May 25, 2006

Dumb As I Wanna Be: Is the Bay Area's Hyphy Movement Hip Hop's Next Frontier?

Ghostride ya scaper, put ya stunna shades on, shake dem dreads, go stupid and ride the yellow bus. These are all terms associated with the Bay Area rap phenomenon known as Hyphy, which is beginning to garner national attention.

By Maya J. Pope-Chappell

After more than ten stagnant years since MC Hammer and the Luniz hit “I Got 5 On It,” the Bay Area rap scene is back. With E-40 and Keak Da Sneak at the forefront of the movement with the Billboard top-40-rated anthem "Tell Me When to Go," the nation has taken notice through coverage by MTV, top-40 radio stations and print media, of a sound, attitude, fashion, and vocabulary that has been evolving in the Bay Area for several years.

This breed of Bay Area rappers and its audience, shaking their dreads, ‘thizzin,’ and ‘going dumb,’ has taken the country by storm. Some call it a movement. Others call it a disgrace. But they all call it "hyphy."

Often described as the cousin to crunk, hyphy is a high energy form of music, often distinguished by aggressive, high-tempo drum beats, infused with funk. Hyphy is also a type of dance, fashion, and lifestyle attached to Bay Area youth.

“Hyphy is the way you talk, the gold teeth, shaking your dreads, wearing oversized glasses, ghostriding your whip, and putting $3000 rims on your scraper,” said Brett Badele, also known as DJ Quest, a Bay Area DJ. “It’s letting yourself go and getting as wild as possible. It’s being free. It’s the whole energetic atmosphere."

Although the Hyphy Movement has garnered national attention in the past year with contributions from artists like E-40, Keak Da Sneak, Too Short, the late Mac Dre, and Mistah F.A.B., the music has always been a major part of the Bay Area rap scene.

"The Hyphy Movement is the Bay Area finally finding a way to get on the map,” DJ Quest said. “We've been getting our slang snatched for years and we've come up with something that can't be taken away because it’s so original. [Nationally, people] are going to gravitate toward it like they did crunk."

The Movement

Hyphy, a perversion of the word hyper, coined by Keak Da Sneak, is not a new phenomenon. Hyphy is simply a manifestation of activities that have been going on in the Bay Area for several years, particularly in Oakland.

Sideshows, for example, began in the 1980s in East Oakland parking lots and continue today throughout the Bay Area. At sideshows, mostly young African Americans gather to socialize and compete, show off their cars, swing donuts and figure eights, and defy police. It is an opportunity to release inhibitions and have fun, despite the violence, drugs, and alcohol that go along with these events.

Although many artists have termed hyphy as a movement, some find the labeling of this Bay Area phenomenon inaccurate.

"I don’t think it should be called a movement because it’s a bit ridiculous and disrespectful to past movements such as the Civil Rights Movement, the Women's Suffrage Movement, etc...," said Whitney Dwyer, UCSC fourth-year and Bay Area native. "I think it's just being dramatic. E-40 just uses words loosely for shock value. Saying ‘movement’ has caught on."

However, Boots Riley of the socially conscious rap group The Coup, contends that hyphy is a movement in the sense that it fosters unity and a rebellious attitude toward authority.

"It is very much the essence of the bay,” Boots said. “It's a movement because there are a lot of people that are affected by the same culture that is creating the music. A movement doesn’t necessarily mean a political movement. There are movements in art [too].”

According to E.A. Ski, Oakland-based producer and rapper who has produced hits like “Hell Yeah” and E-40’s “QuarterBacking,” says that this youth-oriented movement encompasses a culture of limited resources and opportunities in the urban spaces they inhabit, including declining public schools systems, a lack of activities, drugs, and violence.

“There's nothing for these urban kids to do,” Ski said. “That's why you have hyphy. That's why they get hyphy. That's why they shake they dreads. When [youth] get together with other kids, whether they smoking or drinking, or popping ex[ecstasy], or they out there just hanging out, and they going hyphy, those things are created from being bored and having nothing positive in their community to look up to."

“Going Dumb…” literally?

With the national success that Bay Area rappers are enjoying comes an increase in criticism and controversy surrounding the Hyphy Movement. Some question the negative repercussions that the terms and ideas promoted in the music are having on the youth.

For example, in many of the songs that promote the Hyphy Movement, there are references to the use of ecstasy, a mood-altering, anti-depressant, which is often called ‘thizz’ or ‘thizzing.’ Both ecstasy use and smoking ‘purp’ or marijuana, was popularized in songs by the late Vallejo rapper Mac Dre. “Going stupid” or “going dumb” are terms often used to describe a type of dance or state of being under the influences of drugs and/or alcohol.

According to David Muhammad, respected Black activist, youth mentor, and executive director of the Mentoring Center in Oakland, hip-hop music, and the Hyphy Movement specifically, promotes what he calls a "culture of death."

“In one sense, [the Hyphy Movement] is Bay Area artists’ attempt to have something break national from the Bay Area,” Muhammad said. “I have no problem with Bay Area artists breaking into the national scene, in fact I support that. But the vehicle they’re currently using has very detrimental impacts. The Hyphy Movement promotes a whole series of irresponsible, delinquent, and criminal behavior.”

Though Muhammad is adamant in arguing that hip-hop did not create the problems many urban communities face, he argues that the music perpetuates them.

"I get little to no argument from parents, people who work in schools or juvenile justice systems about the detrimental effects of hip-hop because it is clear that its pushing a deliberate destabilization of poor and Black communities," Muhammad said.

"The hooks of many of these songs and the anthem ‘Tell Me When To Go,’ have quite literally spawned a whole series of dumb and stupid behavior. Some of the worst aspects are alcohol consumption and drug use.”

Boots offers a different perspective on terms such as "go dumb," which he believes is meant to show power, strength, and unity.

"It doesn’t mean actually ‘I’m going to all of a sudden not know how to add,’” Boots said. "In a sense, the term ‘going dumb’ is about expressing their power. Hyphy is an out-gr