We Were Hyphy: A Documentary About Hip Hop in the Bay Area in the Early 2000s
We Were Hyphy is a documentary that was presented by KQED in 2023. It’s a love letter to everything hyphy — a movement that rose to prominence in Oakland, CA in the late 1990s and early 2000s. As defined early on in the documentary, ‘hyphy’ is slang for:
“1: dangerous and irrational: CRAZY;
2: amusingly eccentric; without inhibition: GOOFY”
And refers to a specific style of hip hop music and culture that started in the Oakland bay area. The documentary is about one hour, and covers what hyphy meant to everyone who grew up during the height of its popularity, and who the major players in creating the sound were. Near the start of the documentary, producer and artist Droop-E defines hyphy as “uptempo mobb music.”
From there, Pendarvis Harshaw, a journalist for KQED, explains what mobb music is — “Mobb music is heavy bassline synthesizers, kinda dark music, music made by street dudes, and it was largely telling street stories.”
The documentary has interviews from influential artists and producers who helped shape the sound of hyphy, along with clips of songs that demonstrate the different styles described throughout. If you like hyphy, the documentary is fun and nostalgic. And if you don’t know much about it, it’s a chance to learn what the music and the movement was about!
Here’s ‘Tell Me When to Go’ from E-40. This song brought the hyphy sound to national attention and made hyphy go mainstream for a moment.
The film also talks about some of the darkness hyphy artists and fans had to go through. It talks about the loss of the Jacka due to a shooting, and the over-policing of Oakland and hip hop music.
All of this and more are in ‘We Were Hyphy.’ Hyphy is being rediscovered by younger generations today. If you get a chance, check out this documentary!
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