Let's talk about Sacramento Rap Again

About a year and a half ago I wrote a post on this blog titled "Let's Talk About Sacramento Rap" in which I tried to give a brief overview of rappers that were currently the most prominent in the Sacramento rap scene. It has since become one of the most popular posts on this blog and is now the first search result when you google "Sacramento Rap."

The post was not meant to be an encyclopedic coverage of every Sacramento rapper ever, but was nonetheless met with tons of comments along the lines of:
"WHAT ABOUT (insert Sacramento rapper name)??? HE IS THE BEST RAPPER EVER. YOU OBVIOUSLY DON'T KNOW SHIT ABOUT SACRAMENTO RAP YOU PIECE OF SHIT."
My first reaction was to guffaw and disregard these comments, but it's hard to ignore them when there is a new comment popping up every week or so with someone new appalled that I failed to mention their favorite rapper from our state's capitol.

So I thought I would take this time to sift through the comments and try to see if any of the rappers mentioned in the original post's comments are indeed making good music.

I guess I should preface this by saying sorry about not being up on any of these rappers, I live a busy life and do other things besides listen to rap music. Also I will just be taking a quick view of the rappers mentioned, rather than exploring their entire discography. Time is money, etc etc.

Doey Rock! I know who he is from the Sick Wid It Umbrella comp from '08. I assume he was signed to the label at some point (because of this), but his last album was in 2009, 4 years ago! I have never listened to any of his solo material, but let's check it out. According to his last.fm "To the Moon" is his most popular track:



Produced by Scott Storch! LOL! Something tells me Doey Rock paid way too much for this chintzy Middle Eastern beat that sounds like a janitor is shaking his keys in the background during the chorus. IDK bros, Doey Rock seems like a talented rapper, but his style is just not really my cup of tea.

Hmm ok let's start with C-Way Mafia. They are comprised of a lot of rappers that I am familiar with from Brotha Lynch Hung features: Big No Love, Bleezo, Sav Sicc, etc. Their last mixtape was from 2009 and is up on Datpiff, but the link is broken :(
This is the first youtube result for C-Way Mafia:



This song sounds pretty good! Has a bit of that distinctive dark Sacramento vibe to it. Smigg Dirtee has a dope verse on it as well. If anyone has a link to Mafia Business Mixtape Vol. 2 let me know, I'd be interested to hear more. These guys have not released anything since 2009, so they might not be active anymore, unfortunately.

Now, let's check out the California Bear Gang (super original name, bros):



I don't care for this at all. These guys look like they sell meth (they might!) and the beat sounds like what would come up if you googled "generic West Coast gangster beat."

Lots of suggestions here, but the lack of punctuation leaves me very confused as to when one rapper name ends and another one starts. Learn how to use the almighty comma, friend. Moving on...

Young Dre-D! I remember enjoying his album from the 90's, Troubled Minds. Apparently he is releasing music again after a long hiatus. His last release, Thinkin' Out Loud, was released in 2010 and features this hilarious album cover:

Doesn't thinking out loud just mean that you are saying what you think? For Young Dre-D it means your thoughts are expressed as pictures surrounded by thought bubbles. Here is a song from his latest:



What a weird song. It sounds kind of amateurish, but in a charming way (no homo) with the deep humming in the hook. The rapping sounds good enough and this song definitely peaked my interest. I'll have to check out some more modern Young Dre-D albums.

What a great comment, my favorite part is "HEADLINERS!" The website mentioned looks like it was built in 1999, so there's that. Lots of names, but let's stick with the main one: BeGee. He is another Sacramento rapper who released music in the 90's and then disappeared, but has since re-emerged in the late 2000's. Here is his only music video:



Wow! So many things to like about this:
- The kid's dance moves are awesome. Is that his son? He seems mildly embarrassed to be a part of this.
- The ultra shaky camera work is a bit headache-inducing.
- At 1:22 BeGee pulls out like $40 and flashes it for the camera when rhyming about being rich. Hilarious!

I think BeGee is a youth football coach IRL and he should stick to that.

Not familiar with Chuuwee, but I like the name. Let's look at youtube's top result:



Very impressive rapping here by Mr. Chuuwee. I like how he stops lip synching to his song in the video in order to smoke a blunt. After checking out some more of his songs it becomes apparent that most of his music has a distinctive old-school laid back vibe to it. That type of lyrical rap over beats that sound like 1993 is generally not my style, but Chuuwee does it very well and it's hard not to like his music.
Unlike anyone else mentioned thus far, it looks like Chuuwee is actually still active. He has a song on his bandcamp from this year that is tight and definitely worth checking out. Very impressive stuff!

As a young buck I was a big fan of Skanless' The Book of Skanless from 1996. Not really sure if it would still sound tight to someone hearing it for the first time in 2013, though. I guess Skanless is back at it again after getting locked up for some time. That seems to be a reoccurring theme here: Sacramento rapper makes some tight music in the 90's, disappears, then reemerges in the last few years. Here is Skanless' new music video:



Well first of all, I highly suggest you listen to this song without watching the music video. The video looks very unprofessional, but Skanless' raps are still on point. It's interesting how different his voice sounds from his original albums, but it's understandable that after 15+ years a guy's voice might get a bit lower. The 2nd verse in the song, by some guy named K.G. Da Mack, is really bad, but Skanless' raps still sound pretty good after all these years. TBH a lot of these videos of old rappers trying to get back in the rap business are pretty depressing.

Alright, C-Plus, let's check this guy out. A quick google search reveals that rap website 2DopeBoyz has a bunch of posts featuring his music, which is quite surprising considering they mostly only post videos of East Coast rappers and popular rappers. It turns out C-Plus has done some collaborations with Lee Bannon, a producer whose work you might be familiar with from his work with Jacka. Here is a video from that C-Plus Lee Bannon project:



This song is about drugs and features some serious purple lighting. The beat is amazing with its trippy/moody atmosphere and C-Plus' raps are solid. After checking out one other song from the project I think it's safe to say that this one is worth a download. Lee Bannon's production is reminiscent of Clams Casino, with its spacey new age vibe. C-Plus seems like a talented rapper, who could have some real mainstream potential.

"I'LL HELP YOU!" Good comment! Ok B.J.M. Tha Rapper, never heard of him. Here is his latest video on youtube:



"This song is going to be a hit!" - a guy from 1999. This video cuts off really early for some reason. After looking through some more videos by B.J.M. I am equally unimpressed.

Chico YB, never heard of him. Here is the only solo music video from him that I could find:



IDK bros, this is not bad, but I do not feel compelled to seek out more music from Chico YB. I am finding the concept of this post to be extremely regrettable and tedious....










        I definitely enjoy some "REAL STREET SHIT" so I am excited to hear this. This is the latest music video and it has almost 5k views, approximately 4.8k more views than most other rappers mentioned thus far:



There are lots of other rappers featured on here besides PusH, but I'm pretty sure they are all from Sacramento. The sound quality is trebley as fuck and the dude doing the hook ("Foola", lol!) could not have a more annoying voice if he tried. Actually they all have pretty grating high-pitched voices. Not a bad song/video, but this is not for me.

I can't believe that this comment was left in the year 2013. C-Bo signed to Young Buck's Cashville Records in 2006! Since then Young Buck has gone bankrupt and fallen off the earth and C-Bo is back in jail. Bummer times.

Wake up Sac! Let's look into this Yung Rich Da Axe Murderer character. That name is quite a handful.



This music video is very depressing for both intentional and unintentional reasons. I don't think his clothes could be any more oversized without falling off. He uses the N-word a few times in the song and that is not a good thing. Sacramento is a really weird place.

Just when I thought things could not get any more depressing. Let's move on.

Damn dude I just got word this blog is no longer "intune with the streets." Time to hang up my blog jersey now, I have failed you, rap enthusiast. Let's check out the top music video by this Mozzy guy:



Guess what?: I like this song a lot. Sure, it has a standard trap beat and is not particularly original, but it's a quality gangster rap song. All of the colors in the video are saturated and bleached out, giving everyone an orange-tint and it is real interesting to look at. There are lots of people rapping here and I have no idea who is who, but they generally all do a good job and sound like fully developed rappers.
Does anybody know where to start with Mozzy and friends? They have tons of youtube videos up, but it's hard to determine what projects of theirs are worth checking out.

There are a couple other rappers mentioned in the original post's comment section, but honestly I really want to end this post on a high note and it is already long as fuck.

To wrap things up, I definitely discovered some good rappers from Sacramento that I have been missing out on, but also discovered a lot of crap. There are some other rappers that I didn't mention here because I don't really enjoy writing about songs that are not good. Taking the time to insult music videos that have 116 views on youtube just seems pointless and a bit mean-spirited to me. The Sacramento rap scene is nothing compared to what it used to be in the 90's, when there was a genuine movement that had a distinct and cohesive sound. The scene today is much more fragmented, but in a sense that makes it much more surprising and unique. Thank you to everyone who commented on the original post, I appreciate all feedback on the blog even if it is just to tell me how much of a shithead I am.
Let's end things with another video from Mozzy that I just discovered:



Have a nice day and I hope you discovered some new rappers whose music you will enjoy.