Cozy Thoughts: Week 6
November was a month full of hip-hop anniversaries celebrating classic album releases (2001, Streets is a Mutha) but it’s also the anniversary of the end of one of hip-hop’s treasured mediums.
November 8th, 2008 is the date the last episode of Rap City: The Basement aired on BET. Rap City was like a hip-hop hangout out show. Unlike radio and talk show interviews, an artist would lounge and play pool with Big Tigger (the host that I grew up watching) and just kick it. Maybe they’d go in the booth and give you a “freestyle.”
On the Twitter timeline, you’ll likely see clips and gifs of Cam’ron with the pink fisherman’s hat on while simultaneously counting a wad of cash and freestyling in the booth or Lil Wayne rapping on the couch a cappella.
They could just let their guard down and not worry about promoting something.
A little background on the show: Former BET president Bob Johnson was approached about having a hip-hop video show but he didn’t see the vision. Johnson was old fashioned and didn’t understand the culture.
It wasn’t until 1988 when MTV debuted Yo! MTV Raps that Johnson decided to greenlit Rap City. Rap City would debut in August 1989. In the show’s 19 year history, Rap City had nine host.
While having rappers show up in a makeshift basement studio to hangout was cool, it was the show’s early approach of bringing the viewer into the artist’s world that made it dope.
In a Rolling Stone article, former host and comedian Joe Clair recalled moments where he could be in the artist’s home interviewing them.
“Jay-Z flying me in a helicopter to do an interview, getting changed at Redman mother’s house — I changed in the bathroom, he said. I remember meeting Snoop at Daz’s house. They in there playing Nintendo and the whole house is blue: blue toilet paper, blue bathroom, blue water in the toilet.”
I remember coming home after school or if I was home during the summer time, I’d watch Rap City. What made the show dope besides watching artist come through to hangout was being introduced to music and cultures that I was limited to before.
Pre-streaming era, you had to really dig for songs (if downloading illegally was your thing) on Lime Wire and Kazaa. And Rap City was like a visual encyclopedia for my expanding taste for hip-hop.
There’s Monday Night Football, wrasslin’ and the NBA on TNT that you had to look forward to and could discuss with peers during the week but not everyone watched sports. Rap City was water cooler talk for hip-hop heads. You can’t always talk shop with mixed company about sports and politics but music allows a fluidity in any setting.
Hip-hop is no different and Rap City allowed that culture to grow.
Below is some of the music I remember because of what I saw on Rap City.
Bad Azz (not to be confused with Boosie Bad Azz) definitely meant more to West Coast hip-hop than rap on a national scene. But if not for those Rap City videos, I would have never heard this gem. Bad Azz died in his jail cell last month. On the video credits, the first name I recognized was Snoop’s because of course. Snoop was still signed to No Limit but found time to bless his friends on the west with his vocals. “Wrong Idea” was such a stubborn record and I mean that in a good way. In a time when so many major artists, new or already in the game felt like they had to get a beat from The Neptunes, Bad Azz, who was already a veteran in that point of his career, kept his sound strictly G-Funk.
Rest in peace, Bad Azz.
The 2006 Oscars gave the world a moment when most Oscar winners for a movie score would just be a blip. Memphis’ own Three 6 Mafia earned the golden man for their musical contributions for the Terrance Howard led film “Hustle and Flow.” Juicy J and DJ Paul jumped up and down on the stage like children when the ice cream truck is in the neighborhood. They were so damn excited and it didn’t matter what was said. They took the air out the room. It had white America clutching their pearls. John Steward admired the group’s joy and said “that’s how you accept an Oscar.”
The self-proclaimed Most Know Unknowns could take a bow that night.
I remember seeing the “Tear the club up” video on Rap City. And like how they took the air out the room on Oscar night, they had me gasping for air in my folks’ living room. The quick high hats and the snapping snares and chants would have anyone mesmerized. And it wasn’t like it was the first Three 6 song I was aware of but it was telling how ahead of the game they were. They invented “Crunk” without necessarily claiming it. Their DNA is all over “Trap” music. 2 Chainz once tried to school the Migos about how their flow was birthed by Three 6 Mafia. Megan the Stallion has worked closely with Juicy J. Hell, Drake sought out DJ Paul for his “Scorpion” album.
Throughout the arguments, breakups, death of group members and business decisions, Three 6 Mafia remains to be the most influential group of the last decade and change.
Oakland isn’t a city in California but rather a smaller planet that crashed landed in the bay area. A look back at the artists that came from there and they’re nothing like their LA counterparts. They’re aliens. Luniz, E-40, Suga Free, Digital Underground, Mista F.A.B., Lil B etc… all sharing their foreign language and dialect with the world through music. Keak Da Sneak is no different. “Super Hyphy” introduced me to a masterclass of Oaklandisms where he taught me that Mac Dre isn’t a deceased local emcee but a martyr and that there was an entire culture that I wasn’t hip to yet.
Take the time to check how dope the Oakland music scene is.
