I know a Spotify playlist title like MUSIC TO DRIVEBY might scare some peeps away and that’s alright. Slide to the side and make room for all my G’s who like listening to good music while cruising the town in your whip. It’s for the hustlers who look at the Compton’s Most Wanted CD for Music to Driveby and know what’s up. One of the best album covers of all time regardless of genre and I’ll debate this with anybody. Sure the Geto Boys’ We Can’t Be Stopped cover has to be right up here with this but I’m still rolling with CMW at the end of the day.
Alright… The theme is 90’s west coast gangsta rap on this playlist but I’m also sprinkling in other Cali hip hop tracks that I felt fit with the vibe. A group out of Pomona, CA that is criminally slept on is Above the Law and their track “Ballin” is a perfect fit for the wave I’m riding here. Above the Law was signed to Eazy E’s Ruthless Records in the late 80’s and early 90’s and while NWA will get all of the mentions, Above the Law was right in the mix with them and Dre. Dr. Dre actually worked right alongside Cold 187um from Above The Law on the production on the debut album and songs like this just sounded different in 1990.
While Compton and Los Angeles in general had the west bubblin, let’s not skip over the fact that the Bay had their own hotbed of talent coming up through the ranks out of Vallejo, Richmond, Hunter’s Point, Sacramento, and more. Rappers like Mac Dre and E-40 were on some whole other sh*t and groups like Totally Insane, 415, and RBL Posse were making some amazing music out of the Bay Area. This track “Remind Me” over the Patrice Rushen sample is just too damn smooth. And yet again, here is another album cover from this era that just gives you the feels of the early 90’s scene up in the Bay.
When you go back and look at the 90’s Bay Area rap scene vs. the LA rap scene it’s not even a fair matchup. The Bay just had too many dope rap cats like Cellski coming up that if you were in the know back then, your eardrums were constantly laced with heaters. Young Cellski’s albums were hard to find but they were a constant holy grail whenever I was flipping through used CD’s at the record stores here in San Diego. Here’s Cellski with UNLV on “Stressed Out” which was on the West Coast Bad Boyz Vol. 1 compilation.
Or how about this smooth cut from South Central Cartel? While most will here the beat and go straight to 2Pac’s “Keep Yo Head Up” but not me… The Pac track is an all-timer but “U Gotta Deal Wit Dis (Gangsta Luv)” is something you can listen to with your homies or even if you’re rollin with a fine young hyna in the front seat of your bucket. I swear there was a music video for this one but I couldn’t track it down for the article. If you can’t go down the rabbithole and find it, please drop it in the comments.
Okay… now this album cover? I remember the first time coming across it in the record store and just say what…. the…. f*ck???? But take the cover art aside and just give some Gangsta Dre some play and you’ll hear that voice and flow that were way too ill to have never blown up. Just think if Gangsta Dre had the right push back then? It’s alright though because for all the real heads we’ll always have Gang Banging Poetry. As I read that album title one more time I’m not having second thoughts on whether I should make that the playlist title? Oh well… Music to Driveby is still dope.
I’ve always had an affinity to that smooth g-shit and luckily this sound can’t just be contained to the 90’s alone. There are still artists today like G. Perico and Larry June who carry the torch from their 90’s predecessors who sprinkled them with game. While the 90’s could be called a fad, I think it’s actually just a genre that stands on its own. I don’t see a time when the youngsters coming up in Cali on the rap scene aren’t bumpin tracks like this. And if they’re not, you gotta blame the OG’s for not lacing them. I know my son won’t be growing up without some 90’s Cali vibes to cruise around town to.
Below is the playlist I’m working on but I feel it’s at a good enough spot to share it with y’all. This is some great Sunday afternoon music to vibe to while you do what you do today. Am I missing any key tracks in here that fit the vibe? Drop me a line in the comments so I can keep adding to this Spotify playlist.