I started doing “The Bay is Alive” mixes about 2 years ago. I recently released the 4th installment of the series “BIA V4” on all DJ platforms.
The entire idea of the mix started off when I was riding around with a friend of mine and we started talking about different hip hop radio stations. When it got to the topic is it the DJ or the radio station’s fault for not pushing the music from the Bay or is it the artists fault for not continuously promoting their own music? What I came up with, they’re both at fault. The Bay Area had and still has a communication obstacle between the creators & the Radio Stations since the end of the Super Hyphy era. After the Hyphy movement & sideshows slowed down, social media became stronger which made it easier for artists to get their music out and harder to get listeners to support Bay Area local artists, except for YouTube views. As someone who loves the Bay immensely and who lives through music, I wanted to end that disconnection between the two and that’s when I came up with the “The Bay is Alive” mixtape idea.
I put together a playlist that had at least one artists from every Bay Area city. It started off with over 105 songs submitted and I narrowed it down to about 40 and I saved the rest for the next mixtape. I wanted super dope music that was created by us to get the shine it deserves. Within the last two years, so much Bay Area creativity and sauce has been stolen from us and renamed by other well-known artists. Since we do not work together as a unit, these “biters & copycats” are getting away with our creations. Like when they tried to steal and rename “Yiken” and made it some Migos dance.
I would like to be that inspiration for unity that will bring the Bay’s compilations back with music like “Grown Man (Remix)” and “5 on it (Remix)”. For now, we’re going to take baby steps to bring us together. Our radio stations are constantly playing other artists terrible music repeatedly, but only play a few songs by hometown artists if they have gone mainstream or they play them late at night between 11pm-12 midnight or in the middle of the night between 3am–4am. Bay Area music is better than everything on their playlist. Why do they wait until midnight to play ours? Instead of begging to get on the radio to let me play music for the people by the people, which many dope DJ friends have done with no success. I started “The Bay is Alive” mix series to give people something that will be around for them to enjoy. After the success of the first mixtape, it was like “Oh Ok, y’all were waiting for something like this”? When artists that I had featured on the mixtape started contacting me to thank me and sending me their music without asking, it started to feel like, “OK, this is exactly what I’m suppose to be doing”. I’m not letting up at all. I just kept going in from that mix.
The prospective plan is for the series to eventually become its own station and its own entity for creators. This is something that current and future local artists will strive to be apart of and unify the Bay’s music scene.
Like that young Legend Nipsey Hussle said, “The Marathon Continues”
