Mac Dre was a legend. In his 34 years on earth he recorded 20 albums, appeared on over 20 more, did five years in prison for conspiracy to commit bank robbery, and spearheaded a Bay Area rap movement now known as Hyphy.
Mac Dre hailed from the extremely rough "Country Club Crest" neighborhood in Vallejo, Ca. He began releasing albums in the early 90's, and quickly gained attention as one of the Bay Area's rising stars. Unfortunately that attention was not only being given to him by fans of his music, but also by the local police, who suspected that Mac Dre's Romper Room Gang (named after the popular children's TV show) was involved in the robberies of several area pizza restaurants.
Bored of robbing pizza joints for small amounts of money, the Romper Room Gang moved on to banks, robbing over 35 banks in the Bay Area. The estimated loss of said robberies was over 1.4 million dollars. Word on the street was that the money was being used to fund Mac Dre's recording career, and when the police caught word, they began actively investigating and harassing the young rapper, causing him to record his taunt to the Vallejo Police Department, "Punk Police" on his debut album, "What's Really Going On."
Unlike NWA's "Fuck the Police," "Punk Police" could be played on the radio, and was being played constantly on Bay Area radio stations, much to the aggravation of VPD.
In the song Mac Dre claims he is not the culprit, but also taunts the police for being unable to solve the robberies, calling out the chief of police by name.
Needless to say this did not sit well with the authorities, and as the robberies got bigger, the FBI was called in, and eventually Mac Dre, and fellow rappers J. Diggs, and Kilo were arrested. Mac Dre was not present at that, or as many members of his crew claim, any other robbery. He was instead indicted on conspiracy charges based both on conversations recorded by a police informant, and sentenced to five years in prison with J. Diggs serving 10 years, and Kilo serving eight respectively.
An hour long special on the Romper Room gang and the robberies aired on B.E.T., and here it is in it's entirety, just because I love y'all. (It's actually only about 40 min without the commercials. Also when you click it an ad will open up in annother tab or window, click it again and it will play)
When Mac Dre got out of prison, instead of trying to cash in on his gangster image and acting hard, he wanted to fucking party. And party is exactly what he did.
His music reflected the change, creating a feel good atmosphere more with having fun ("going dumb") than being tough or "gangsta." He began popping ecstasy, calling it "thizz," or "thizzin'," (as opposed to the term "rolling") and invented many of his own dances, referred to as "giggin'." (See the video below for the individual dances and their names)
All of this became part of the Bay Area movement know as Hyphy (a term derived from the word hyper) a movment centered around "feel good" hip-hop music, ecstasy, wild erratic dancing known as "Turf Dancing," or "Thizz Dancing," and wild driving techniques such as "yolking and dipping" (essentially doing doughnuts in the middle of the freeway and driving off) and the infamous "ghostriding the whip." (putting your car in cruise and getting out of the drivers seat, often times doing a dance next to the car as it is moving, or getting on top of the car and "going dumb") check out the two videos below. The first one provides a brief, to the point history of and visual represntation of the Hyphy movement, and the second one is an inspiring video of Mac Dre co-defendant, J. Diggs ghostriding the Bay Bridge late at night.
Unfortunately, every party has to come to an end, and Mac Dre's party was tragically cut short when he was shot after a show in Kansas City, Mo in 2004, at the age of 34. Rumors quickly spread that Kansas City rapper, Fat Tone was responsible. Fat Tone was murdered shortly after by Bay Area rapper Mac Minister, who was the subject of an episode of America's Most Wanted, and later sentenced to life in prison.
While Mac Dre died, his legend continues to grow. With a not too shabby run of 20 albums, his fans have a lot to choose from, and as is the case with many fallen rappers now, his music continues to be release posthumously.
Now as is the case with any artist with that much material, it is hard to find a starting point to get into their music. So, just because I love all of y'all so much, I decided to post a Mac Dre cd (put together by Diego Perez) for y'all to download and get dumb to.
1. Uninvited
2. She Neva Seen
3. Black Buck Rogers
4. Northside
5. Where We Dwell
6. Feelin' Myself
7. Since '84
8. Let's All Get Down
9. Thizzle Dance
10. Cuddies Say Yee
you suck "90s" balls.
ReplyDeletethat's way better than the places you put your mouth, son.
ReplyDelete