FTB goes on a journey into sound.

05.2.2008 | 7:31 pm | East Bay Grease, Hyphy, Town Business, Warrior-Less Playoffs

Tonight the FTB Crew will be at Tha Club! Okay, not a club really, but more like the Berkeley version of a club - La Pena Cultural Center. Where we will, in fact, be getting our culture on. Now that The Warriors season is over, we must turn our attention to the other areas of East Bay Culture that we have neglected while waxing philosophical about really important things like the trade value of Mikael Pietrus.

In the past year, while our collective heads have been under a rock (round and leather), we have missed the rumblings of a new hip hop movement in the Bay - and no, it ain’t Hyphy. In fact, it’s post-Hyphy, and even, dare I say it, post-hip hop. Groups like Zion-I, Trackademics, and now League 510, who just released their single “To The Beat” on iTunes, have all turned to other less obvious musical forms to influence Town-based rap. I always like checking bands’ Myspace pages to see how they label themselves. In this case, “New Wave,” “Soul,” “Techno,” “Pop,” along with “Hip Hop,” have all been used as additional ingredients to kick it up a notch, Emeril-style.

Nas said hip hop was dead, and it wasn’t just a gimmick to sell records, it was the truth. Now we have to deal with that reality. So, you can either be that dude at the barbecue listening to “The Chronic” and talking about the good ol’ days like this and like that and like this and uh, or you can embrace the new. Either way, as long as someone’s still creepin’ to the mic like a phantom, it’s all to the G right?

Who: Ise Lyfe, The League, Dom Jones, Bracy and ID, and BUMP Records
Where: La Pena Cultural Center
When: May 2, 2008 - Doors @ 9pm
Why: If you don’t know, now you know

M. Meschery