In high school in the late 90’s, I found community within hip hop. I started to go to underground hip hop clubs from SD to LA to the Bay where I’d roll with homies (shout out to The Creatures!) and meet up with others who loved the same music that I did. We would sometimes be 10 deep at shows here in San Diego where some friends might be breaking while others might be in freestyle ciphers outside on the sidewalk. Some heads might be selling tapes out of their backpacks and others might be smoking beedies in the corner. The skaters would always show up a little later when the headliner(s) would be coming on to infuse some hype into the mix. I loved seeing the different people come together for hip hop. Seeing everybody dumb out when “Tried by 12” by East Flatbush Projects was a f’n vibe back then.
All of us hip hop heads were always on the lookout for that next track that would make your head nod. DJ’s had to hold a crowd so they’d play the regular underground hip hop bangers but then they’d slip in some new stuff or even some sh*t that they were feeling. Some of my friends were already big crate diggers then so they were up on what was new. But all I had was word of mouth, BET’s Rap City, and the countless hours I’d spend at Tower Records reading every rap magazine and flipping through the CD and cassettes bins trying to see what would catch my attention for the $20 I had in my pocket. I always liked buying cassingles (cassette singles) because that $20 could get me 3 to 4 different vibes from mainstream rap to underground hip hop. I also loved the used section where I might be able to pick up some classic albums on the cheap like the debut from Jeru the Damaja, The Sun Rises in the East.
In the late 90’s, I saw the underground hip hop I loved making its way to the keg parties and the late night mexican food spots me and my homies frequent. While the hip hop heads kept to themselves and always had some headphones on, the skaters were out there with their ghetto blasters making sure damn near everyone knew what they were feeling with the tunes. I’ll never forget the crowds of 30 peeps hanging outside of El Cotixan in Clairemont (San Diego) late night after we all hit different house parties. Peter Smolik and Brandon Turner from SK8MAFIA out in the parking lot with the huge boombox bumpin’ hip hop songs you had never heard of.
I’ll never forget hearing Company Flow out there one night from Peter Smolik’s boombox. The production, rhymes, and flow on tracks like “Lune TNS” stopped me right in my tracks. The fact that it was being played on a ghetto blaster by pro skaters made it that much cooler. Now when I listen to Company Flow, it takes me back to that skate and hip hop scene from the late 90’s. Even to this day when I listen to any tracks from Company Flow or Rawkus Records I think of Brandon and Peter hanging out with all of us in Clairemont. And when I hear the drums from “The Fire in Which You Burn” I can’t help but think of the house parties and hip hop clubs back in the late 90’s.
Both Brandon and Peter started hanging out with Chad Muska in the 90’s in San Diego after he got kicked off of Toy Machine. Chad Muska then went on to to start Shorty’s with Tony Buyalos out of Santa Barbara. Chad sought to build a skate lifestyle brand and he brought Brandon and Peter onboard with the Shorty’s team. Youngsters like Chad, Brandon, and Peter carried the same aesthetic from the movie Kids and gave me a glimpse of what the 90’s NYC skate and hip scene was like. Shorty’s brought the underground hip hop vibes into everything they were doing and I was lucky enough to be within a stone’s throw from the movement. Shout out to all the skaters coming up in San Diego in the 90’s The hip hop, skate, and streetwear movements in San Diego were insane for a young kid like myself.
Finding good hip hop back in the 90’s wasn’t at your fingertips like it is now. There weren’t algorithms serving us music we might like based on our data and behavior right to our phones. You would sometimes have to be at the right place and the right time to catch a song that made you nod your head. If a homie played it for you, you would have to give him a blank cassette tape so he could dub the track for you. And then from there you had to find a way to get that song in your boombox, Walkman, or record player to listen to. But then when you got that “Livin’ Proof” in your rotation???? You would have friends wondering what they had just heard as they were nodding their head in your whip.
This is a playlist to take you back to the tracks we were bumpin in the late 90’s out here in San Diego. There was dope music dropping all over the place and kids out here were eating it all up. It didn’t matter if you were from the East Coast or West Coast… all that mattered was that the beat knocked and your head would nod from the kick and snare. “Shook Ones, Pt. II” at full blast in the club back in ‘99??? HYPE SHIT!
Here’s a Spotify playlist of some of my favorite 90’s underground hip hop tracks that we’re playing in the streets, schools, and clubs back in the day. Give the playlist a peep and drop me a comment with any tracks I missed.