http://www.chicagoredstreak.com/output/music/sho-sunday-back30.html
April 30, 2006
Three years ago, a couple of guys in an Oakland, Calif., rap group called the Team were selling their CDs out of their trunk. This week, most national music shops are selling the Team's "World Premiere" -- the latest in a string of definitive "hyphy" rap records released this spring, including E-40's "My Ghetto Report Card," Celly Cel's "Slaps, Straps & Baseball Hats" and Keak da Sneak's "Kunta Kinte."
The Bay Area rap scene hasn't received this much attention since Tupac Shakur was alive and residing in the East Bay. The attention has instilled pride and a healthy competitiveness among rappers that has been infectious, with each album seeming to feed off the previous one.
Hyphy music has reached the boiling point. The word hyphy (pronounced HIGH-fee) is a derivative of "hyper," and while 10 people will give you 10 definitions, it's about letting your inhibitions go and getting a little crazy.
In fact, the hyphy movement -- and its car-centric culture -- has spawned a rich lexicon of slang and customs. A few translations before the Summer of Hyphy:
Flambosting: All manner of showing off.
Ghostride the whip: Driver walks alongside a slow-rolling car with the door open, giving the appearance that the car is driving itself. Passengers ride with all the doors open and sometimes leap out of the moving cars.
Gas-brake dippin': Driving while quickly alternating between stomping on the gas and the brake.
Hyphy train: A mobile party with a long line of cars with all the doors open, in which occupants ghost-ride, flambost, dance on the hood and roof, and otherwise get hyphy.
Scrapers: Vintage four-door American sedans with whistling pipes, oversize spinning rims and a powerful stereo system. They hang low in the back and send off sparks when you're gas-brake dipping.
Stunna shades: Oversize dark glasses that help accessorize the sagging jeans, white T-shirts and dreadlocks that are part of hyphy fashion.
Stunting: Turning donuts, figure-eights and other car tricks. Allen Gordon, former editor of Rap Pages magazine, says, "If you can spell out your name in tire tracks in the street -- you're the man."
Thizzing: The feeling that comes from popping pills while listening to the music and getting hyphy. Not condoned by many hyphy followers.
Sun-Times wires
April 30, 2006
Three years ago, a couple of guys in an Oakland, Calif., rap group called the Team were selling their CDs out of their trunk. This week, most national music shops are selling the Team's "World Premiere" -- the latest in a string of definitive "hyphy" rap records released this spring, including E-40's "My Ghetto Report Card," Celly Cel's "Slaps, Straps & Baseball Hats" and Keak da Sneak's "Kunta Kinte."
The Bay Area rap scene hasn't received this much attention since Tupac Shakur was alive and residing in the East Bay. The attention has instilled pride and a healthy competitiveness among rappers that has been infectious, with each album seeming to feed off the previous one.
Hyphy music has reached the boiling point. The word hyphy (pronounced HIGH-fee) is a derivative of "hyper," and while 10 people will give you 10 definitions, it's about letting your inhibitions go and getting a little crazy.
In fact, the hyphy movement -- and its car-centric culture -- has spawned a rich lexicon of slang and customs. A few translations before the Summer of Hyphy:
Flambosting: All manner of showing off.
Ghostride the whip: Driver walks alongside a slow-rolling car with the door open, giving the appearance that the car is driving itself. Passengers ride with all the doors open and sometimes leap out of the moving cars.
Gas-brake dippin': Driving while quickly alternating between stomping on the gas and the brake.
Hyphy train: A mobile party with a long line of cars with all the doors open, in which occupants ghost-ride, flambost, dance on the hood and roof, and otherwise get hyphy.
Scrapers: Vintage four-door American sedans with whistling pipes, oversize spinning rims and a powerful stereo system. They hang low in the back and send off sparks when you're gas-brake dipping.
Stunna shades: Oversize dark glasses that help accessorize the sagging jeans, white T-shirts and dreadlocks that are part of hyphy fashion.
Stunting: Turning donuts, figure-eights and other car tricks. Allen Gordon, former editor of Rap Pages magazine, says, "If you can spell out your name in tire tracks in the street -- you're the man."
Thizzing: The feeling that comes from popping pills while listening to the music and getting hyphy. Not condoned by many hyphy followers.
Sun-Times wires
