The story that these 10 tracks tell isn’t one about how a small town had to assimilate into a larger city in order to gain acceptance. It’s about that smaller town coming fully formed from the get-go, with their own style and lingo, and letting their light shine through the whole Bay Area — showing that true “rogues” always get their piece of the pie.
1. Members Only Crew, ‘Rock Your Body’ (1985)
Responsible for what’s likely the very first rap record out of Silicon Valley, the Members Only Crew were a group of young Stanford students who essentially created hip-hop radio as a format on campus station KZSU 90.1 FM. The two prominent crew members were DJ Kevvy Kev and Jonathan Brown. In addition to establishing The Drum on KZSU — the longest-running hip-hop radio show in the country — Kevvy Kev was a founding member of Sway & Tech’s Wake Up Show and later served as tour DJ to the RZA. Jonathan Brown, a Tulsa transplant turned late ’80s/’90s EPA resident, is an endlessly prolific DJ, producer and MC who created his own eccentric, auteur-like musical universe via his Bass Way International and Jubwa Nation monikers.
Before there was even anything clearly defined as “EPA rap,” the influence of the Members Only Crew on the general region’s street scene was undeniable. Witness the final track of their 1985 four-song EP on their very own Cold Fresh label: the talk box-laced B-boy jam “Rock Your Body,” which showcases Jonathan Brown’s Egyptian Lover-esque freaky flow on each verse and foreshadows his solo “Bass Creator” sound to come.
2. Rated X, ‘Be Cool To Your Girl’ (1990)
Rated X were a group outta Midtown consisting of Cool Breeze, DJ Ajax and Captain Crunch, aka C-Funk, who was a major factor in EPA rap while racking up production credits for Conscious Daughters, Rappin’ 4-Tay, Daz and Kurupt from the Dogg Pound and more.
“Be Cool To Your Girl” was a local hit, released on the well funded and Cameron Paul-associated label Tandem Records (based out of the very un-‘urban’ peninsula town of Burlingame), and was the first of its kind to be played on mainstream radio. Utilizing a jazzy, deceptively rugged sample of Mel & Tim’s “Keep The Faith” (much later sampled by the likes of DJ Premier and Madlib), the song was a voice of compassion towards female companions which, in an era of heavy bitch ’n hoe raps, was a breath of fresh air. But it was also a perfect target — whether due to jealousy, or simply to point fingers at a sucker ‘Captain Save a Hoe’ type — for an immediate backlash.
Cue Parts Unknown.
3. Parts Unknown, ‘Another Day In EPA’ (1990)
Released solely on cassette, Time For Turmoil was essentially a raw, low-budget compilation of rap acts from ‘The Ville,’ The Village, who had a rivalry with Midtown and who finally made their voices heard after a couple years of anonymity. The whole tape starts with the above-mentioned Rated X’s regional hit promptly being scraped off the turntable, and main rapper Kilo G boldly stating “FUCK CRUNCH” after each of his verses, stating “…Crunch has got an attitude / Girls approach him and they find his manner’s plenty rude” — implying that, in reality, the Rated X frontman may not have been so cool to his girls.
The tape’s centerpiece is “Another Day In EPA,” a long-winded piece of murderous street storytelling that doubles as an early roll call of fellow Village street stars and rappers. Young Mack and K-9, who went on to form S.I.C. (Sic Insane Criminals), rhyme over a beat that magically turns Soul II Soul’s “Keep On Movin’” into mobbed-out menace. Mixed with Ultimate Breaks & Beats sample staples like James Brown’s “Big Payback” and Esther Williams’ phone-ringing hit “Last Night Changed It All,” the track finds Young Mack cuttin’ town getting “a room at the ‘Cozy'” and later jumpin’ on the “‘Way Way’ to go chill with the n-ggas down in P.A.”
4. EPA’s Own Parental Advisory, ‘A N-gga Named Dopestyle’ (1990)
A cassette-only project spearheaded by MC Dopestyle outta The Gardens, The Cum Song EP was an all-out assault on rap music and perhaps just music in general. Think the Cold Crush Brothers’ “Punk Rock Rap” flipped on its head — or “Ultramagnetic MCs on steroids,” as a friend once described it — driving much harder into the essence of punk as utter rebellion rather than just a flashy look or surface sound. Dopestyle seeked to destroy. You can hear his frustration and total defiance on “A N-gga Named Dopestyle,” “gunning meatheads down with vocab,” a “pro-Black n-gga” who “drink(s) Clorox” and whose “shit I write is really Black literature.” This man was a true rogue, full of glorious contradictions.
5. Totally Insane, ‘What Ya Know’ (1991)
Chances are you have heard this one. Considered by many to be the crown rulers of EPA Rap, Totally Insane consisted of rappers Ad Kapone and Mac-10, featuring supremely solid production — and a connection to San Francisco giants I.M.P., Dre Dog and RBL Posse — via official member T.C.
On “What Ya Know,” Ad Kapone, in his signature laid-back flow, schools us on his fateful meeting with neighborhood kingpin Mike D. Washington, who funded much of the group’s early activity. As Ad Kapone explains in his second verse, Washington “Jumped out his drop Benz like a Black god / He stepped to me and pulled out a fat-ass wad / He said ‘With this you will kick the gangster shit, Ad’ / I called up Mac-10 and Mac wasn’t even mad.”
With the track’s luxurious gangster flip of Idris Muhammad’s “Power Of Soul” that conjures grandiose images of pyramids in the EPA backstreets, it’s no wonder Totally Insane attained such status in the region, and to this day are held in the highest regard.
6. Chunk, ‘What Waz I To Do?’ (1992)
A prolific artist who made three full-length albums in the span of just two years on the Tandem label, Chunk was a Midtown rapper graced mainly with classic C-Funk production before hooking up with the mighty Sean T in 1993 and signing with Murder One Records. Before going solo, Chunk was in a group called Reality with Doc Loui and Ad Kapone of Totally Insane. As Ad recently explained in a recent interview with Dregs One, he had to stop making music with them due to the intense rivalry between Midtown and The Ville (Doc Loui was from the latter part of town), with a shootout at the local talent show proving just how heated the funk had gotten.
If there was ever a hit single from Chunk, “What Waz I To Do?” was it. Busting hardcore lyrics over a smooth Lonnie Liston Smith sample, the perfect blend of “street” and “cosmic” is achieved as Chunk runs through the trials and tribulations of growing up in the EPA streets backed by a hopeful soundtrack.
7. Funk Lab All Stars, ‘La Da Da’ (1991)
A heavily P-Funk-inspired project reminiscent of Oakland’s Digital Underground, Funk Lab All Stars were led by C-Funk and included a young Pam The Funkstress on the turntables. Boots Riley of The Coup once told of seeing Pam DJ for Funk Lab in 1992 and being dead-set on hiring her for his own group; she became The Coup’s DJ shortly afterward.
“La Da Da” is a silly but playful track and video, and the Funk Lab All Stars’ sole album Music From A Motion Picture Funktrack is worth checking out for a fun late-night weekend party.
8. Money Marc, Ad Kapone, Doc Loui & … – Demo Track (1991)
When first unearthed, this was thought to be a lost track from Totally Insane’s Crazy Shit album, which was scrapped due to Mike D. Washington passing away. But after a few listens, it became evident that it’s simply another slammin’-ass track that just never saw a proper release, likely recorded not too long after the release of Totally Insane’s classic Direct From The Backstreets. Found on an old Maxell cassette, it’s being uploaded for the first time here.
The first MC to bat on this buried gem is Money Marc of Neva Legal, a group that didn’t have a proper full-length release until 1998. The track is definitely rough and unfinished, as evidenced by the gritty, slightly slap-backed delay on Ad Kapone’s vocals on the second verse, sonically inconsistent with the other rappers’ sound. Ad slays the track, rhyming “test a ‘G'” with “recipe,” and the third verse features an pre-pubescent sounding Doc Loui rapping about the “first day in my life as a gangster,” during which he robs a local bank with his posse and makes a quick getaway from the cops “cuz they just too slow.”
The intro’s impression of then-president George Bush Sr. is comedy gold, claiming that those awful East Palo Alto Guys “are pulling too many jacks, and uhhh selling too many sacks…and it’s just uhhh ruining the nation.”
9. M.O.G. – P.A. Thang (1992)
While helping lead the Bay Area into a new era of mobb music with less samples and more live instrumentation, Sean T of M.O.G. (Murder One Gangster) gained massive cred blessing artists from all around the Bay with his unforeseen levels of musical talent. (Ever witnessed the club go crazy to Mac Dre’s “Feelin’ Myself”? That’s Sean T’s beat, right there.)
Along with G-Man Stan — the guitarist, engineer, producer and head of the Oakland-based Find A Way Studios — Sean T went on to define the EPA sound of the mid-’90s. The two formed Young Gotti Records in 1996 and released Sean’s classic LP Pimp Lyrics & Dollar Signs, among many others.
“P.A. Thang” is a slow-rolling, pimped-out track, with Sean and his groupmates Top Dog and Kaos narrating what it’s like to live and die in the EPA streets.
10. Female Fonk – Sucka Free
Responsible for perhaps the first rap to turn Juicy’s “Sugar Free” into a play on words, Female Fonk were the duo of Ju Boo and Pam The Funkstress, signed to Buck Fifty Records.
