THE MOVEMENT

Stretch: Everything that people associated with hyphy, from ghost riding to stunna glasses and all the cliché stuff, was first seen in Mac Dre’s Treal TV DVDs. [Ed. Note: Mac Dre released the first installment in 2003.] That put a face on it when people weren’t even seeing sideshows. They weren’t seeing any of those things. And then from there, after Treal TV came out, all these other DVDs like Oakland Gone Wild started coming out.

Big Von: It started off in 2001 and kicked off heavy in 2002. That’s when it really got going. We would get together Friday night, 'cause I had this thing called “Friday Night Freestyles” where Bay Area rappers would come in and freestyle against each other. If you won, you got your songs played. The architect of the whole thing was Rick Rock. Rick Rock had his hands in a little bit of everything. He really crafted the sound, you know what I mean?

Rick Rock: [Hyphy was] high energy, bass line, a lot of the mobb elements. It's gotta have a Bay Area element. No kind of nostalgic samples really. It's an energy that touches your chakras, your energy sources. Things that automatically make you feel great and you don't know why. Hyphy was a great time when we had our own sound signature. The world was like, “That's theirs.” We couldn't describe it, we knew it when we heard it. I know I could sit down and make one at any time. I start at a certain tempo and give you a certain feel with the frequency itself. The emotion was in that frequency, how I go up and down with the chord range. I'm doing it in that frequency that makes you say, “What is that?”

It's gotta have a Bay Area element. No kind of nostalgic samples really. It's an energy that touches your chakras, your energy sources. Things that automatically make you feel great and you don't know why. - Rick Rock

Big Von: I think the first [record] was “T-Shirt, Blue Jeans & Nike’s” by Keak. And then The Team had a record called “It's Getting Hot.” I remember breaking that one out on Broadway. Before it was on the radio, I would test in three clubs. It was Broadway in Oakland, Mingles, and I wanna say Geoffrey’s was the other spot. You know how some areas, they just get into their own mode of playing their own music? You’ve heard everything else for so long that you just start playing your own? That’s how it happened.

[Ed. Note: After Mac Dre served a five-year bid in prison from 1992 to 1997 for conspiracy to rob a bank, he established Thizz Entertainment, which is now handled by his mother Wanda Salvatto, A.K.A. Mac Wanda.]

Mac Wanda: Before Mac went to prison, there was a lot of gangsta rap. But during that time he was in there, he got this better appreciation for freedom, life, fun. After those five years, all that energy and passion he was holding in—he hit the studio the day he got out. Within a few weeks, he completed another album.

He started doing more upbeat rapping, and it became more like dance music. And that’s when he really took off, when he did “Get Stupid” and “Thizz Dance” and “Feelin’ Myself.” His style was unique. He’d layer Burberry with Kangol with Levis and wear huge stunna shades. He had a way of dressing and talking about his life and what it felt like to have a good time. He’d get on stage and do these crazy dances. People started to dance like him, and then they ended up with the Thizzle dance.