>51.50 never hit it big, but they existed at an important time at the crossroads of East Bay and North Bay rap. Some members launched a group with Tupac Shakur, one of the world’s most legendary rap artists, who lived in Marin City for a time. And throughout the 1990s, 51.50’s raw, honest street anthems sold consistently at independent stores in the Bay Area and beyond, putting their small, predominantly Black city on the map. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939491\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.Tupac_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939491\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.Tupac_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.Tupac_-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.Tupac_-768x768.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">One Nation Emcees: Klark Gable, Ryan D and Tupac Shakur. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Darren Page)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>From a Rich Tradition\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Marin City, a community of 3,000 just north of the Golden Gate Bridge, was built in 1942 to accommodate workers at the WWII-era Marinship shipyards in Sausalito. Many current residents are descendants of those workers, some of whom moved from the South as part of the “Great Migration” of African Americans throughout the 20th century. An outlier within white, affluent Marin County, Marin City still has a disproportionately high percentage of Black residents today: 25%, compared to 3% in the county overall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They came from a rich tradition of culture and music,” says Felecia Gaston, author of the book \u003cem>A Brand New Start… This Is Home\u003c/em>, which explores the artistic and cultural history of Marin City. “They kept their traditions a lot, starting off with gospel groups, so those traditions carried on and passed down generation to generation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the world of hip-hop, Marin City is mostly known as the one-time home of Tupac Shakur, who lived there briefly in 1988 with his family. In such a small town and with hip-hop only just becoming a global phenomenon, it was perhaps inevitable that Shakur and the two 808-owners would link up. Gable, Ryan and Shakur soon formed a group, calling themselves One Nation Emcees. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The rap game was new back then—we were just exercising our skills,” says Gable of these early years. Ryan is slightly less effusive: “I don’t wanna say I was dope as Tupac,” he says, “but I think I was dope as Tupac. Of course, any rapper should think you was dope as anybody if you’re worth any of your salt.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939489\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1046px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.park_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1046\" height=\"1550\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939489\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.park_.jpg 1046w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.park_-800x1185.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.park_-1020x1511.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.park_-160x237.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.park_-768x1138.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.park_-1037x1536.jpg 1037w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1046px) 100vw, 1046px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(L–R) Klark Gable, B.M.F.D.,Los tha Jackal and Tac in Marin City’s Golden Gate Village public housing project. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Darren Page)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘Come Out of Jail and Straight Into the Studio’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>After making a few recordings with Ryan and Gable (“\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHJ7M0Ca95s\">Never Be Beat\u003c/a>” and “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv_jP1SmPQ8&\">Fantasy\u003c/a>” survive from this era), Shakur drifted to Oakland, and Ryan went to prison, where he reconvened with an acquaintance named Kendrick “Riq Roq” Wells. Wells had an idea for a record label, and he wanted both Ryan and Gable to be involved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We built a studio first, and then we had to start a group,” says Gable. “You can’t start a label without a group, obviously.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13923938']After working with various rappers in Marin City, Ryan and Gable — with Wells as their new manager and label boss — completed the core trio with rapper Tac and became the first act on Wells’ ARRogant Records. (Other signees would include Sacramento’s Mayjor Playahs, Pittsburg’s Super Natural Ghetto Starz, and San Francisco’s Raffi & the Righteous Posse.) With few venues in Marin City besides the local recreation center and the annual Marin City Festival, the group performed mostly in Sonoma County, San Francisco, and Southern California. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ryan always envisioned 51.50 as a “Wu-Tang type of thing, but West Coast,” and various collaborators orbited the core trio throughout their existence. Rappers B.M.F.D., G-Amp, and Los tha Jackal were regular collaborators, as was singer Levy Love, who helped the group develop a smooth, soul-inflected style that stood out even in the wildly creative crucible of ’90s Bay Area rap. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>51.50’s nebulous membership policy was a product of creativity as much as necessity. “The jail was a revolving door to our studio,” Gable jokes. “Come out of jail and straight into the studio, don’t waste no time—that’s how it was.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsxgq54QXpw\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>51.50, in fact, was one of the earliest artists to record a song from jail — almost. When Ryan was still behind bars and the group was workshopping the songs that would make up their 1992 debut \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sky2AVZ3cwg&t=1509s\">Games People Play\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, he called the studio with a verse he had just written, and Gable instantly cooked up a sumptuous, Sade-sampling beat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was so deep, it’s not the typical gangster rap, you know what I mean?” says Gable. “When he got out of jail and we went to record it, I’m like, something’s missing. It doesn’t sound as deep and dramatic as it did when he called.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Intent on using a real phone rather than simply distorting Ryan’s vocals, the group found a contact in jail and had Ryan deliver his verse \u003cem>to\u003c/em> jail \u003cem>from\u003c/em> the studio. The final recording, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Per2HtfrZdg\">Green & White\u003c/a>,” came out in 1992, the same year as fellow Bay Area rapper Mac Dre’s \u003cem>Back n tha Hood\u003c/em> EP, perhaps the most famous rap recording made from jail and generally cited as the first.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939492\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1459px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.cassette.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1459\" height=\"921\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939492\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.cassette.jpg 1459w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.cassette-800x505.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.cassette-1020x644.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.cassette-160x101.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.cassette-768x485.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1459px) 100vw, 1459px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">51.50’s debut album ‘Games People Play.’ \u003ccite>(ARRogant Records)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Makin’ Legal Money\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Games People Play\u003c/em> stood out in the Bay Area rap of the time not only for the group’s “crazy” identity but for the music’s lush, textured sound, which contrasted with the low-slung mobb music sound coming out of the East Bay. The 1995 follow-up \u003cem>Crazy Has Struck Again\u003c/em> featured a larger cast of collaborators, and comes closest of 51.50’s releases to the free-wheeling camaraderie of Wu-Tang’s contemporaneous sound.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following two more albums — 2000’s \u003cem>A.W.O.L. Missing In Action\u003c/em> and 2002’s \u003cem>Back From The Asylum\u003c/em> — the group folded after Tac suffered a stroke in 2004 that caused him to lose much of his memory and many of his motor functions. The group played its final show in 2010 in Fairfax, but it was clear Tac could no longer perform. “I didn’t know how bad it was until that show,” says Gable. “He didn’t know any of the words.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13927349']Of the core three 51.50 members, only Gable still makes music. Ryan has worked for C&H Sugar in Vallejo for nearly 20 years, and claims to have simply lost interest. “I knew what it takes to be a dope rapper,” he says, “and I don’t have that drive anymore.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet Ryan says “a lot of people have been reaching out lately” — not to hit him up for features or to ask about 51.50, but to ask about Tupac. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though Ryan and Gable’s collaboration with Tupac lasted only a few months, they were present for one of the saddest and most controversial incidents in both the late rapper’s career and the broader history of Marin City: the fatal shooting of 6-year-old Qa’id Walker-Teal at the 1992 Marin City Festival, at which both 51.50 and Shakur performed. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4i6wAsFwRk\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘I Stopped Talking to Tupac’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>By 1992, Shakur was an established music and film star, having just starred in the thriller \u003cem>Juice\u003c/em> and released his debut album \u003cem>2Pacalypse Now\u003c/em> after a stint with the popular Oakland rap group Digital Underground. “He was still coming through the hood, we were still calling him and he was picking right up,” Gable says of Shakur. “But when he was doing that, of course now he was being interviewed on MTV.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After leaving town, Shakur expressed negative sentiments towards Marin City in the press, which angered many locals. According to \u003cem>Tupac Shakur: The Life and Times of an American Icon\u003c/em> by Tayannah Lee McQuillar and Fred L. Johnson, the rapper agreed to perform for free at the 1992 edition of the annual Marin City Festival as an apology to the local community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It quickly became clear not everyone would accept his goodwill gesture. “He’d be down there hanging out with us, chilling,” says Ryan. “But you know, it’s one cat over there looking at him side-eyed.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939490\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 946px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.Tupac_.outside.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"946\" height=\"935\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939490\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.Tupac_.outside.jpg 946w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.Tupac_.outside-800x791.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.Tupac_.outside-160x158.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.Tupac_.outside-768x759.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 946px) 100vw, 946px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In happier times: Ryan D, Tupac Shakur, Ray Luv and Klark Gable. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Darren Page)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>According to Gable, a group of drunk locals decided to instigate a fight with Shakur while 51.50 was performing onstage. No one seems quite sure who fired the shot that killed Walker-Teal, but the bullet came from a gun registered to Shakur. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nobody even brings a gun to the festival,” says Gable. “You know what I mean? And so when that happened, I stopped talking to Tupac.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tupac was fatally shot in 1996 in Las Vegas at the age of 25, and a suspect in the long-running case was recently charged after decades of speculation and controversy. “I still didn’t have no love for him when he passed,” says Gable. “For that to happen, that eats me up. And the little kid that died, everybody knew him. Everybody loved him.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939487\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 720px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.recent.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"457\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939487\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.recent.jpg 720w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.recent-160x102.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(L–R) Tac, Ryan D, and Klark Gable in a recent photo. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Darren Page)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>30 Years Later\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>These days, 51.50’s music lives on through streaming services, grainy YouTube footage and old cassettes and CDs, traded among collectors. Their members, meanwhile, have gone in different directions. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>B.M.F.D. became a pastor in Colorado, to the surprise of Ryan and Gable, who remember him during their Marin City days as a hellraiser—“the kind of cat you had to babysit.” G-Amp passed away in Humboldt County in 2021 after suffering a heart attack and subsequently being struck by a car. Wells passed away last August, and the remaining group members all met for the first time in years at his memorial service last month in Sacramento. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know, that’s life,” says Gable. “Being a Black man, you know. Fortunately none of us got shot. Still here dying of natural causes. But there’s still a few of us. We just linked up for Kendrick’s memorial. I don’t remember the last time all of us were together like that. It’s been years, but it’s always all love.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/06/Turntable.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"60\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11687704\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/06/Turntable.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/06/Turntable.Break_-400x30.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/06/Turntable.Break_-768x58.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "51.50 released classics like 'Games People Play' and recorded with Tupac, bringing attention to their predominantly Black city located within white, affluent Marin County. ",
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"title": "How the Rap Group 51.50 Put Marin City on the Map | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Editor’s note: This story is part of \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop\">That’s My Word\u003c/a>\u003cem>, KQED’s year-long exploration of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop\">Bay Area hip-hop\u003c/a> history.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">B\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>efore Ryan Rollins became Ryan D of the rap group 51.50 Illegally Insane, he was a kid from a musical, churchgoing household in tiny Marin City, just north of San Francisco. His mother taught piano lessons, and he sang in choir. “We always had pianos in the house, I was always around music,” says Ryan, who today lives in Fairfield. “But as soon as the breakdance era hit, I was breaking.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Breakdancing soon led to rapping, and Ryan bought a Roland TR-808, the drum machine whose percussive possibilities catalyzed the development of hip-hop. He soon linked up with one of the only other kids in Marin City with an 808: Darren “Klark Gable” Page, with whom he’d start the greatest rap group ever to come out of Marin City.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>51.50 never hit it big, but they existed at an important time at the crossroads of East Bay and North Bay rap. Some members launched a group with Tupac Shakur, one of the world’s most legendary rap artists, who lived in Marin City for a time. And throughout the 1990s, 51.50’s raw, honest street anthems sold consistently at independent stores in the Bay Area and beyond, putting their small, predominantly Black city on the map. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939491\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.Tupac_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939491\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.Tupac_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.Tupac_-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.Tupac_-768x768.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">One Nation Emcees: Klark Gable, Ryan D and Tupac Shakur. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Darren Page)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>From a Rich Tradition\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Marin City, a community of 3,000 just north of the Golden Gate Bridge, was built in 1942 to accommodate workers at the WWII-era Marinship shipyards in Sausalito. Many current residents are descendants of those workers, some of whom moved from the South as part of the “Great Migration” of African Americans throughout the 20th century. An outlier within white, affluent Marin County, Marin City still has a disproportionately high percentage of Black residents today: 25%, compared to 3% in the county overall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They came from a rich tradition of culture and music,” says Felecia Gaston, author of the book \u003cem>A Brand New Start… This Is Home\u003c/em>, which explores the artistic and cultural history of Marin City. “They kept their traditions a lot, starting off with gospel groups, so those traditions carried on and passed down generation to generation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the world of hip-hop, Marin City is mostly known as the one-time home of Tupac Shakur, who lived there briefly in 1988 with his family. In such a small town and with hip-hop only just becoming a global phenomenon, it was perhaps inevitable that Shakur and the two 808-owners would link up. Gable, Ryan and Shakur soon formed a group, calling themselves One Nation Emcees. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The rap game was new back then—we were just exercising our skills,” says Gable of these early years. Ryan is slightly less effusive: “I don’t wanna say I was dope as Tupac,” he says, “but I think I was dope as Tupac. Of course, any rapper should think you was dope as anybody if you’re worth any of your salt.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939489\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1046px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.park_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1046\" height=\"1550\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939489\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.park_.jpg 1046w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.park_-800x1185.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.park_-1020x1511.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.park_-160x237.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.park_-768x1138.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.park_-1037x1536.jpg 1037w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1046px) 100vw, 1046px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(L–R) Klark Gable, B.M.F.D.,Los tha Jackal and Tac in Marin City’s Golden Gate Village public housing project. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Darren Page)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘Come Out of Jail and Straight Into the Studio’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>After making a few recordings with Ryan and Gable (“\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHJ7M0Ca95s\">Never Be Beat\u003c/a>” and “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv_jP1SmPQ8&\">Fantasy\u003c/a>” survive from this era), Shakur drifted to Oakland, and Ryan went to prison, where he reconvened with an acquaintance named Kendrick “Riq Roq” Wells. Wells had an idea for a record label, and he wanted both Ryan and Gable to be involved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We built a studio first, and then we had to start a group,” says Gable. “You can’t start a label without a group, obviously.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>After working with various rappers in Marin City, Ryan and Gable — with Wells as their new manager and label boss — completed the core trio with rapper Tac and became the first act on Wells’ ARRogant Records. (Other signees would include Sacramento’s Mayjor Playahs, Pittsburg’s Super Natural Ghetto Starz, and San Francisco’s Raffi & the Righteous Posse.) With few venues in Marin City besides the local recreation center and the annual Marin City Festival, the group performed mostly in Sonoma County, San Francisco, and Southern California. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ryan always envisioned 51.50 as a “Wu-Tang type of thing, but West Coast,” and various collaborators orbited the core trio throughout their existence. Rappers B.M.F.D., G-Amp, and Los tha Jackal were regular collaborators, as was singer Levy Love, who helped the group develop a smooth, soul-inflected style that stood out even in the wildly creative crucible of ’90s Bay Area rap. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>51.50’s nebulous membership policy was a product of creativity as much as necessity. “The jail was a revolving door to our studio,” Gable jokes. “Come out of jail and straight into the studio, don’t waste no time—that’s how it was.” \u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/bsxgq54QXpw'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/bsxgq54QXpw'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>51.50, in fact, was one of the earliest artists to record a song from jail — almost. When Ryan was still behind bars and the group was workshopping the songs that would make up their 1992 debut \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sky2AVZ3cwg&t=1509s\">Games People Play\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, he called the studio with a verse he had just written, and Gable instantly cooked up a sumptuous, Sade-sampling beat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was so deep, it’s not the typical gangster rap, you know what I mean?” says Gable. “When he got out of jail and we went to record it, I’m like, something’s missing. It doesn’t sound as deep and dramatic as it did when he called.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Intent on using a real phone rather than simply distorting Ryan’s vocals, the group found a contact in jail and had Ryan deliver his verse \u003cem>to\u003c/em> jail \u003cem>from\u003c/em> the studio. The final recording, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Per2HtfrZdg\">Green & White\u003c/a>,” came out in 1992, the same year as fellow Bay Area rapper Mac Dre’s \u003cem>Back n tha Hood\u003c/em> EP, perhaps the most famous rap recording made from jail and generally cited as the first.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939492\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1459px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.cassette.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1459\" height=\"921\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939492\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.cassette.jpg 1459w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.cassette-800x505.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.cassette-1020x644.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.cassette-160x101.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.cassette-768x485.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1459px) 100vw, 1459px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">51.50’s debut album ‘Games People Play.’ \u003ccite>(ARRogant Records)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Makin’ Legal Money\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Games People Play\u003c/em> stood out in the Bay Area rap of the time not only for the group’s “crazy” identity but for the music’s lush, textured sound, which contrasted with the low-slung mobb music sound coming out of the East Bay. The 1995 follow-up \u003cem>Crazy Has Struck Again\u003c/em> featured a larger cast of collaborators, and comes closest of 51.50’s releases to the free-wheeling camaraderie of Wu-Tang’s contemporaneous sound.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following two more albums — 2000’s \u003cem>A.W.O.L. Missing In Action\u003c/em> and 2002’s \u003cem>Back From The Asylum\u003c/em> — the group folded after Tac suffered a stroke in 2004 that caused him to lose much of his memory and many of his motor functions. The group played its final show in 2010 in Fairfax, but it was clear Tac could no longer perform. “I didn’t know how bad it was until that show,” says Gable. “He didn’t know any of the words.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Of the core three 51.50 members, only Gable still makes music. Ryan has worked for C&H Sugar in Vallejo for nearly 20 years, and claims to have simply lost interest. “I knew what it takes to be a dope rapper,” he says, “and I don’t have that drive anymore.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet Ryan says “a lot of people have been reaching out lately” — not to hit him up for features or to ask about 51.50, but to ask about Tupac. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though Ryan and Gable’s collaboration with Tupac lasted only a few months, they were present for one of the saddest and most controversial incidents in both the late rapper’s career and the broader history of Marin City: the fatal shooting of 6-year-old Qa’id Walker-Teal at the 1992 Marin City Festival, at which both 51.50 and Shakur performed. \u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/x4i6wAsFwRk'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/x4i6wAsFwRk'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003ch2>‘I Stopped Talking to Tupac’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>By 1992, Shakur was an established music and film star, having just starred in the thriller \u003cem>Juice\u003c/em> and released his debut album \u003cem>2Pacalypse Now\u003c/em> after a stint with the popular Oakland rap group Digital Underground. “He was still coming through the hood, we were still calling him and he was picking right up,” Gable says of Shakur. “But when he was doing that, of course now he was being interviewed on MTV.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After leaving town, Shakur expressed negative sentiments towards Marin City in the press, which angered many locals. According to \u003cem>Tupac Shakur: The Life and Times of an American Icon\u003c/em> by Tayannah Lee McQuillar and Fred L. Johnson, the rapper agreed to perform for free at the 1992 edition of the annual Marin City Festival as an apology to the local community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It quickly became clear not everyone would accept his goodwill gesture. “He’d be down there hanging out with us, chilling,” says Ryan. “But you know, it’s one cat over there looking at him side-eyed.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939490\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 946px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.Tupac_.outside.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"946\" height=\"935\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939490\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.Tupac_.outside.jpg 946w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.Tupac_.outside-800x791.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.Tupac_.outside-160x158.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.Tupac_.outside-768x759.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 946px) 100vw, 946px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In happier times: Ryan D, Tupac Shakur, Ray Luv and Klark Gable. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Darren Page)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>According to Gable, a group of drunk locals decided to instigate a fight with Shakur while 51.50 was performing onstage. No one seems quite sure who fired the shot that killed Walker-Teal, but the bullet came from a gun registered to Shakur. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nobody even brings a gun to the festival,” says Gable. “You know what I mean? And so when that happened, I stopped talking to Tupac.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tupac was fatally shot in 1996 in Las Vegas at the age of 25, and a suspect in the long-running case was recently charged after decades of speculation and controversy. “I still didn’t have no love for him when he passed,” says Gable. “For that to happen, that eats me up. And the little kid that died, everybody knew him. Everybody loved him.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939487\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 720px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.recent.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"457\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939487\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.recent.jpg 720w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/5150.recent-160x102.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(L–R) Tac, Ryan D, and Klark Gable in a recent photo. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Darren Page)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>30 Years Later\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>These days, 51.50’s music lives on through streaming services, grainy YouTube footage and old cassettes and CDs, traded among collectors. Their members, meanwhile, have gone in different directions. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>B.M.F.D. became a pastor in Colorado, to the surprise of Ryan and Gable, who remember him during their Marin City days as a hellraiser—“the kind of cat you had to babysit.” G-Amp passed away in Humboldt County in 2021 after suffering a heart attack and subsequently being struck by a car. Wells passed away last August, and the remaining group members all met for the first time in years at his memorial service last month in Sacramento. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know, that’s life,” says Gable. “Being a Black man, you know. Fortunately none of us got shot. Still here dying of natural causes. But there’s still a few of us. We just linked up for Kendrick’s memorial. I don’t remember the last time all of us were together like that. It’s been years, but it’s always all love.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "p-lo-filipino-food-bay-area-hella-hungry",
"title": "P-Lo Is Feeding the Bay Area With More Than Just His Music",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Earlier this season, the team formerly known as the Oakland Raiders won a pivotal Sunday Night Football game in Las Vegas. Afterwards, the players celebrated in their locker room while blasting Bay Area rap anthems and puffing cigars.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The song of choice for the adrenalized group? \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/p-lo\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">P-Lo\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">’s “Light This Bitch Up.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In many ways, P-Lo has become one of the Bay Area’s avatars for winning, having ascended to stardom as a multi-platinum producer and lyricist after starting out as a founding member of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13938026/hbk-gang-iamsu-jay-anthony-p-lo-sage-gemini\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">HBK Gang\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. His resume includes producing hits for all of your favorite rappers and \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">collaborating with the Golden State Warriors for events like \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HQr2HSrZU0\">Filipino Heritage Night\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> at Chase Center, where he often receives energetic daps from the 3-point god, Steph Curry, himself. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The versatile Filipino from Pinole isn’t just popular among sports celebrities, though; he’s also beloved in the Bay’s expansive food world. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In recent years, P-Lo has steadily furthered his place in the culinary ecosystem by partnering with notable food brands. He’s \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13935891/p-lo-senor-sisig-filipino-food-tour-oakland\">twice collaborated with San Francisco’s iconic Señor Sisig\u003c/a> to create his own signature burrito and chicken wings\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. He also organized a star-studded, transnational “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/p_lo/status/1709035954156290326\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Very Good Food Tour\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">” to celebrate Filipino American History Month this summer. Did I mention \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">his music is featured in a nationwide \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8j62YJP6yWQ\">Wingstop commercial\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13936934\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13936934\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-029-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"An indoor space filled with people with murals on the wall.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-029-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-029-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-029-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-029-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-029-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-029-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-029-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A crowd fills Señor Sisig during P-Lo’s Very Good Food Tour. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It only felt right that I caught up with \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://open.spotify.com/album/6GsGCToyCrO0PokU9RQSjM\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">STUNNA\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. After sitting down with the artist in San Francisco to watch a Friday night Warriors game on TV, I slid by his sold-out food event in Oakland the following afternoon to grub on wings. He spoke to me about sustaining intergenerational love, cooking up independent success and staying well-fed in the Bay.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">********\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alan Chazaro: I recently spoke with \u003c/b>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13931355/michael-sneed-is-more-than-a-vibe-hes-a-symbol-for-oakland\">\u003cb>Oakland rapper Michael Sneed\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003cb>, and he credited you and your older brother, Kuya Beats, as being mentors to his generation. It’s something I hear often when speaking to younger artists around our region.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>P-Lo:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That’s something my brother instilled in me because he’s always been a teacher. Also, I think that’s like, you know, that we’re from here. I want to be able to usher in the new. You know what I’m saying? ‘Cause I’m not going to be doing it forever. I want to be able to make sure that the next generation don’t have to go through all the bruises and bumps that generations before them did. I just wanna be able to pass down the game.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Tell me about your Very Good Food Tour. You hit eight cities around North America during Filipino American History Month to promote small Filipino-owned businesses.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It really started out just doing a bunch of stuff with \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13935891/p-lo-senor-sisig-filipino-food-tour-oakland\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Señor Sisig\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. I love food. I love culture. I love learning about not just my culture but other people’s cultures — which is something in the Bay that we grew up on. Our friends are from hella places. All my friends come from different backgrounds. They knew so much about Filipino culture just from being around me, and I know about their cultures from being around them. It’s an exchange, and I wanted to continue that exchange on a larger scale. As humans, that’s how we move forward. The world needs that right now. There’s so much division — narratives in the media, financial. Know what I’m saying? Any way I can bring people together, whether music, food, culture, I’m gonna try my best to do that.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>So how did you select the restaurants in each city?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I tapped in with folks in each community. I like to know what the cool restaurants are, and when we’re going to these places, I like to know where my friends and the people living there go. I like to learn from those communities so we can, you know, do things correctly. How can we get ourselves involved there? That’s important to me, connecting with the people and sharing each other’s platforms. Restaurants have their own platforms, I have mine, so it’s beneficial to both parties.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13936933\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13936933\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-025-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A dish of fried chicken next to a purple drink in a tall glass.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-025-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-025-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-025-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-025-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-025-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-025-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-025-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">P-Lo’s signature special during his food tour stop at Señor Sisig: crispy wings tossed in sinagang seasoning. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You’re also creating an original dish for each venue.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Exactly. We’re doing that collaboration to make it even more saucy. It’s cool because music brings people together and so does food, so it’s a perfect meshing. Food is an art form. Just like you can taste when something is made with love, you can hear when something is made with love. It has a certain soul to it. That’s just energy being transferred in both cases. People never forget how you made them feel.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>As far as feeding the people, you’ve been cooking up Bay Area hits for years now. Is there a certain dish or restaurant in the Bay that you think gives people a similar feeling of regional pride and identity as your music does?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For me, whenever I come back home from being away, it’s usually going to the Mission for a burrito. I actually got into an argument with some dudes on L.A. radio telling them that [the best] burritos come from San Francisco, and they were like “hell no, this and that,” and I’m like bro, look it up. You know, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11961178/what-is-a-mission-style-burrito-maybe-a-myth\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">what many people think of burritos nowadays, that style, that came from San Francisco\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You can never go wrong with a burrito. In the past, you’ve actually teamed up with the chefs at Señor Sisig to make your own signature burrito. This time around, you’re doing spicy sinigang chicken wings with them. What draws you to working with Señor Sisig?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Man, it’s just a fusion that represents who I am. My Filipino background is rooted in family, and on top of that I have my Bay Area background rooted in music. So that’s what this collab is about, in a dish. I love spicy food. I got that from my dad; he hella likes spicy food. I recently learned that spicy food releases endorphins and shit like that.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Is there a strong culture of spicy foods in the Philippines? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bro, me and my homie literally just got back from the Philippines, and we were talking about this. There’s not really spice like that, to be honest. At Sisig, you can add jalapeños and peppers, but in general Filipino food is not very spicy. But I still love hella spices, spicy sauces, things like that on my food.[pullquote size=\"large\" align=\"right\" citation=\"P-Lo\"]‘Now you’re seeing ube at Trader Joe’s and Starbucks and things like that. That’s amazing, that’s cool. Growing up, you didn’t really see that as much.’[/pullquote]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What restaurant, besides Señor Sisig, were you most looking forward to on your food tour?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/bbs.bbs.bbs.bbs.bbs/?hl=en\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">BBs\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in Toronto. I’ve been visiting Toronto pretty frequently and I like eating there. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://guide.michelin.com/us/en/ontario/toronto/restaurant/bb-s\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They were just added to the Michelin guide\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (one of 11 Filipino restaurants to do so). Toronto kinda reminds me of here. How the Filipino culture is ingrained. Everyone in Toronto has a Filipino friend. That feels like home to me. One of the gifts of doing this is being able to connect with more people and experience different cultures. It’s not the same everywhere, so growing up in the Bay you think the world is like this. But it’s not. The more I grow older and understand how special it is to be in a place like this, it’s been amazing.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Have you noticed a rise in the popularity of Filipino food trends everywhere in recent years? And how do you feel about that?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Definitely. Filipinos really only been here for like 50, 60 years. We started coming over in the 60s, 70s. I think over time it’s just grown, and now is the moment for this. We have roots here now. We got critical mass. Now it’s time for the take over [laughs]. Now you’re seeing ube at Trader Joe’s and Starbucks and things like that. That’s amazing, that’s cool. Growing up, you didn’t really see that as much. I’m for it, man. That’s one of the reasons why we even started doing this tour and these collaborations. I want people to feel pride in who they are. Most of the time people have to suppress how they grew up or their backgrounds in order to fit in. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But man, from the reactions so far of people who have come to our events, it’s been dope. Our team definitely likes to think outside of the box and create experiences in other ways, and not just always buying a ticket to one of my concerts. How do we create an experience that’s unique to us? This felt like the perfect thing. This encompasses what I’m fully about.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13936935\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13936935\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-030-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A vinyl album with the photo of a person in a baseball cap on it beside a trucker hat with the words "Very Good Food Tour 23'" written on it.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-030-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-030-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-030-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-030-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-030-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-030-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-030-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Merch from P-Lo’s Very Good Food Tour. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What defines Filipino food for you?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The hominess of it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sorry, do you mean that as in “homely” or “homie”?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I mean like that feeling of being at home.\u003c/span>\u003cb> \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Got you. I thought you meant it as sharing it with your homies, because that works too. But being centered on the home is definitely on point as well, especially for immigrant diasporas.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh yeah, totally [laughs]. They both work. My parents are immigrants, so that experience of eating Filipino food at the house, or at a homie’s house, it’s gotta be that for me. I do like the elevated versions of Filipino food though. I appreciate that. Taking it to the next level. But nothing beats when your mom or auntie cooks it. And that’s something I don’t want to leave out. It should feel homely.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>I’ve been thinking a lot about the random intersection of Bay Area slang in rap songs and food. Obviously, E-40 is responsible for most of it. Does anything come to mind for you?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Laughs]. Yeah, E-40 is responsible for probably 90% of that. Um, let me think. I know \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13908052/food-doesnt-slap\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">food definitely doesn’t slap\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. That’s where I draw the line. Someone said that on TikTok and completely butchered it. That’s not how it’s used. That’s just not it. But yeah, I also talk about chicken in my songs. Referencing money. That’s just something I’ve heard in conversation that I started using in my music.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What’s inspiring you musically right now?\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’ve been listening to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/jordanward/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Jordan Ward\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. He’s tight. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/4karri/?hl=en\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Karri\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> — he has a song out called “3am in Oakland.” He’s a Filipino kid, too. He’s super tight. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/sneedlovesu/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Michael Sneed\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. He’s very unique. He’s been out in L.A. working in our studio, going back and forth to the Bay. Watching him create and get it has been super cool. He’s one of the purest people I know. That’s inspiring to be around.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGOmeRPuYhQ\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You’re considered one of the Bay Area’s biggest voices right now. You’re vocal about different issues like positive community representation, the Warriors and supporting one another. How does it feel to be in that position now?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’m just grateful, man. I want to keep growing, no matter how big or small, on every level. That’s a credit to the people around me. They allow me to think in progressive ways and bring new ideas to life. It’s truly that, to be honest. Having the right people. And always being open to learning. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/gucci1017/status/1017765522555981829\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Gucci Mane said something like, “If you not growing, you dead.”\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> If something’s not growing, it’s finished. So I like to be a permanent student, to embrace the youth, the next generation. Anybody that came out the Bay, I’ve tried to bring them on tour with me. ALLBLACK, [22nd] Jim, Rexx Life Raj, Caleborate, Sneed. Just embracing that growth no matter what.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Who played that role for you when you were coming up?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13934248,arts_13936325,arts_13932574']For me, Kool John and IAMSU!, it really starts there as a member of Heartbreak Gang. Iamsu! and Kool John really gave me all the confidence to do what I’m doing, and they showed me the way. Sage, too. G-Eazy played a huge part and taught me some game. Shit, 40. Uncle Earl. Just having phone conversations with him, or him calling me to get my opinion on things. That’s surreal. I grew up on him. Being around all of them. They gave me that push like, “Bruh, you can really do this.” Being a producer at first, people thought I could only do that. SU! and Kool John pushed me to actually be on songs. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13938026/hbk-gang-iamsu-jay-anthony-p-lo-sage-gemini\">\u003cb>HBK Gang has played a tremendous role in the Bay Area’s artistic renaissance\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003cb> over the past decade. Looking back on it, what influence do you think you all had?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That era set the table for pretty much the future of Bay Area music. There wasn’t really anything for the soundscape in the Bay at the time, in terms of production, what it all sounded like, and fashion at the time as well. We did collabs with Pink Dolphin, stuff like that. People weren’t doing collabs with clothing brands. Like any Bay Area story, we’re always ahead of the times.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Where do you think that inventiveness comes from in Bay Area people?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We’re all like hippies, for real. We’re eccentric. And eclectic. It may be the drugs, maybe something in the water. Our water, our air, it’s really good. That’s important. I really think it makes us function in a way that’s different from the rest of the world. We also get exposed to a lot here, and we find beauty in the imperfections. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>I agree. We’re blessed and bipped at the same time.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Exactly. I got homies in the tech world, and I got homies in jail right now. Growing up with that spectrum is wide. That makes us worldly people. You can drop a Bay Area person anywhere and they’ll be alright. And you can always spot us out by just playing Too $hort’s “Blow the Whistle.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13936937\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13936937\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-008-BL-KQED-1.jpg\" alt=\"Two people stand together talking as one holds a young child.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-008-BL-KQED-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-008-BL-KQED-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-008-BL-KQED-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-008-BL-KQED-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-008-BL-KQED-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-008-BL-KQED-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-008-BL-KQED-1-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">KQED reporter Alan Chazaro holds his son Maceo while posing with P-Lo at Señor Sisig. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"title": "P-Lo Is Feeding the Bay Area With Filipino Food Collaborations | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Earlier this season, the team formerly known as the Oakland Raiders won a pivotal Sunday Night Football game in Las Vegas. Afterwards, the players celebrated in their locker room while blasting Bay Area rap anthems and puffing cigars.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The song of choice for the adrenalized group? \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/p-lo\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">P-Lo\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">’s “Light This Bitch Up.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In many ways, P-Lo has become one of the Bay Area’s avatars for winning, having ascended to stardom as a multi-platinum producer and lyricist after starting out as a founding member of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13938026/hbk-gang-iamsu-jay-anthony-p-lo-sage-gemini\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">HBK Gang\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. His resume includes producing hits for all of your favorite rappers and \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">collaborating with the Golden State Warriors for events like \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HQr2HSrZU0\">Filipino Heritage Night\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> at Chase Center, where he often receives energetic daps from the 3-point god, Steph Curry, himself. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The versatile Filipino from Pinole isn’t just popular among sports celebrities, though; he’s also beloved in the Bay’s expansive food world. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In recent years, P-Lo has steadily furthered his place in the culinary ecosystem by partnering with notable food brands. He’s \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13935891/p-lo-senor-sisig-filipino-food-tour-oakland\">twice collaborated with San Francisco’s iconic Señor Sisig\u003c/a> to create his own signature burrito and chicken wings\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. He also organized a star-studded, transnational “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/p_lo/status/1709035954156290326\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Very Good Food Tour\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">” to celebrate Filipino American History Month this summer. Did I mention \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">his music is featured in a nationwide \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8j62YJP6yWQ\">Wingstop commercial\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13936934\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13936934\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-029-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"An indoor space filled with people with murals on the wall.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-029-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-029-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-029-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-029-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-029-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-029-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-029-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A crowd fills Señor Sisig during P-Lo’s Very Good Food Tour. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It only felt right that I caught up with \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://open.spotify.com/album/6GsGCToyCrO0PokU9RQSjM\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">STUNNA\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. After sitting down with the artist in San Francisco to watch a Friday night Warriors game on TV, I slid by his sold-out food event in Oakland the following afternoon to grub on wings. He spoke to me about sustaining intergenerational love, cooking up independent success and staying well-fed in the Bay.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">********\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alan Chazaro: I recently spoke with \u003c/b>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13931355/michael-sneed-is-more-than-a-vibe-hes-a-symbol-for-oakland\">\u003cb>Oakland rapper Michael Sneed\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003cb>, and he credited you and your older brother, Kuya Beats, as being mentors to his generation. It’s something I hear often when speaking to younger artists around our region.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>P-Lo:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That’s something my brother instilled in me because he’s always been a teacher. Also, I think that’s like, you know, that we’re from here. I want to be able to usher in the new. You know what I’m saying? ‘Cause I’m not going to be doing it forever. I want to be able to make sure that the next generation don’t have to go through all the bruises and bumps that generations before them did. I just wanna be able to pass down the game.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Tell me about your Very Good Food Tour. You hit eight cities around North America during Filipino American History Month to promote small Filipino-owned businesses.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It really started out just doing a bunch of stuff with \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13935891/p-lo-senor-sisig-filipino-food-tour-oakland\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Señor Sisig\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. I love food. I love culture. I love learning about not just my culture but other people’s cultures — which is something in the Bay that we grew up on. Our friends are from hella places. All my friends come from different backgrounds. They knew so much about Filipino culture just from being around me, and I know about their cultures from being around them. It’s an exchange, and I wanted to continue that exchange on a larger scale. As humans, that’s how we move forward. The world needs that right now. There’s so much division — narratives in the media, financial. Know what I’m saying? Any way I can bring people together, whether music, food, culture, I’m gonna try my best to do that.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>So how did you select the restaurants in each city?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I tapped in with folks in each community. I like to know what the cool restaurants are, and when we’re going to these places, I like to know where my friends and the people living there go. I like to learn from those communities so we can, you know, do things correctly. How can we get ourselves involved there? That’s important to me, connecting with the people and sharing each other’s platforms. Restaurants have their own platforms, I have mine, so it’s beneficial to both parties.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13936933\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13936933\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-025-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A dish of fried chicken next to a purple drink in a tall glass.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-025-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-025-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-025-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-025-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-025-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-025-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-025-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">P-Lo’s signature special during his food tour stop at Señor Sisig: crispy wings tossed in sinagang seasoning. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You’re also creating an original dish for each venue.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Exactly. We’re doing that collaboration to make it even more saucy. It’s cool because music brings people together and so does food, so it’s a perfect meshing. Food is an art form. Just like you can taste when something is made with love, you can hear when something is made with love. It has a certain soul to it. That’s just energy being transferred in both cases. People never forget how you made them feel.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>As far as feeding the people, you’ve been cooking up Bay Area hits for years now. Is there a certain dish or restaurant in the Bay that you think gives people a similar feeling of regional pride and identity as your music does?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For me, whenever I come back home from being away, it’s usually going to the Mission for a burrito. I actually got into an argument with some dudes on L.A. radio telling them that [the best] burritos come from San Francisco, and they were like “hell no, this and that,” and I’m like bro, look it up. You know, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11961178/what-is-a-mission-style-burrito-maybe-a-myth\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">what many people think of burritos nowadays, that style, that came from San Francisco\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You can never go wrong with a burrito. In the past, you’ve actually teamed up with the chefs at Señor Sisig to make your own signature burrito. This time around, you’re doing spicy sinigang chicken wings with them. What draws you to working with Señor Sisig?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Man, it’s just a fusion that represents who I am. My Filipino background is rooted in family, and on top of that I have my Bay Area background rooted in music. So that’s what this collab is about, in a dish. I love spicy food. I got that from my dad; he hella likes spicy food. I recently learned that spicy food releases endorphins and shit like that.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Is there a strong culture of spicy foods in the Philippines? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bro, me and my homie literally just got back from the Philippines, and we were talking about this. There’s not really spice like that, to be honest. At Sisig, you can add jalapeños and peppers, but in general Filipino food is not very spicy. But I still love hella spices, spicy sauces, things like that on my food.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘Now you’re seeing ube at Trader Joe’s and Starbucks and things like that. That’s amazing, that’s cool. Growing up, you didn’t really see that as much.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What restaurant, besides Señor Sisig, were you most looking forward to on your food tour?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/bbs.bbs.bbs.bbs.bbs/?hl=en\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">BBs\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in Toronto. I’ve been visiting Toronto pretty frequently and I like eating there. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://guide.michelin.com/us/en/ontario/toronto/restaurant/bb-s\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They were just added to the Michelin guide\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (one of 11 Filipino restaurants to do so). Toronto kinda reminds me of here. How the Filipino culture is ingrained. Everyone in Toronto has a Filipino friend. That feels like home to me. One of the gifts of doing this is being able to connect with more people and experience different cultures. It’s not the same everywhere, so growing up in the Bay you think the world is like this. But it’s not. The more I grow older and understand how special it is to be in a place like this, it’s been amazing.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Have you noticed a rise in the popularity of Filipino food trends everywhere in recent years? And how do you feel about that?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Definitely. Filipinos really only been here for like 50, 60 years. We started coming over in the 60s, 70s. I think over time it’s just grown, and now is the moment for this. We have roots here now. We got critical mass. Now it’s time for the take over [laughs]. Now you’re seeing ube at Trader Joe’s and Starbucks and things like that. That’s amazing, that’s cool. Growing up, you didn’t really see that as much. I’m for it, man. That’s one of the reasons why we even started doing this tour and these collaborations. I want people to feel pride in who they are. Most of the time people have to suppress how they grew up or their backgrounds in order to fit in. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But man, from the reactions so far of people who have come to our events, it’s been dope. Our team definitely likes to think outside of the box and create experiences in other ways, and not just always buying a ticket to one of my concerts. How do we create an experience that’s unique to us? This felt like the perfect thing. This encompasses what I’m fully about.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13936935\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13936935\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-030-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A vinyl album with the photo of a person in a baseball cap on it beside a trucker hat with the words "Very Good Food Tour 23'" written on it.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-030-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-030-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-030-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-030-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-030-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-030-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-030-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Merch from P-Lo’s Very Good Food Tour. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What defines Filipino food for you?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The hominess of it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sorry, do you mean that as in “homely” or “homie”?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I mean like that feeling of being at home.\u003c/span>\u003cb> \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Got you. I thought you meant it as sharing it with your homies, because that works too. But being centered on the home is definitely on point as well, especially for immigrant diasporas.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh yeah, totally [laughs]. They both work. My parents are immigrants, so that experience of eating Filipino food at the house, or at a homie’s house, it’s gotta be that for me. I do like the elevated versions of Filipino food though. I appreciate that. Taking it to the next level. But nothing beats when your mom or auntie cooks it. And that’s something I don’t want to leave out. It should feel homely.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>I’ve been thinking a lot about the random intersection of Bay Area slang in rap songs and food. Obviously, E-40 is responsible for most of it. Does anything come to mind for you?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Laughs]. Yeah, E-40 is responsible for probably 90% of that. Um, let me think. I know \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13908052/food-doesnt-slap\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">food definitely doesn’t slap\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. That’s where I draw the line. Someone said that on TikTok and completely butchered it. That’s not how it’s used. That’s just not it. But yeah, I also talk about chicken in my songs. Referencing money. That’s just something I’ve heard in conversation that I started using in my music.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What’s inspiring you musically right now?\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’ve been listening to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/jordanward/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Jordan Ward\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. He’s tight. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/4karri/?hl=en\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Karri\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> — he has a song out called “3am in Oakland.” He’s a Filipino kid, too. He’s super tight. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/sneedlovesu/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Michael Sneed\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. He’s very unique. He’s been out in L.A. working in our studio, going back and forth to the Bay. Watching him create and get it has been super cool. He’s one of the purest people I know. That’s inspiring to be around.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/RGOmeRPuYhQ'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/RGOmeRPuYhQ'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You’re considered one of the Bay Area’s biggest voices right now. You’re vocal about different issues like positive community representation, the Warriors and supporting one another. How does it feel to be in that position now?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’m just grateful, man. I want to keep growing, no matter how big or small, on every level. That’s a credit to the people around me. They allow me to think in progressive ways and bring new ideas to life. It’s truly that, to be honest. Having the right people. And always being open to learning. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/gucci1017/status/1017765522555981829\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Gucci Mane said something like, “If you not growing, you dead.”\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> If something’s not growing, it’s finished. So I like to be a permanent student, to embrace the youth, the next generation. Anybody that came out the Bay, I’ve tried to bring them on tour with me. ALLBLACK, [22nd] Jim, Rexx Life Raj, Caleborate, Sneed. Just embracing that growth no matter what.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Who played that role for you when you were coming up?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>For me, Kool John and IAMSU!, it really starts there as a member of Heartbreak Gang. Iamsu! and Kool John really gave me all the confidence to do what I’m doing, and they showed me the way. Sage, too. G-Eazy played a huge part and taught me some game. Shit, 40. Uncle Earl. Just having phone conversations with him, or him calling me to get my opinion on things. That’s surreal. I grew up on him. Being around all of them. They gave me that push like, “Bruh, you can really do this.” Being a producer at first, people thought I could only do that. SU! and Kool John pushed me to actually be on songs. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13938026/hbk-gang-iamsu-jay-anthony-p-lo-sage-gemini\">\u003cb>HBK Gang has played a tremendous role in the Bay Area’s artistic renaissance\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003cb> over the past decade. Looking back on it, what influence do you think you all had?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That era set the table for pretty much the future of Bay Area music. There wasn’t really anything for the soundscape in the Bay at the time, in terms of production, what it all sounded like, and fashion at the time as well. We did collabs with Pink Dolphin, stuff like that. People weren’t doing collabs with clothing brands. Like any Bay Area story, we’re always ahead of the times.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Where do you think that inventiveness comes from in Bay Area people?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We’re all like hippies, for real. We’re eccentric. And eclectic. It may be the drugs, maybe something in the water. Our water, our air, it’s really good. That’s important. I really think it makes us function in a way that’s different from the rest of the world. We also get exposed to a lot here, and we find beauty in the imperfections. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>I agree. We’re blessed and bipped at the same time.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Exactly. I got homies in the tech world, and I got homies in jail right now. Growing up with that spectrum is wide. That makes us worldly people. You can drop a Bay Area person anywhere and they’ll be alright. And you can always spot us out by just playing Too $hort’s “Blow the Whistle.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13936937\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13936937\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-008-BL-KQED-1.jpg\" alt=\"Two people stand together talking as one holds a young child.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-008-BL-KQED-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-008-BL-KQED-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-008-BL-KQED-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-008-BL-KQED-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-008-BL-KQED-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-008-BL-KQED-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-008-BL-KQED-1-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">KQED reporter Alan Chazaro holds his son Maceo while posing with P-Lo at Señor Sisig. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Editor’s note\u003c/strong>: This story is part of \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop\">That’s My Word\u003c/a>\u003cem>, KQED’s year-long exploration of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop\">Bay Area hip-hop\u003c/a> history.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Thursday night, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13924167/mac-mall-illegal-business-my-opinion-excerpt\">Mac Mall\u003c/a> and RBL Posse’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13923766/rbl-posse-a-lesson-to-be-learned-album-cover\">Black C\u003c/a> came to KQED’s stage to discuss their published autobiographies live and in person. Representing a golden era for Bay Area rap, the two shared stories from their books about growing up in Vallejo and Hunters Point; surviving gang wars and shootings; scraping together resources to record classic debut albums; and prospering against all odds to stand as legends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watch above to see the discussion (starts at 21:00), co-presented by \u003ca href=\"https://www.litquake.org/\">Litquake\u003c/a>, with bonus performances of RBL Posse’s “A Part of Survival” and “Don’t Give Me No Bammer Weed,” and Mac Mall’s “Get Right,” “Sic Wit Tis” and “Wide Open.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
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"possible": {
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"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"soldout": {
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"title": "SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America",
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"info": "Tech Nation is a weekly public radio program, hosted by Dr. Moira Gunn. Founded in 1993, it has grown from a simple interview show to a multi-faceted production, featuring conversations with noted technology and science leaders, and a weekly science and technology-related commentary.",
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