Throwback: Eastsidaz Take Laid-Back Look At Gang Life (2000) (MTV)

[Okka]

EASTSIDAZ TAKE LAID-BACK LOOK AT GANG LIFE

DEBUT OF SNOOP DOGG, TRAY DEEE, GOLDIE LOC GROUP EXAMINES STRIFE IN THEIR LONG BEACH, CALIF., HOMETOWN.

The pressure cooker of Long Beach, Calif., gang life serves as both inspiration and backdrop for most of Snoop Dogg Presents Tha Eastsidaz (Feb. 1), the debut of Snoop Dogg's new group with his two protégés, Tray Deee and Goldie Loc. "There's a lot of gang activity there," Tray Deee (born Tracey Davis), who still lives in Long Beach, said. "You have Chicano gangs out there. You have Asian gangs out there, as well as African-American gangs. So it's a hard environment to be in if you're soft." Along with Tray Deee, 33, both Snoop Dogg, 27, and Goldie Loc, 21, belonged to street gangs there, before they began their music careers. Their experiences are sprayed all over the laid-back beats on Snoop Dogg Presents Tha Eastsidaz, the first release on Snoop Dogg's Dogg House Records. Warren G, Meech Wells, Battlecat and L.T. are among the album's producers. Rappers Kurupt, Suga Free and others make cameos, as does Xzibit — who, like Snoop Dogg, is a protégé of Dr. Dre, who also appears on the album. Although the record marks the debut of Tha Eastsidaz, Snoop Dogg's protégés aren't new to recording. Goldie Loc (born Keiwan Spillman) appeared on Snoop Dogg's "Ghetto Symphony" last year. Tray Deee worked with the rapper on the 1994 soundtrack album Murder Was the Case.

Hardcore Beats

Cowbells and Zapp-style organ wrap around the beat to the first single, "G'd Up", as Snoop Dogg, Goldie Loc and Tray Deee rhyme images of guns on their laps as they drive, of smoking "indo" (marijuana) and of "snatching gold chains out the parking lot." "Keep it real, motherf---ers/ Stay gangsta'd up," Snoop Dogg (born Calvin Broadus) raps in the chorus. In a guest appearance, Xzibit begins the album's brashest song, "The Big Bang Theory", with these words: "I got a big bang theory/ My hardcore committee/ Gonna rock 'n' roll the streets and shake the whole city." Tray Deee is more direct later in the song: "We rise on visitors/ And take no prisoners/ Handle our business and pay off the commissioner/ Big time crime figures getting riches." A colossal snare drum drives the song. But bold statements like that are offset by observations such as this Snoop Dogg verse from "Be Thankful": "You think it's easy being me/ Naw, hold off, dog/ Let me explain something to all y'all/ I gotta momma and a daddy/ Three brothers, no sisters/ Some cousins, uncles, nephews and nieces."

Makin' The Grade On Radio, Charts

Radio programmers have played "G'd Up" enough to make it a hit; it's at #3 on Billboard's rap singles chart this week. Robert Scorpio, program director for Houston station KBXX-FM, said he thought the single has gotten such a positive reaction from listeners because it's laden with the same G-Funk that made Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg stars in 1992 with The Chronic. "[Snoop Dogg] stayed with the old funk samples," Scorpio said. "Sometimes, that breaks through, especially when it's good music." "['G'd Up'] epitomizes the Los Angeles gangsta lifestyle," Dorsey Fuller, the music director for Los Angeles station KKBT-FM, said. "There's a section of our audience that can identify with that, totally." "To me, the beats are representing the West Coast — the original gangsta sound," said the manager of the Long Beach store VIP Records, who identified himself only as First Degree.


East-West Summit?

But Tray Deee said the group toned down the album's battle cries that refer to the East Coast–West Coast feud that some have said may have contributed to the deaths of rappers Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. "We all saw the rap game getting out of hand, because it was getting to be something that it wasn't supposed to be," the rapper said from Los Angeles. "We figured we should really come together and help each other and network and support each other... and make good music, as opposed to screaming, 'West Coast, West Coast' on every song". The rapper credited that more low-key approach in part to California hip-hop's recent rebirth on the charts — evidenced, for example, by Dr. Dre's Dr. Dre 2001 remaining in the top 10 on the Billboard 200 albums chart for most of the past two months, and Warren G, Dr. Dre's half-brother, scoring a #1 rap single, "I Want It All," in September. Fuller said he felt it was more a matter of friendly competition, a response to the rise of the Notorious B.I.G., Jay-Z, Master P and others rappers since 1995. "The East Coast 'held it down' for a minute," Fuller said, using a common hip-hop slang phrase. "The West Coast went back to the lab. I think that's what it is. [West Coast rappers] doing it on their own terms. I don't believe they're selling out or trying to sound anything like the East Coast."

http://www.mtv.com/news/620682/eastsidaz-take-laid-back-look-at-gang-life/

[TraceOneInfinite Flat Earther 96']

Classic Album and big part of the West Resurgence era (which is really what gave birth to this forum) that started with "Bitch Please" and the Top Dogg album and finished with Xzibit's Man Vs. Machine