...But that's my niche.

No gay rappers?

Bay Area Mixtape (side B).

1. Why Ya Want to Get Funkee - Del tha Funkee Homosapien. Some tracks start to play, and kind-of fuck around a little bit, and you keep wondering when it's going to start getting good. Not this one. This track is no-nonsense good times.
2. Northern Califoolya - E-40. I play like I'm not into E-40, but that is a blatant lie.
3. Make Your Move - Hieroglyphics ft. Goaple. For about a year after I got into this track, I put it on every mix I made. It was a good track to put in the middle of all of the hard shit to calm things down for just a damn minute.
4. Cusswords - Too $hort. What is a mixtape without Too $hort? I'll tell you what it is. Trash.
5. Family and Friends - Pep Love ft. Goaple. I've been searching for this track for a couple of years now. It was on a Heiro mix that they put out a few years ago, but I haven't had much luck finding it locally. Help a brother out?
6. Pray - MC Hammer. Hmm. You can't really start talking about Oakland in general without throwing Hammer in the mix. Even at the height of his popularity, I don't think anyone was taking the guy seriously, even though he claimed to be 2-legit. Okay, Hammer. Keep on it, man.
7. Me-O-Mi-O - Casual. I was so into this track when I was 14 that the Fear Itself cassette stopped playing properly.
8. Sex Packets - Digital Underground. Just like any 2-Live Crew album when I was young, Sex Packets made me feel funny in the 'tingly, need to be by myself for a few minutes' way.
9. Make Way - Souls of Mischief. This track is off of Souls of Mischief's barely-recognized 3rd album, Focus (which is a pretty amazing album in general, I promise).
10. Super Hyphy - Keak Da Sneak. Keak, a common collaborator with E-40 and Too $hort, began the 'hyphy movement' in 2000 as a means to bring attention to the harder side of Oakland's hip hop scene. Similar to crunk-style, hyphy beats are dirty as hell, and this song showcases the whole deal nicely.

(I know I went kinda heavy on the Hieroglyphics-affiliated stuff, but seriously... Do you blame me?)

~sarah p.