Beats By The Bay is a Documentary film by Filmmaker Bobby Mardis, about the Bay Area Rap scene. The Bay is a very important, but often forgotten, factor in Hip Hop today. As you already know, and you’ll see in this film, many of today’s Rap trends started in, but are rarely credited to, The Bay. From Independent to Major, The Bay has it all. In Beats By The Bay, you can see live performances and/or Interviews from E-40, Mac Dre(R.I.P.), Paris, San Quinn, Suga T, Tajai of Hieroglyphics/Souls Of Mischief, Skip of UTP, Conscious Daughters, MC Hammer, Too Short, Outlawz, Mac Mall, B-Legit, Mr. Kee, Dutch, Lil Ric, Laroo, Luni Coleone, Marvaless, Mistah F.A.B., The Mosse, Nuttso, Whoridas and many more.
The story is told by up and coming Bay rapper Kontac, whom we had a chance to speak with briefly about the project. Here’s what he had to say:
“Beats By The Bay is a series of Dvds: Volume 1, ‘Something To Say’ is the first in the series, which drops July 5th in The Bay, July 9th Nationwide. ‘Something To Say’ deals with what Bay Area artists go through when doing their music. How they do it, this volume is more of the Social film.”
He continues:
“Volume 2, ‘The Independent Game’ is a step above ‘Somthing To Say,’ to where you see the artist show you how some of them work on their CDs Art Work, Production, Mastering, Distrobution, get point of views from retial outlets and Mom and Pop chains. Get info straight from the artist’s mouth.“
“The other 2 volumes are the Indusrty Music guide. 1 and 2 talks to ASCAP and BMI people, who talk about publishing and lawyers. You will see Russell Simmons and his wife (Kimora Lee Simmons) talk about the music game. If you watch these last 2 films, it’s like going to The Gavin or The How Can I Be Down summitts in one CD. A new artist can watch these and do basically everything needed for putting out an album.”
I asked Kontac about how he and the DVD’s will help The Bay, to which he responded:
“I will help The Bay get world wide reconition where the world can see where the terms ‘Pop ya Collar,’ ‘Oh Boy,’ and ‘Player Haters’ came from. The world can see where the Independent Game came from.”
As for what Kontac is up to musically:
“Next up, I got my artist Erase E who was on the first Westcoast Bad Boy’s album. His album ‘Smoove But Aggresive’ drops the end of July and features Twista, Frontline, Silkee, Kontac and a host of others. The Kontac album drops the end of August and features San Quinn, Ya Boy, Erase E, Sean T, Balance, 2 Live Crew, Dap, Mac n AK, and others. The Beats By The Bay Soundtrack is fire, features San Quinn, Hoodstars, JT The Bigga Figga, Cellski, A-Wax, Frontline, Balance, Mistah F.A.B., Erase E, Sean T, Mac n AK, Mr. Kee, and others. First single ‘Bay Ridin’ features San Quinn, Kontac and J.Slimm is getting radio play now. The video is being shot middle of August and features Super Model Rita-G.”
Finally, I asked Kon where he sees The Bay in 5 years:
“5 years from now The Bay will be where it was from 1992-1995. We can not fumble the ball when we get it! Hit up BeatsByTheBay.com for more info. Thank you DubCNN for ya support.”
Peep the Trailer For Beats By The Bay:
