At the end of Kidz in the Hall FFC get’s a shoutout. That made me smile. It’s not often that I hear their name. My homeboy Mad Squirrel is a part of FFC. He goes second on the track below. They’re a Bay Area-centric group from early 00′s—a bunch of guys who met up in the Bay, but spread out and continued to make music. They had an easily appreciated identity that centered around forest stuff.

I started listening to Bay Area rap in 95 or 96. I grew up in South Florida, and I rode a skateboard. I was very much removed from San Francisco, but because of its centrality to the world of Skateboarding I knew about some of the things that went on there. So, I was exposed to the likes of I.M.P., Nickatina, Living Legends, Anticon, Boac, Megabusive, Latyrx, Hieroglyphics, and whatever else I could find while everyone else I knew was listening to obscure punk and hardcore bands. Finding it was a challenge. None of that stuff could be purchased at Best Buy which was the only local option for me. I’d scour their hip hop aisles every week looking for stuff from San Francisco. I might have found one or two RBL Posse records. It was mostly hopeless as far as getting ahold of this music was concerned. So, I did what any technologically-inclined, passionate-about-music, future-musician would do: I dubbed tapes from my skate videos. And for me, back then, it was enough.

At some point though, a CD Warehouse opened at the Sawgrass Mills Mall. This wouldn’t have meant much, except that it was a California chain, and they’d shipped out some of their used stock. I went through everything they had and wound up getting a few CDs. Not long after that Napster started popping and I “Rendezvoused with my destiny.” Once Napster came along I was able to familiarize myself with the different styles, and crews, and begin looking for specific stuff. After that I left for college and soon after arriving I made my first real trip to a music store (Park Ave.) at the recommendation of this DJ dude who chilled with Crome from MSG. Total sidebar, but kinda interesting.

These days it is a whole lot simpler…but only superficially. It’s easy to get ahold of music with the connectivity of data being what it is. However, it’s still just as difficult–if not more difficult–to track down good music. I’m not mad at any of it. I was happy then, and I’m happy now, and I’ll be happy in the future as well. And on that note, here is some music that is very easy for you to listen to.

This post started out to be a list of the stuff I downloaded this morning/lately. I haven’t finished listening to all of it, and in the pursuit of simplicity I’m gonna hold back any opinions on the records that I have listened to. I guess you can think of this as more raps on Thursday, but I don’t have anything to do with Thursday raps. I threw a link to my EP in at the end for good measure.

This is the link to Kidz in the Hall—Leisure Tour.

This is the link to Emilio Rojas—Recession Proof.

This is the link to Lupe Fiasco—Enemy of the State.

This is the link to Chip tha Ripper—The Cleveland Show.

This is the link to J Cole—The Warm Up

This is the link to Tiron—Handshakes and Pounds

This is the link to the DJ Screw tape—96-98 mixtape compilation.

This is the link to Zachg—Whatever Works.

Keep on it…