'That’s My Word' Taps Into the Bay Area's Hip-Hop History

KQED’s Year-Long Multimedia Project is the First of Its Kind to Document the Influential, Yet Underappreciated Legacy of Bay Area Hip-Hop

“Celebrating 50 years of hip-hop with KQED and That's My Word! The legacy. The slang. The things we done brought to the game. Shout out to KQED and the Bay Area — that's my word.” — Keak Da Sneak

Tupac. MC Hammer. Too Short. E-40. Mac Dre. The Coup. Souls of Mischief. Del the Funky Homosapien. Keak Da Sneak. The Bay Area boasts a roster of hip-hop artists that rivals nearly any other region in the country. But unlike New York, Los Angeles, and Atlanta, for instance, Bay Area hip-hop has never received its proper due in the canon – until now.  To commemorate what is widely considered hip-hop’s 50th anniversary, the KQED Arts & Culture team introduces That’s My Word, an ambitious, year-long multimedia project exploring the Bay Area’s crucial contributions to the evolution of hip-hop.

Hip-hop has become the dominant American musical genre and cultural force this century, and Bay Area hip-hop sits at a distinct intersection of music, politics, social movements and independence that have contributed to hip-hop’s DNA. Featuring articles, profiles and interviews with iconic and up-and-coming Bay Area artists, playlists, an interactive historical timeline, videos, a podcast series, education curricula and a series of live events, That’s My Word makes the compelling case that the Bay Area is the missing piece of the hip-hop story.

Over the next year, That’s My Word will take audiences through the history of Bay Area hip-hop – and even its pre-history. We’ll give you inside stories behind the records that have defined Bay Area hip-hop – and some of the more overlooked ones as well. We’ll also go beyond the music to show how artists such as Boots Riley and Tupac forced direct social action; how pioneers like Pam the Funkstress and the Conscious Daughters changed the game for women in hip-hop; and how self-made entrepreneurs such as Too Short, E-40, Hieroglyphics and others created a new blueprint for independent artists.

We’ll take you back to the locations where some of the most iconic Bay Area hip-hop album covers were set. We’ll provide soundtracks to each of the decades in Bay Area hip-hop history. We’ll explore some of the Bay Area dancers, graffiti artists and DJs who helped turn hip-hop into more than just a musical genre, but a cultural movement that has penetrated every corner of mainstream life. And we’ll provide an interactive timeline with over 200 entries to showcase seminal moments in Bay Area hip-hop history.

“Our hip-hop is multicultural, flamboyant, political, diverse and high energy,” write KQED Arts & Culture Editors Gabe Meline, Pendarvis Harshaw, Eric Arnold and Nastia Voynovskaya in their introduction. “It’s staunchly independent and doesn’t ask for approval. It’s the product of pimps and hustlers just as much as activists and intellectuals. In the Bay — rewind that Mac Dre song — we dance a little different.”

That’s My Word project is led by members of KQED’s Arts & Culture editorial team, which includes Meline, Harshaw, Arnold and Voynovskaya, and an advisory panel consisting of author Jeff Chang (Can’t Stop Won’t Stop); KPFA host, San Francisco State University Professor and hip-hop historian Davey D; and Dawn-Elissa Fischer, a SFSU professor and founding staff member of Harvard University’s Hiphop Archive and Research Institute. A story as broad and varied as Bay Area hip-hop takes a village to get right, and we’re relying on countless editorial contributors, including writers, historians, artists and others who have lived and covered Bay Area hip-hop’s evolution as it happened and as it continues to thrive and evolve.

To follow this project, tap in now at bayareahiphop.com and follow us on our social channels:

instagram.com/kqed
facebook.com/kqed
twitter.com/kqed
tiktok.com/@kqedofficial 

Contacts:
Media inquiries: Peter Cavagnaro, pcavagnaro@kqed.org
Editorial inquiries: Gabe Meline, gmeline@kqed.org
Community partnerships: Eric Arnold, earnold@kqed.org