Sucka free

It's an unsolved mystery why San Francisco has never produced a major rap star.

Maybe it's the untimely deaths of promising folks like Mr. Cee and Coughnut or maybe it's the endless crosstown beefs between Fillmore and HP and Sunnydale, but Frisco has never launched a star the way smaller cities like Oakland, Vallejo and even Richmond have. As a result, a lot of people (including me) sleep on San Francisco rappers.

That's why R8R & L-Wood's 2-CD mix of 90s SF mobb music, Sucka Free Classics, is a really great look. It's not a conventional overview of the SF scene-- although it features most of the bigger names of that era (RBL Posse, Rappin' 4-Tay, Messy Marv, JT the Bigga Figga, etc.), there's no "Bammer Weed", "Players Club" or "Many Clouds of Smoke" (RBL's "Bounce to This" is as close as it comes to obvious hits). Instead the focus is on capturing the depth of the scene-- the 56 tracks from 56 acts feature not just those who kinda made it locally, but also those who didn't, like Young Know, Young Ed, T.P.O., etc. etc. The mixing is smooth and unfussy and the selections are remarkably consistent in quality and style. (Over 160 minutes, the latter can be a bit much unless you're really into synthesizer basslines and lyrics about dank.)

Here's a taste:


R8R & L-Wood: "Sucka Free Classics (Snippet 1)" (Double J Promotions, 2008)

Ordering details are here. You should probably buy at least one copy for each person you know in Frisco.