Which is the best side of Oakland musically?

[Fruitvale_Mac]

This thread aint meant to start anything, it's just friendly competition. Obviously East Oakland is where Oakland's rap scene started, but since Too $hort have either of the other two overtaken it in your opinion? This is talking about all Oakland rap, 80's to now.

My own initial choice would be East Oakland but after thinking about it West Oakland is just as deep musically. North Oakland has seen some great rappers come up in the last 10 years and it has its own OG acts like APG Crew.

 

[2Dope]

Oakland is a whole, stupid thread

 

[Fruitvale_Mac]

Oakland is a whole, stupid thread

How is it stupid? There used to be a big rivalry between East and West Oakland on a rap level, especially in the underground. Everybody remembers Hiero vs. Hobo Junction and there were other smaller rivalries... this isn't meant to start any dumb arguments though.

Your reply is stupid... could have just answered the question and be done with it. This is no dumber than asking which of the 5 boroughs in NYC has contributed more to NY's rap scene... same shit for Oakland.

 

[Townbizz23]

Hahaha this one gone cause problems. In all honesty I think it's impossible to call because rappers from every hood in the Town fuck wit each other nowadays. Livewire got rappers from all over the town. NhT from the East and the West. Bearfaced is linked wit Black n Chrome in the East. That's what Oakland has over a lot of other cities in the Bay is unity. Frisco and Vallejo got hella talent but they constantly funkin wit each other, at least the big names from those cities are. Not to say Oakland rappers don't get caught up in it, it's just a lot more unity than it is beef imo (only in terms of rap). Because of the unity it's kinda hard to justify an opinion on this.

 

[48turffin]

obviously the side v nasty hails from!!! lol

 

[Fruitvale_Mac]

Hahaha this one gone cause problems. In all honesty I think it's impossible to call because rappers from every hood in the Town fuck wit each other nowadays. Livewire got rappers from all over the town. NhT from the East and the West. Bearfaced is linked wit Black n Chrome in the East. That's what Oakland has over a lot of other cities in the Bay is unity. Frisco and Vallejo got hella talent but they constantly funkin wit each other, at least the big names from those cities are. Not to say Oakland rappers don't get caught up in it, it's just a lot more unity than it is beef imo (only in terms of rap). Because of the unity it's kinda hard to justify an opinion on this.

This is true... to me the thread doesn't have much to do with the unity though. We all agree that certain Oakland rappers aint who we want representing us (MC Hammer, V-Nasty, etc.) so its not like saying you prefer the music from one side over the other is necessarily stepping on everybody else's toes. I'm in the East but I'm all around the Town and other parts of the Bay all the time. From me at least its nothing but respect for the music that comes from all three sides... all of my favorite new Bay rappers currently come from all over the Town (HD, ST Spittin, Young Gully, Shady Nate, Chris Da 5th, J. Stalin, etc.) Looking at the entire rap history of Oakland though I'd probably give the tie to the East and the West with maybe a slight edge going to the East. The North didn't have as many rappers in the 90's but it has a lot now (Bearfaced, ST Spittin, Green Ova, Mistah FAB, etc).

 

[Townbizz23]

I brought up the unity shit because for me it's hard to separate rappers based on what side they from when they are all rapping together. I mean what are you basing you judgements on? Lyrics? Popularity? I think Gully is the most lyrical young rapper in Oakland, does that mean the East is the best? It's just a difficult question to answer because too much shit goes in to it, and it ain't enough differences between the sides to really make a judgement.

 

[joeyfromg1l4s]

THE OGS ON THE EAST FROM BACK IN THE DAY PERIOD EVER SINCE J STALIN CAME THRU THO HES BEEN RIPPN SHIIT UP AND HAS A WHOLE LOT OF YOUNG HUNGRY DUDES BEHIND HIM SO STRATE UP THE WEST IS DOIN IT NOW MY WHOLE COLLECTION IS MOSTLY OAKLAND SO AS A WHOLE HELL YEAH OAKLAND IS THE HARDEST MUSICALLY JUST AROUND AS FAR AS FRESH TALENT!

 

[Fruitvale_Mac]

I brought up the unity shit because for me it's hard to separate rappers based on what side they from when they are all rapping together. I mean what are you basing you judgements on? Lyrics? Popularity? I think Gully is the most lyrical young rapper in Oakland, does that mean the East is the best? It's just a difficult question to answer because too much shit goes in to it, and it ain't enough differences between the sides to really make a judgement.

I mean which side in your opinion has contributed the most to the Oakland scene. I don't think that's an impossible question. If your answer is that they all have equally then say it's a tie. It's not a big deal to me anyway... made this thread to see what the siccness thought. If they think that they all contributed equally then I got my answer. I think it's more of a compliment than anything to how strong Oakland is musically that it has three extremely musically active sides of it. Other cities aint like that... for example damn near all the rappers from Chicago are from South Side. Saying that it's because all three sides of Oakland have hoods in em aint accurate either... plenty of hood cities across America aint shit music-wise.

 

[abarnes]

I'ma have to say it's a tie, back in the day used to be all East, but now niggaz poppin up from everywhere, shit, got a couple niggaz from the 30's too like Lil Mikey tryin'a do their thing, an my lil cousin V-Nasty ha...

 

[Townbizz23]

If we asking who's contributed the most its the East just based on numbers. But quality of music is another story. You said which side is the "best" I'm assuming you meant quality not quantity.

 

[0R0]

This is way too hard to call, I voted tie. Also I'll vote for HD to be MVP of the last 2 years lol.

 

[Shaniac]

South

 

[T-Rip]

Central

 

[Fruitvale_Mac]

^lol yall funny


@ TownBizz23 I mean taking both into account. As I said before we know the MC Hammers in the Oakland rap scene are not in the discussion... I guess I mean which side have produced the most rappers who made real names for themselves. J. Stalin is an example of a new rapper who's made a name for himself... J. Dandridge on the other hand, while talented, is unknown to most except people who live around the Murder Dubs.

Seagram
Richie Rich
Ant Banks
Dru Down
Yukmouth
E-A-Ski

Would all be examples of East Oakland rappers who made names for themselves.

Cobra
Cydal
Goldy

Are examples of those who didn't. In other words, if we still know about them today, or they're recent artists who've made a larger than average impact (Livewire), then they qualify. It's a combination of the quantity and impact, which more often than not is because the artist's quality or originality.

 

[ALL BOUT CHICKEN]

historically, i'd probably go with east oakland...but right now, i'm going with north oakland.

 

[Fruitvale_Mac]

The poll results have been interesting... I aint voted yet but there were more ties than I was originally expecting. Thinking about it more though I think I agree that it's a tie, especially if you put more weight on what they're all up to now than the past.

 

[dev650524]

To be Honest the Eastside has always been better to me.Richie Rich, Too Short, Heiro, Luniz, 3xcrazy they put it down. The only person from the West that put it down on a national level is Tony tone toni they're a r&b group. The new talent from both sides isnt that good. the only one i'm feelin is stevie joe.

 

[Strizz]

big name wise, gotta say the east but think its kinda unfair question since 50%-70% of oakland is conciderd east oakland

 

[JackArtist510]

old school East > new school West. dont get me wrong J-Stalin is koo but theres way too many rappers comin out right now. just cuz a dude is good at bein a gangsta doesnt make him good at bein a rapper.