Original subtitles

["Hip-Hop" by Dead Prez playing] ♪ One, two, one, two ♪

-♪ Uh, uh ♪ -♪ One, two, one, two ♪

♪ Uh, uh ♪

♪ One thing 'bout music When it hit you feel no pain ♪

♪ White folks say it controls yo' brain I know better than that, that's game ♪

♪ And we ready for that Two soldiers head of the pack ♪

♪ Matter of fact, who got the Gat And where my army at? ♪

-♪ Rather attack and not react ♪ -♪ It's bigger than hip-hop ♪

♪ Hip-hop, hip-hop, hip ♪

♪ It's bigger than hip-hop Hip-hop, hip-hop ♪

[music stops, sirens wail]

[Shad K.] Since day one, hip-hop has been driven by a desire to smash expectations.

We gave ourselves superhero names

to achieve superhuman things.

All with the goal of becoming something bigger

than the world Imagined for us,

and it worked.

But some places are more conducive

to creative liberation than others.

They called this place "The Bay."

And around here, being larger than life

is the only way to be.

The Bay has giving hip-hop

some of its most unique, successful

and iconic characters.

And it's a region whose story deserves to be told.

[car horn honks]

[boat horn blares, seagulls squawk]

[Davey D] In terms of rap,

The Bay doesn't look to New York for its cues.

The attitude here is not "How I can make it in New York?"

It's, "How can we do this ourselves?"

that leads to people going,

"We're not going to do business as usual."

And it's reflected in the music.

[funk music playing]

[Davey D] Here, there was a Funk movement.

There were hundreds of funk bands all around the Bay Area.

[D'Wayne] Sly Stone, Graham Central Station,

Tower of Power, all that.

We are about the next "something,"

you know, and we are open to ideas and concepts.

Not closed minded at all. That's one thing about The Bay.

[Mopreme] You know, there's so many talented musicians in the Bay Area.

It was a good melting pot.

There was a lot of different types of creativity

and people worked together.

It's that hippie shit in The Bay, man.

[Davey D] There was a lot of political movement going on.

You have a free speech movement, you have this multi-cultural movement.

Plus, it's the home of the Black Panthers.

Revolution is in the air.

-[man] Who are you? -Black Panthers.

[Davey D] There was a Panther presence, and you know, of course,

there's also a lot of pimp culture here as well,

that you can't get away from.

Tolerance in the Bay let a lot of beautiful movements happen

that helped humanity.

By the same token,

the laws were more lenient towards pimping and pandering.

[Richie Rich] Back then, Oakland was wide open.

So there was two what they called "Ho Strolls" back then.

San Pablo Avenue and East 14th.

You could come down this block right here.

You'd see the girls walking, you'd see the Cadillacs parked.

[Rickey Vincent] The pimp culture presented a larger than life image.

You had to have a certain attitude.

If you're going to be larger than life, you're going to have to spit some game

uh, that is something no one's ever heard before.

[Shad] The town didn't judge anyone's hustle.

Here, you could choose your path and persona.

So when a14 year-old from LA

found himself on the east side of Oakland

with no other rappers in sight,

he saw an opportunity to reinvent himself

and The Bay.

["Life is Too $hort" playing] ♪ I remember how it all began ♪

♪ I used to sing dirty raps To my east side fans ♪

♪ Back then, I knew you couldn't Stop this rap ♪

♪ No MC could rock like that ♪

-[Too Short] Sir. You good? -[Shad] What's up? Yeah.

[Shad] Let's start with your move to Oakland.

What were your first impressions?

It was 1980 when I got here.

It was alive and colorful to me

and one of the first things I did when I moved here was

I learned how to cruise around on the public transit system:

the bus, AC Transit,

which was like being on a scenic tour every day,

-just checking out the city. -[sirens wailing]

I had grown up watching all '70s Blaxploitation movies.

Oakland just looked like those movies.

When I got here, that had to be

a few years from The Mack movie.

Everybody's psyche and attitude was like, "We are The Mack, Oakland is The Mack."

You see, pimpin' is big business.

And it's been going on since the beginning of time.

[Too Short] It was like something that Oakland owns

that almost everybody has an attachment to.

And the vibe of Oakland is what inspired me to make music.

[Shad] You had a partner at first. So, how did you hook up with Freddy B?

Freddy B used to live not too far from here.

I don't know anybody else that raps. He don't know anybody else.

And naturally, we just become friends.

I was on the bus one night, he was on the bus one night.

He had on a hat that said "Too Short"

and I had on a hat that said "Freddy B."

And the bus was literally full of marijuana smoke.

And there was dudes rapping on the back of the bus.

He was rapping, I was rapping...

The boy had flow.

And his lyrics were tight.

And we said, "Hey, man, let's hook up."

[click]

We had this cassette that we made, me and Freddy B, and we liked it.

It sounded dope.

I've been an entrepreneur all my life, right?

So, I said, "We can sell this."

I was kind of initially in disbelief like,

"Sell it to who?"

He said, "Let's take a walk."

We walked from his house

and there were some guys over here,

that used to be in the parking lot over there selling weed.

[Freddy B] We would come up to them, and they say "What's the tape about?"

I said, "It's about money, it's about women, it's about dope,

and it'll pound in your car.

[bass booming]

[Too Short] We put it in the car with a nice little system bumping.

After a while, somebody pushed Eject

and said, "How much do you want for it?"

Freddy B said five dollars.

Immediately, that moment,

sparked this domino effect of "I want one, too."

We were like, "We'll bring you one tomorrow."

Yeah, man, there was nobody in Oakland that was black

that didn't have one of Too Short's tapes,

and didn't have a story about him selling them out of his trunk,

at the Quick Way, down by The Lake.

[Money B] The thing about Too Short's tapes back then,

is that he always talked about things

that were relevant in Oakland.

You could hear him talking about the Eastmont Mall

or the Foothill bus, 43.

"She was sucking me on the Foothill bus, number 43."

I was like, "I catch the 43."

I felt like maybe I'll get my dick sucked in the back of the bus one day.

You know what I mean?

[Too Short] We started building a clientele

amongst the street guys, who would be selling drugs.

We'd go up to a D-Boy and say, "Got them tapes."

You know how you say, "I got them rocks."

But no, "We got them tapes."

And the cats would run up,

"Freddy B, gimme one!"

We had dope dealers saying,

"Make a tape with my name in it.

And we would do what's called a special request.

All I need to know is your name, the color of your car...

and we come back in an hour, we get $20.

[Too Short] Everybody who was the boss of anywhere,

or who felt like he was important,

wanted to give us US$ 20 for a custom made tape.

And the shit just took from there.

So, that laid the blueprint for the whole independent music hustle.

That was the entire blueprint.

That took us platinum on the streets.

But in 1985, I got into trouble

and went to jail.

right when we were starting in the rap game. So, yeah.

[Shad] So after Freddy B got locked up, where did that leave you?

What followed after was "Freaky Tales."

♪ These are the tales, the freaky tales ♪

♪ These are the tales that I tell so well ♪

[Too Short] "Freaky Tales" came from a line where I said,

I had 16 hos sucking 10 toes.

People used to laugh when they heard that shit.

So, I was like,

"I'm going to write a song about every ho, how I met all 16 hos.

♪ When I met Anne, I shook her hand ♪

♪ We ended up dicking by a garbage can ♪

♪ The next young trick I met was Red ♪

♪ I took her to the house And she gave me head ♪

Same thing with the Blaxploitation movies,

you got to have a character.

I figured the character Too Short

is really what every guy wishes he could say.

The way I would write the songs,

Too Short would always say this rude shit to a female

and she would just fall for it and love it.

At that time, I felt I wanted to be

the dirtiest rapper the world has never seen.

♪ I knew a dick sucker named Betty-Jo ♪

♪ Took her to my home And we did it on the floor ♪

[Richie Rich] Just super raunchy.

That's what made you want that tape

because you knew you had no business having it.

To hear the stories that he would tell

of him and all these women is like,

"Is he telling the truth? Is this really happening?"

He can't be doing all of this.

I mean, this is not humanly possible.

You know what I mean?

All I had to do in the song

was just give you a reflection of Oakland.

Part of Oakland was that real pimp persona.

I was just really analyzing the pimp game the whole time,

and I gave the rap game that player image.

♪ People wanna say it's just my time ♪

♪ Brothers like me had to work for mine ♪

♪ Eight years on the mic And I'm not jokin' ♪

♪ Sir Too Short comin' Straight from Oakland ♪

[Money B] To me, Too Short is the Godfather of Bay Area hip-hop.

The Too Short character was just about spitting game.

Too Short, he always talks about he's a pimp,

but he's never pimped, but pimps love him.

He was just telling you straight forward, "This is what we do."

Do you think he laid down the blueprint

for the player persona in rap, period?

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Short is still not recognized

as one of the major players in the hip-hop game.

He worked his butt off on the streets

selling tapes, soaking up game from the pimps,

the players, the hustlers,

and that record Born to Mack,

where Short's on the top, sitting on a drop Biarritz,

that set the tone and tenor for history.

You know, I know what I did. What I did was, I set off

the Hip Hop scene in the Bay Area.

♪ Short Dog, I'm that rappin' man ♪

♪ I said it before and I'll say it again ♪

-♪ Life is... ♪ -♪ Too Short ♪

♪ Too Short ♪

♪ Life is... ♪

[Shad] Too Short laid the groundwork for rap in The Bay

by spinning tales of pimps and macks.

But that was just one slice of the area's identity.

[horn honks]

In Oakland, funk ruled.

And lockstep with the city's funk bands was the street dance scene.

And it was this hypnotic movement

that would eventually inspire a skinny, energetic kid

to propel himself into rap's first pop superstar.

[Davey D] There's a rich dance tradition in Oakland, California,

that was vibrant in the '70s,

where street dancers, these funk-based dancers,

focused around three styles--

boogalooing, roboting, and strutting.

If you look at the first crack through this underground scene,

it would probably be with The Black Resurgents.

[Shad] And I think they are super star material.

[presenter] Ladies and gentlemen, The Black Resurgents.

♪ The way you like it ♪

[Davey D] They were very complicated, very routine based street dancers

with their strutting and popping. They were hip-hop before hip-hop.

♪ The way you like it ♪

♪ Woo ♪

Damn. That's from a 60-year-old.

[William] In 1975,

the Black Panther Party had been around for a little while,

talking to people about political activism

and social programs all over Oakland.

But in order to get a crowd, they used us.

The Black Resurgents became the official, unofficial dance group

for the Black Panther Party.

When we would rehearse, all of the kids

would come up the hill and hang out.

Hammer was one of those little kids.

♪ Hammer time! ♪

["U Can't Touch This" by MC Hammer playing]

[sparkle dings]

[MC Hammer] I've always wanted to be an entertainer.

I think every kid grows up wanting to be an entertainer.

I decided I wanted to be a rapper,

but I wasn't trying to be a professional until, you know...

my late teenage years, actually my early twenties.

[Davey D] Hammer's coming out of this tradition

of dance being a thing to get your attention.

And he's got a crew.

And they're doing highly choreographed type of routines.

That's going to be his calling card.

It's not going to be his rap, per se,

because you appreciate Hammer more

when you can see him do his thing

than you can just hearing him.

So, unless you in a club to experience it,

the only other way is going to be a certain type of video.

♪ Just put on the hammer And you will be rewarded ♪

♪ My beat is ever boomin' And you know I get it started ♪

[Davey D] Let's Get It Started is a big record.

The beat was so infectious and just so bass-laden.

You didn't really think about him rapping.

You were more or less looking like, "Does he keep everybody energized?"

He was making club music,

and no doubt, Oakland was behind Hammer.

♪ And when it comes to straight up rockin' I'm second to none ♪

♪ From Doug E. Fresh to LL or DJ Run ♪

"Let's get it started, oh..."

I mean, Hammer came in smashing.

It was a good look for Oakland, because it was something different.

♪ Now your party wasn't jumping And your DJ was weak ♪

"♪ Instead of dope beats, they was spinnin' them Z's ♪"

Man, we danced to that song relentlessly.

It was a party, man,

and there ain't no party like an Oakland party.

♪ Yeah, boy! ♪

♪ I can do this! ♪

[Davey D] Keep in mind what's going on at this time.

Early '90s, late '80s, we're in the middle of the crack era.

You're also in the middle of the Reagan-Bush era.

There's a lot of people in the middle of very oppressive times.

[siren wails, radio chatter]

Hammer was smart enough to realize that

at a certain point, "I want to dance and have some fun."

So he provides that.

♪ Can't touch this ♪

♪ You can't touch this ♪

♪ Can't touch this ♪

♪ My, my, my My music hits me so hard ♪

♪ Makes me say "Oh, my Lord, thank You" ♪

[Felton Pilate] We finished the mastering process

for "You Can't Touch This"

and sat down at listening session.

Everyone was like, "Yeah."

[both laugh]

There was an air of confidence about it.

That "this is definitely going to work."

Hammer was not necessarily hip-hop,

so we never took the hip-hop approach.

Our goal was to make the new music accessible.

♪ That's good when you know you're down ♪

♪ A super dope homeboy from the Oaktown And I'm known as such ♪

♪ And this is a beat, uh You can't touch ♪

♪ I told you, homeboy ♪

♪ Can't touch this ♪

It had the Rick James sample in it. Immediately I knew it was a hit.

[Boots Riley] That bass line from "Super Freak," I mean,

you put that on and who doesn't want to dance to it?

I'm not gonna lie, I was a little kid

with the Hammer pants on.

Type-writing across the living room.

It was that era.

♪ Break it down ♪

[Richie Rich] When I first saw the video though, and the...

the sliding and shit, I was like,

"This nigga's trippin'." [laughs]

He was on his own thing,

the glasses, the hair curled back and them damn pants.

[Pam] They were these big baggy pants,

baggy on the sides, but kind of like

not slim on the end, but they just...

they were big pants, that's all I say.

♪ It's Hammer go Hammer ♪

♪ And the rest go and play Can't touch this ♪

[Danyel] MC Hammer knew what he was doing

with regards to this commitment to visual music.

He created the character that people could talk about,

that people could love or hate,

that was bright and colorful and caught your eye

and was perfect for television,

and frankly, for live shows.

[sparkling, crowd cheering]

[beat drops]

[Oaktown 357] He had an energy about him

that was just automatically up here.

The haters couldn't deny it

because of what Hammer was bringing to the table.

So, the live show was a big part of winning people over?

-Yes. -Oh, my God, yes.

[Pam] He was actually a performer.

He's not on stage with a DJ, just walking back and forth.

He danced, he sweated. It's a show.

[D-Shot] He brought something totally different to the rap game.

I mean he brought entertainment to this thing.

When Hammer got on stage, it was magic, bro.

It was fire.

This dude is gonna take off like a nuclear bomb, man.

[woman] MC Hammer's second album, Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em,

has the number one on the Billboard Pop Charts for 19 weeks

and sales are at the seven million mark.

These figures are impressive for any album,

but for a rap record, it's uncharted territory.

I think he's a great inspiration for young people.

It's positive rap.

[Davey D] He's doing this G-rated material,

so little kids like Hammer.

People who didn't like hip-hop knew about Hammer.

[man] Hammer T-shirts!

Hammer T-shirts here!

-He's a great rapper. World's best guy... -He's the best looking.

He's so great.

[Danyel] People wanted to understand rap so bad.

They wanted a non-moody,

open and, dare I say, smiling presence.

There are historical reasons for that.

Hammer was happy to provide that.

Capital Recording stars, MC Hammer and the Posse!

Yeah!

[Richie Rich] His music blew up.

There were mixed emotions

from street cats, the dudes I fuck with.

They're like, "Shit, who is this nigga

with these balloon pants and wha-wha-wha?

He ain't representing the town right," or whatever.

If you want to continue to say what you is,

is pure rap and so forth,

okay, you can have that.

You take the Chevrolet, I'll take the Mercedes.

[Davey D] He was the epitome, in terms of success.

People were looking at him like, "That's not hip-hop, that's not real."

They were critical of him,

only to find 20 years later, everybody's trying to do the same thing.

"How can I get a soda deal?

How can I get a cartoon?"

Proper.

Before Jay-Z said "I'm a businessman,"

Hammer was executing that

in a very methodic and systematic way.

His legacy is that he was hip-hop's biggest pop star.

[crowd cheering]

[Shad] Hammer slid into America's living rooms

with his parachute pants,

while Too Short hit platinum success by spitting game.

Two totally different approaches to success.

But for The Bay, the lesson was the same.

[tram horn blares]

If you could channel a character and hustle hard,

there was no ceiling on your potential.

[Shad] And among those motivated, was a bespectacled wordsmith

who would find his niche by spinning and twisting The Bay's slang

and sprinkling it all over America.

♪ I guess them times is gone Cause like a wishbone ♪

♪ I wish I had em' back Instead of watchin' brothers fiz-all ♪

♪ Catch em' out on every track Block, street... ♪

So, when you started rapping, who inspired you?

Back in the '80s, as for rap music in the Bay Area,

it was Hammer and Short.

Hammer had been on top.

He's winning Grammys, he's going Diamond.

It showed us that we can do it, too.

And I grew up listening to Too Short music

at the beginning of my mannishness.

Out there on the town... You know what I'm saying?

I mean, he was spitting game, man,

but it taught me to put straight game in my music.

Like, spit reality...

talk about the dope fiends crawling on the floor,

looking for anything that's white, because I've witnessed all that shit.

Looking for anything that's white, it can be a piece of lint.

"Oh, there..."

You feel what I'm saying?

Talking about the real shit, I lived it.

I've seen it all.

[Shad] Can you describe your flow when you started out?

-Because your flow was different. -[E-40] Yeah.

A lot of people thought I was whack back then.

They never heard nobody rap like that.

Never.

♪ Bloody murder, crime, drugs Folks smokin' ♪

♪ Man I remember when it used to be cool To leave ya screen door open ♪

♪ And let the mosquitoes And the flies sneak in ♪

♪ Mama and then playing whist I'mma play football with my friends ♪

♪ I guess them times is gone 'Cause like a wishbone ♪

♪ I wish I had em' back Instead of watchin' brothers fiz-all ♪

♪ Catch em' out on every track Block, street, boulevards ♪

♪ Sweet avenues with dead ends Neighborhoods with antens ♪

[E-40] My style is unorthodox.

I like to put a lot of words in a verse.

My rap's a little slow for a minute,

then I speed that shit up and take off.

Then I slow it back up and rap fast through the whole thing.

It's like patterns, you've got to rap in patterns.

So I'm different than all rappers.

♪ I kid you not, all bullcrap To the side ♪

♪ I got 20,000 motherfuckers In my organization ♪

♪ Which one of y'all niggas Down to ride? ♪

[Boots] E-40 has one of the most forward-thinking styles.

He was one that some people didn't get at first,

because his style was so different.

♪ I'm fresh out the pen And out the system for years ♪

♪ Fillin' out applications to make a grip I don't know about no computer chip ♪

[jabbers] You know, he started on this flow,

and I was like, "Rewind that back, what did he say?"

[B-Legit] He was called Woody Woodpecker on crack.

"This guy raps too fast. What is he saying?"

Like, his grind was relentless.

I knew it'd be a while before they adapt

to how I spit and everything.

I'd get frustrated. As a young man, I was stressing.

He did three albums, and he was like,

"I don't know when they're gonna feel me."

I said, "Big bro, just keep on moving forward, man.

You're the dude, man.

It's going to catch on."

And, come that fourth album,

boom, it started catching on.

♪ Boom boom on a trick ♪

♪ Play her for false and get rubbed off Ya don't want malse ♪

♪ Fuck around and get evaporated ♪

[E-40] I showed up on that thing and turned it into a masterpiece.

Yeah, this dude is a whole-- He's something special.

Next thing you know, shit just start popping.

♪ I be more hipper than a hippopotamus Get off in your head like a neurologist ♪

♪ Pushin' more weight than Atlas Got a partner by the name of 2Pacalypse ♪

♪ The seven-oh-seven my roost Go hella fall back to Floyd Terrace ♪

♪ I pull a forty out of my ball cap And den I flush it down my esopha-garus ♪

[Shad] Eventually, E-40's unorthodox flow broke through.

And hidden within those dense bars,

the underdog from Vallejo slid in more original slang

than maybe any rapper ever.

What are some of your favorite E-40 phrases?

"It's all good" is worldwide now.

"You feel me" is another one.

Anytime you hear a motherfucker say "That shit is slappin',"

E-40 did that.

"Poppin' my collar" is just from the OGs.

It's a statement.

Each album, I guarantee I said "broccoli" in it.

But some people made it hot and I didn't?

That's comedy.

Anyway, "go on the tuck."

That means "on the under."

-I like "on the tuck." -Yeah.

I'm taking "on the tuck" with me, just so you know.

Yeah, take it, man. It's gratifying.

[both chuckle]

[Pam] When you listened to 40, you knew what you were getting.

You were getting something different.

You were still getting the streets,

the funk, the hustle, the mentality, the whole thing,

but his language was a little different.

He's a smooth talker.

Even with me, "What you doing, E?"

"You know... it's all gravy."

I'm like, "Can we have a real conversation?"

[laughs]

I'm a very rare specimen.

I'm a different guy. I'm rare like a steak.

There will never be another E-40, boy. Trust and believe.

♪ Killing motherfuckers off crucial Sittin' 'em down mutual ♪

♪ Running through these lyrics As if I was fibered like Metamucil ♪

-♪ Timah-timah, forty widah ♪ -♪ Forty wide ♪

♪ Sprinkle me main ♪

[Shad] E-40, Hammer and Too Short

show different sides of The Bay's hustle,

but the hustle was about more than just success.

It spoke to a deeper idea--

black empowerment.

And as the home of the Black Panthers,

Black empowerment ran deep in the Bay.

And the political side of the area

needed its own messenger.

And there's one rapper who stepped into this role so completely,

he became known as the Black Panther of Hip-Hop.

["The Devil Made Me Do It" by Paris playing]

-[Shad] Thank you for this. -[Paris] Indeed.

[Shad] That title, "The Black Panther of Hip-Hop,"

-where did that originate? -I think it came from a journalist.

They're always looking for a quick way to summarize you, and it stuck.

So I was like, "Fuck it, I'll take that." You know.

It could be like, "The House Nigga of Hip-Hop." Shit. [laughs]

I'll take "The Black Panther of Hip-Hip." Thank you.

A lot of people were in the dark about the Panthers,

what they represented.

The power of the people, is where it's at.

It was started in '66, in Oakland

by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale.

It was done initially

in response to police brutality in the neighborhood.

[shouting, gun cocks]

We needed an entity that would police the police.

We would patrol the community.

If we saw the police brutalizing anyone, we'd put an end to this.

Usually, the police wouldn't brutalize anyone if we were on hand.

[Angela Davis] We do not stand there and allow ourselves

to be shot down and beaten.

We have the right, the human right to defend ourselves.

[Paris] The media will say all they're good for is shooting police,

but it was bigger than that.

The Panthers had a free breakfast program,

and stressed education and affordable housing.

That spoke to me in "The Black Panther of Hip-Hop."

That title fit perfectly with what I was trying to convey.

♪ This is a warning Another cut to move on ♪

♪ Another beat that's so strong Hold on and I get wicked and then some ♪

♪ Stir up shit as the wit gets wisdom ♪

♪ P-Dog comin' up, I'm straight loc Pro-black and it ain't no joke ♪

♪ Comin' straight from the mob That broke shit last time ♪

♪ Now I'm back With a brand new sick rhyme ♪

♪ So black check time and tempo Revolution ain't never been simple ♪

♪ Follow in the path of Fanon and Mao ♪

♪ Just Build yo brain We'll soon make progress ♪

[Paris] Shit, man. I went through school basically not knowing anything.

I went to UC Davis and I learned--

My degree is in Managerial Economics,

but, when I got out, I had no knowledge of self.

I didn't know any-- I didn't know who Malcolm X was.

That should let you know, uh,

kind of how deep the system goes

in alienating you from your history.

The late '80s, Minister Farrakhan came up

to the Kaiser Convention Center in Oakland,

and I heard him speaking and it changed my life.

I was like, "Damn, he's touching on things

I've never heard before."

I said, "Shit, I need to read up."

I learned a lot of Black History through hip-hop.

You know, and PE was poppin' at the time,

and that had a huge impact on me.

I loved hip-hop, it was a new art form.

It was an unfiltered way to reach people.

And if you're true to the art,

you say exactly what you want to say.

♪ Then spit on your flag and government Help the black a concept never meant ♪

♪ Nigga please, foodstamps and free cheese Can't be the cure for a sick disease ♪

♪ Just the way the devil had planned it Rape then pillage everyone on the planet ♪

♪ Give 'em fake gods at odds with Allah Love thy enemy and all that hoopla ♪

Popular entertainment raises people, right?

More so than your parents,

more so than teachers and preachers and politicians and shit.

But at the height of our careers, you know,

we could incite riots, we could make people do shit

like, with a wave of the hand kind of thing.

I don't play with it.

[Carla] I was afraid of him at first. I was like, "My God, I'm scared now."

Keep in mind at the time, we never listened to that stuff.

We didn't come from conscious rap.

So, it wasn't until Paris...

He's the father of political rap in the Bay.

[Richie Rich] Paris was 100 percent Panther blood.

It was gangster with a purpose,

gangster with a cause. You know what I mean?

The militancy from the Panthers,

the no backing down state of mind.

This whole city is kind of built like that.

It's bred in all of us.

♪ You know just why a panther went crazy The devil made me ♪

[train whooshes by]

[Shad] No matter your style on the mic, street or pop,

dance or politics, speed up or slow down,

the funk is what unified the Bay's sound.

And you can't tell the story of Bay hip-hop

without talking about the group many consider

to be funk reinvented.

["Doowutchalike" by Digital Underground playing]

♪ I see guys and girls dancing ♪

I came for the party to get naughty,

get my rock salt, eat popcorn.

[crunch]

It's still my favorite snack.

Hmm.

I don't know if Digital Underground could have happened anywhere else.

It happened in the Bay because

I'm toting that P-Funk flag

and the Bay Area was the most...

a collection of people into funk.

One of my favorite recordings,

The Mothership Connection live

on the P-Funk Earth Tour album.

Half of that was recorded in LA and half at the Oakland Coliseum.

[echoing] "What's happening Oakland? Is everything all right?"

-[crowd cheering] -"I said is everything all right?"

They, of all the places they toured, chose Oakland.

That means Oakland are the ones that...

felt George the most.

So, I knew that they would take nicely

to the stuff I was doing because...

Digital Underground was kind of a P Funk version of hip-hop.

Part of my huge affection for P Funk

is the humor, it's not so militant.

"Revolution."

Just dance your way out of your constrictions.

♪ I see guys and girls dancing ♪

♪ Go where you like ♪

♪ I see guys and girls dancing ♪

♪ I mean rich, poor, high, low, Or upper-middle class ♪

♪ Let's get together, have a few laughs And do what we like ♪

♪ And do what we like ♪

[Money B] Digital Underground was Shock G's vision.

It was about us just being ourselves.

You know, you look at Bay Area hip-hop,

Just think about when we were coming up, Digital Underground--

We had Too Short, E-40, MC Hammer...

You had all of these

artists from the same city

all having their own individual sound.

In the Bay, you know, it was okay to be yourself.

I don't want to be a loud boisterous,

greedy sounding, egoed-out person,

which you damn near got to be to be a rapper.

So I let Humpty do that.

♪ Homegirls, forget you got class See a guy, grab him in the biscuits! ♪

[Shock G] In "Doowutchyalike," Humpty Hump wasn't really a character.

It would have only been a voice for that one song.

On our way to shoot the video,

we were shopping for Silly String,

dunce hats and [squawks] noise makers.

And they had a bin of 99 cent noses.

The four types that filled this big box

was dog noses, shark noses, pig noses,

and for whatever reason, brown Groucho Marx noses,

so I just put one on,

looked in the mirror and went, "Yo!"

[laughs] It cracked me up so hard!

♪ 'Cause I'm fun y'all And if you think it is wrong ♪

♪ You got to admit it's a new type of song Doowutchyalike ♪

[Shock G] It just evolved, you know.

Tommy Boy called.

"The phone's ringing off the hook for 'Doowutchyalike,' they love it.

They think the guy with the nose is a whole different person.

You got a name for him?"

"Humpty Hump."

"Humpty Hump? [laughs]

That's great, I'll get a bio started.

I'll see y'all on Monday."

So, Monica Lynch at Tommy Boy is like,

"We think Humpty should have his own song.

What do you think?" We were like, "Yeah, that's a cool idea. All right."

And that day, I just penned it real quick.

♪ Stop whatcha doin', I'm about to ruin The image and the style that ya used to ♪

♪ I look funny, but yo I making money, see So yo world I hope you're ready for me ♪

♪ Gather round, I'm the new fool in town My sound's laid down by the Underground ♪

♪ I drink the Hennessy ya got on ya shelf So just let me introduce myself ♪

♪ My name is Humpty Pronounced with a "umpty" ♪

[Shock G] Humpty Hump, he's a combination of Benny Hill,

all fucking horny...

of Rodney Dangerfield.

"Do you like birds? What's your favorite bird?"

"The swallow."

And Morris Day, "Do the bird." [caws]

The Oak Tree, just nuts, nuts.

And Slick Rick,

"Yo G, I'm just walking downtown." All nasal.

And Bootsie, "Man, we're fucking home, brother."

All that stuff was bigger than life.

So, Humpty is a combination of all that madness.

♪ I'm steppin' tall, y'all And just like Humpty Dumpty ♪

♪ You're gonna fall When the stereos pump me ♪

♪ I like to rhyme, I like my beats funky I'm spunky I like my oatmeal lumpy ♪

♪ I'm sick wit dis Straight gangsta mack ♪

♪ But sometimes I get ridiculous Eat up your crackers and your licorice ♪

♪ Hey yo, fat girl Come here, are ya ticklish? ♪

♪ Yeah, I called ya fat Look at me, I'm skinny ♪

♪ It never stopped me from getting busy I'm a freak, I like girls with the boom ♪

♪ Once got busy in a Burger King bathroom I'm crazy ♪

I mean that was different. You got to think how deep that was

with the two personalities, you know,

So, he's Shock G and Humpty Hump

and he just brought excitement to the game.

Definitely Humpty blew up.

Humpty overshadowed everything.

Humpty could have did a Humpty album,

Humpty cartoons. That's how large he was.

[Paris] Digital was insane.

Digital was hip-hop, so Digital still spoke to the street,

but Digital had this P-Funk infusion,

that made it irresistible.

♪ The Humpty Dance is your chance To do the hump ♪

-♪ Oh, do me, baby ♪ -♪ Come on ♪

♪ Do the Humpty Hump Come on and do the Humpty Hump ♪

[Shad] While Shock G brought his multiple personalities

and alter egos to hip-hop,

Digital Underground also introduced the world

to a young nomadic poet

who was looking for his break.

♪ Some say the blacker the berry The sweeter the juice ♪

♪ I say the darker the flesh Then the deeper the roots ♪

♪ I give a holler to my sisters On welfare ♪

♪ Tupac cares, if don't nobody else care ♪

[Mopreme] The musical scene out of the Bay was so dope.

Lightning was striking.

It was good place to be, it was a good time in music.

Pac have been honing his craft since a teenager.

By the time we hit to the Bay, Pac was like 18-19.

He was ready, you know,

he was ready for them opportunities.

In his early days in the Bay, he was with Strictly Dope.

They were doing performances and doing songs.

He learned a lot of musical game.

His focus was to make it,

to be a success, to make it,

to be somebody to have some power.

[Richie Rich] He used to hit me whenever he needed weed,

so I just started to hang with him.

I was living with my mom

and he called my house.

She's like, "Richard, you have a phone call."

I said, "Who is it?" She said,

"Some nigga named Tube Socks."

-Right? I said, "Who?" -[Shad laughs]

She said, "Tube Socks."

I said, "Ma, that's Tupac."

She's said, "Oh, my bad.

Here, it's Tupac." [laughs]

When I first met him, he was just a regular cool dude,

no gangster to him.

So, I schooled him on a lot of shit

that had to do with Oakland, you know?

I gave him the do's and don'ts

and he took to it like a fish to water.

Instantly, he started talking to me about his music.

His shit was more militant.

I didn't know how deep his family rooting was.

[Money B] His mother was a part of the Panther 21 in New York,

and my dad was a Panther.

So, because we kind of came from the same kind of upbringing,

we kind of clicked on that level.

Tupac just had this energy.

Immediately, like a charisma about him.

When he was in a room, you paid attention.

[Leila] I ended up meeting Tupac

and instantly connecting with him.

He was everything that I was looking for

in an artistic partner.

I was looking for an artist that was going to travel and speak at high schools.

My name is Tupac. T-U-P-A-C.

She was in the foreground, not the back helping the revolution,

she was in the front,

the one holding a gun in the front of the line.

He was so passionate,

with a voice that I felt should be in the ears of the world.

And so, within a few months,

I was like, "God, there's this man I know."

His name is Atron. Actually he's got a group in the Bay.

So I call Atron and I'm like,

"I got this kid that I believe in.

Let me bring him to you."

Tupac was signed to my company, TNT,

as an artist.

My job in Pac's career was to get demos made.

And, you know, we just went to everyone to try to get him signed.

And, no one was really interested.

[Atron] Pac said, "I have this opportunity to be

President of the New African Panthers in Atlanta.

And if you can't figure out something for me, it's fine,

but I'm going to move back to Atlanta and I'll go do that,

because obviously this music thing isn't for me.

Atron called me and said,

"Can you do something with Pac and take him on tour?"

"You know Pac's an MC.

I don't want to insult him by asking him to Humpty Dance

and to ask him to carry turntables."

The feeling was Pac might go, "I'm not no fucking dancer.

I don't carry equipment."

We didn't know.

And five minutes later, my phone rang and it was Tupac.

"Yeah, I'll do that shit."

"Cool, I didn't want to--"

"No, I might be dead by the time you get back."

That was his exact words.

His role was to just do whatever was needed to be done.

He needed to help carry the equipment in...

and set up and break down after the show,

That was his job.

If he needed to fill in these four bars or whatever, he did that.

As we moved along on these tours,

Tupac got to be known as the...

"What's up with him?"

"What are you going to do with him?"

To not include Pac on something would have been dumb,

so we gave him eight bars in "Same Song."

♪ Tupac, go 'head and rock this ♪

♪ I clown around when I hang around With the Underground ♪

♪ Girls used to frown, say I'm down, When I come around ♪

♪ Gas me and when they pass me They use to diss me ♪

♪ Harass me, but now they ask me If they can kiss me ♪

♪ Get some fame, people change, Wanna live they life high ♪

♪ Same song, can't go wrong If I play the nice guy ♪

♪ Claimin' fame, must have changed, Now that we became strong ♪

♪ I remain, still the same (why Tu'?) 'Cause it's the same song ♪

The Bay went nuts when "Same Song" came out.

It was a celebration

of Digital, of Tupac.

But Tupac didn't like to play second position to anyone or anything.

So it was always temporary.

We always knew that Digital Underground was a little too Spring Break

for what he was doing,

and he was a little too political for Digital Underground.

We understood he was a political MC first,

you know, a social critic MC first.

He wasn't content with just....

being a part of something

if it wasn't the way he wanted it to be.

So, it was always known that Tupac was gonna have his thing.

[Mopreme] Pac wanted his own career because he was so creative

and we were all seeing it early.

The need to express himself.

He was one of them artists.

"I need to drop this shit tonight. I need to get this off my chest,"

as a form of therapy, you know what I mean?

So, we all knew that he needed

his own outlet to let that out.

With 2Pacalypse Now, with the help of Shock and others,

we got together the best group of tracks we could at the time.

He had some early success with "Brenda's Got a Baby."

♪ I hear Brenda's got a baby But Brenda's barely got a brain ♪

♪ A damn shame The girl can hardly spell her name ♪

"Brenda's Got a Baby" spoke to issues

that we hadn't heard before.

To write women's anthems and not be a woman is, you know,

impossible, until Tupac.

Nobody talks about that. No young black males.

No black males talk about black females like we should.

We need to take responsibility for our sisters,

because if we don't, who will?

When he says, "She didn't know what to throw away,

or what to keep..."

♪ She had it on the bathroom floor And didn't know so ♪

♪ She didn't know, what to throw away And what to keep ♪

♪ She wrapped the baby up And threw him in the trash heep ♪

♪ I guess she thought she'd get away Wouldn't hear the cries ♪

♪ She didn't realize How much the little baby had her eyes... ♪

[music fades out]

"She didn't know what to throw away and what to keep."

It says so much...

about being a teenage black girl

who finds herself uncomfortably pregnant.

And it was him, a guy, that wrote that?

It's one of the best lines of poetry, of rap lyrics, of literature.

["Keep Ya Head Up" by 2Pac playing]

[Shad] What would you say Tupac's legacy is in the Bay?

[Carla] I feel like he's probably the greatest rapper

that's ever graced this area.

I was blown away from the first time I ever heard him, really.

Um, it just got better and better,

and then intelligent and then smart,

and then outstanding, and just remarkable and awesome.

It just kept moving forward.

[Leila] Tupac's legacy is forever connected to the Bay.

It will always be where Tupac found his voice.

[Davey D] You come to the Bay and talk bad about Pac.

I mean, it's not a joke.

People really love that brother.

They really 100% loved him.

And they loved him because, you know,

he represented a people that were forgotten.

[Danyel] Tupac was so many things,

which made him human and real and compelling,

and Oakland adopted him and he adopted us.

♪ Keep ya head up ♪

[Tupac] The Bay Area's got the whole new revolution of music that's coming out.

And they're not taking nobody else's style.

So, I give all my love to Oakland.

If I'm going to claim somewhere, I claim Oakland.

[DJ scratch and spin, hip-hop beat]