by Garrett Caples
San Francisco Bay Guardian November 16, 2005
The real legacy of Mac Dre is not his criminal record but rather the music he made and the label he started as Romp Records after his release from prison in 1996. In a characteristically generous move, Dre’s first project was a Rompalation featuring the new generation of Crestside rappers who’d begun to establish themselves in his absence. In 2001, continuing friction with the Vallejo Police convinced Dre to relocate to Sacramento and rename his company Thizz Entertainment, downplaying the association with “Romper Room Gang” (see main article). Originally slang for an ecstasy high, “thizzin’” grew to be an extremely elastic concept in Dre’s hands, encompassing a wide range of hedonistic associations.
While Thizz long boasted an impressive roster of largely Crestside-bred talent, the death of its charismatic leader and best-seller obviously threatened the company’s existence. But Thizz wouldn’t die. Dre’s business partners, Miami Tha Most and Kilo Curt, instead brought in Crestside native Mac Mall as co-owner, flagship artist, and public face of the organization. Though Mall and Dre had fallen out in the mid-’90s, they’d recently reunited to record Da U.S. Open (Thizz 2005), the last project Dre completed, down to its tennis-themed cover art.
“We started doing a lot of shows on the road and bonded our friendship first,” Mall recalls. “Then that record was the easiest I ever made in my life. It was so organic. Me and Dre was getting ready to take over the world, doing projects together and then solos, along with the rest of Thizz. So we already had this in mind.”
“When dude passed, I made a vow; I’m not gonna let this story end. I gotta step up and keep Crestside music alive.”
Thizz has done more than keep alive. The period since Dre passed has been one of the hottest times for Bay Area rap in years, and no label has brought more heat than Thizz. In addition to maintaining Dre’s own vast catalogue, Thizz has dropped one underground banger after another, releasing new albums from its established core of Crestside artists like PSD (The Guru), Little Bruce (Base Rocks & Pimp Socks), and J-Diggs (California Livin’, Part 2), as well as more recent affiliates like former Steady Mobbin’ member BavGate (The InstaGator) and North Oakland’s Mistah F.A.B. (Son of a Pimp), whose Droop-E-produced single, “Super Sic Wid It” featuring Turf Talk and E-40, cracked the top 5 on KMEL, making it the label’s biggest radio success. (Dre’s own Sean-T-produced “Fellin’ Myself,” from his 2004 album Ronald Dregan, continues to play in heavy rotation.) Mob Figaz member Rydah J. Klyde, a friend of Dre from his Sacramento days, already had two big albums on Thizz this year—The Best of the Mob Figaz and a duo album, as Money Gang, with Johnny Cash of Da Hoodfellas, called Bang Fo’ Bread—when he dropped two more: one solo, What’s Really Thizzin?, one duo, with Freako, El Pueblo Children. This doesn’t even exhaust the list, which also includes four Thizz Nation compilations. Taken as a whole, it’s an unprecedented single-year output for a Bay Area independent hip hop label.
Dreganomics
The sheer volume of Thizz releases over the past year has been made possible by an increased level of collaboration within Bay Area hip hop’s notoriously cutthroat business environment. Dre’s goodwill extended far beyond Crestside, and the tragic circumstances of his death provided a sudden common ground on which a divided scene could unite.
“Thizz Nation, that’s everybody all put together, because that’s what Dre always wanted,” PSD says. “The Bay Area didn’t know how to come together. But with Thizz it’s starting to happen. A lot of neighborhoods that had problems squashed those problems in the name of Mac Dre and Thizz.”
“We’re trying to carry on what Dre had going on, to put the shine back on the Bay,” he continues. “This is a fire he started. It’s up to us to keep it lit. It’d not only be disrespectful not to; we’d be idiots.”
“Thizz isn’t just a label; it’s a movement,” says Mistah F.A.B. “Of course we want to do ourselves as our artists but really we want to keep Mac Dre’s legacy alive. He started a lot of things that’s taking place right now. We want to put the Bay Area back out front.”
This new spirit of cooperation involves more than just pooling creative resources, though this helps; in F.A.B.’s case he recorded his entire album, including guest shots and producers, for free. More radically, however, has been Thizz’s adaptation of the co-branding principle to local hip hop on an unprecedented scale, teaming with rappers like F.A.B. or BavGate, who often have their own labels and put their own albums together. “We do albums and we bring them to Kilo, who is the C.E.O.,” F.A.B. explains. “Each artist has their own different ways of completing his album. But if it’s an album Thizz feels is worth putting out, putting their stamp on, they’re gonna put it out.” In exchange for a cut of the profits, Thizz lends logistical support and promotional dollars, as well as the “Mac Dre Presents” logo. Ultimately such independent dollars only go so far; as is increasingly the case even with major labels, it’s ultimately the artist’s responsibility to break the record. But Thizz lends the power, infrastructure, and name-recognition of a corporation to artists who otherwise might not be able to push a record without it; it also exposes them to potential new fans through association with other Thizz artists.
“There comes a point of saturation,” F.A.B. admits. “You don’t want people to burn out on the whole movement before it even gets a chance to expand.” What is striking, however, is the sheer quality of the Thizz releases thus far. Obviously Dre’s death has lent an incredible urgency to this music. The effect might best be gauged by comparing PSD’s current The Guru to his 2003 U Ain’t Heard of Me???, both co-released by Thizz and his own Gateway Entertainment. While the earlier disc is an impressive if overpacked collection of a top-notch rapper, The Guru is a true masterpiece of an album, bluesy and soulful, tinged throughout with PSD’s Mississippi roots.
With the addition of Keak Da Sneak, who confirmed his much awaited upcoming album will be a Thizz co-release with his own AllNDaDoe label, Thizz continues to gain momentum. The one hold out thus far is Dre’s fellow Cutthroat Committee member Dubee. While he willingly helped PSD finish the group’s second album, Money Iz Motive, among the final projects Dre worked on, Dubee doesn’t feel ready to drop another album yet. “I put my game on pause,” he says, “out of respect for the cuddie.” While he may not agree, PSD understands his friend’s position; no one wants to exploit Dre even as they want to further his work.
“We could have used more songs with Dre,” PSD says, “But we were like no, save it for his kids. We have to eventually let go; we can’t just keep giving you Dre songs like Dre alive.”
20061022
Nation of Thizzlam: The Rebirth of Thizz Entertainment
20061014
You ain't knowin' -- DU and 2Pac
| All roads lead back to the Digital Underground and 2Pac By Garrett Caples San Francisco Bay Guardian March 16, 2005 I CAN'T COUNT how many surprised responses I've elicited with the information that 2Pac started out in Digital Underground. To anyone first exposed to him through the movies or during his final phase on Death Row Records, the idea of Pac coming up under the plastic-nosed guidance of Humpty Hump is scandalous. Such skeptics are referred to the 2004 documentary DVD Digital Underground: Raw Uncut, which features footage of the future Makaveli rocking "The Humpty Dance" for all he's worth.  Atron Gregory, the group's first manager, introduced the young 2Pac to Humpty's alter-ego, D.U. leader and producer Shock-G, after the group completed Sex Packets (Tommy Boy, 1990) but before the album's release. As a result, Pac was on hand for the group's MTV-fueled explosion, making his recording debut on "Same Song," from their 1991 This Is an EP Release (Tommy Boy). Inevitably, once he blew up with the 1992 film Juice, 2Pac concentrated on his solo career, though he continued to appear on D.U. albums until 1996's Future Rhythm (Critique).
"I couldn't have ever been 2Pac," Shock says now. "It's not my personality. By the same token, Pac probably couldn't have ever made it like I did as a producer-central figure in a collage of people. You gotta do you."
Though he moved out of the Bay Area – first to the Pocanos, then to Los Angeles – after the Oakland hills fire in late 1991, Shock has always turned to the Bay for new talent. Rap historians might note he was the first to tap Richmond, helping the duo Goldmoney score a deal with Tommy Boy and featuring them on Sons of the P (Tommy Boy, 1991). But Shock's most successful protégés after 2Pac are undoubtedly the Luniz, who appear on Future Rhythm and whose platinum debut, Operation Stackola (Noo Tribe, 1995), features production by Shock. That year Shock appeared on the remix of the Luniz' weed-smoking anthem "I Got 5 on It," alongside such local heavyweights as E-40 and Richie Rich.  In the late '90s, Shock continued to influence the Bay through his associates. D.U. members DJ JZ and Saafir joined Hobo Junction for the critically acclaimed Box Car Sessions (Qwest, 1999) as well as three classic underground discs on their own Hobo Records. While D.U.'s 1998 album Who Got the Gravy? (Jake) failed to make a huge impression, it introduced Esinchill (see "Breaking Down the Battle Lines," page 43) as well as Mystic, whose debut, Cuts for Luck, Scars for Freedom (JCor), was nominated for a Grammy in 2002. Now, with the release of his first solo album, Fear of a Mixed Planet (33rd St), Shock has finally begun to receive his due as a pioneer. He's been producing tracks for Hunters Point MC Kev Kelly, even as he's transformed D.U.'s live show with the addition of an eight-piece funk band called Slapback. "I think people saw Humpty as a gimmick," Numskull of the Luniz says, "but Humpty is just a part of Shock. Shock is our driving force. For real. He's a genius."  | ||||
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