60 Songs That Explain the '90s - Luniz—"I Got 5 on It"

Episode Date: April 7, 2021

Rob explores the Luniz’ weed anthem “I Got 5 on It” by discussing the history of Bay Area rap and how the song’s remix showcases the region’s all-stars. This episode was originally produced as a Music and Talk show available exclusively on Spotify. Find the full song on Spotify or wherever you get your music. Host: Rob Harvilla Guests: Logan Murdock and Marcus Thompson Producers: Isaac Lee and Justin Sayles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to a music and talk episode where full songs and talk segments play together only on Spotify. Best of all, you can create your own music and talk show for free with Anchor Spotify's podcasting platform. Get started at anchor.fm-fm-f-M-C-H-O-R-F-M-U-S-I-S-I-S-M-U-S-I-S-I-S-A-L-L-K. A lot of spelling there, but just do it. Forgive me for this. but I'd like to describe for you now

one of the most striking and unsightly logos in rap logo history. It's the logo for the Oakland rap group Loonies. That's L-U-N-I-Z. Loonies consist of the rapper's Yuck Mouth and NUMScul. I'll spell those later. This logo is on the

cover of the duo's first official release, the 1994 EP, formerly known as Looney Tunes. Looney T-U-N-I, capital T-U-N-E-S. That's formally not four. early, although I do like to imagine Yuck Mouth and Numb skull waking up one day

and finding on their porch a giant cartoon bomb with a cartoonishly long fuse burning down, which gives them time to read the cease and desist from the Acme Corporation that's taped to the bomb. Formerly known as Looney Tunes is available on cassette

and 12-inch vinyl. So, the cover, the logo. The Looney's logo is a walking condom, or a standing condom. The condom has a face The condom is mean mugging you, essentially. In subsequent versions, the condom often wears an eye patch, to better echo the Oakland Raiders logo.

The condom is holding a handgun in one hand and a beverage of some sort. In the other, I don't want to speculate. Also, okay, the tip of the condom is the head, obviously, and so it's open at the bottom. And gushing out of the condom, it's a used condom, okay? I'm trying to be delicate here. the condom is standing in a substantial white puddle of its own creation. It's wearing air maxes. How do you even clean? It's gross. All right? It's striking. It's effective. Now imagine yourself,

walking down Telegraph Avenue in Oakland, and you are accosted by an armed condom standing in a white puddle. The reaction, the series of reactions you would have to this. You'd be like, oh, shit. And then you'd be like, what the fuck? And then you'd be like, wow, that's hilarious. And then you'd be like, ugh. And that is what it's like to listen to Bay Area rap. That's yuck up the dink like a slurpy.

My mom will make a niggie go delirious like Eddie Murphy. Maggie was the name of the mom on the old ABC sitcom Growing Pains. It's very impressive. I doubt Growing Pain star Kirk Cameron would approve of the armed gushing condom, but who asked him? That's NUMSKOL. One word, no B. In NUMSkull, NUMSkull further elucidates the thing.

theme of this particular song, which of course boils down to, everybody throw in some money and let's buy some weed. That's Michael Marshall singing the hook. Michael Marshall got screwed. My name is Rob Harvilla. This is 60 songs that explain the 90s, and today we're discussing I Got Five on it by Loonies. From their 1995 debut album, Operation Stackola, I Got Five on it, arguably the greatest Bay Area

rap song of all time. or arguably the greatest weed rap song of all time, or arguably both. We will discuss, in particular, the I Got Five on it remix, as there are a bunch more excellent rappers on the remix, and I intend to use I Got Five on it as an excuse to celebrate 90s Bay Area Rap as a whole,

because Bay Area Rap is fantastic, and also, often, stupendously weird. It's all quite striking and or menacing, and or surreal and or alarmingly beautiful. Let me give you an example. I was going to do this whole thing, but then I thought better of it, and now I'm going to tell you what I was going to do,

which is the same thing as doing it. It's a tick of mine. Sorry. Anyway, I grew up mostly in Ohio and live here again now, but I moved to Oakland, California in 2003, and I have never fallen in love with a place, a physical place on site, the way I fell in love with Lake Merritt in Oakland,

a neighborhood and an actual lake. I'd moved to Oakland to take a job as music editor of an alt-weekly called the East Bay Express. My new editor was driving me around town. It was dusk. Lake Merritt is 3.4 miles or so around if you walk it, which I would go on to walk around Lake Merritt like 50,000 times. It's adorned by a necklace of lights, a string of bright white lights, almost Christmas lights. The architecture, the range of architectural styles and the buildings, the apartments surrounding Lake Merit.

Victorian, Art Deco, Spanish Colonial, etc. The old-fashioned marquee of the Grand Lake Theater. I saw The Matrix Reloaded at the Grand Lake Theater. The old-fashioned organ player, who jammed before the movie started, was the best part of the Matrix Reloaded. The bright colors, the eccentricity, the mix of old and even older, the character of Lake Merritt. It's 67 degrees or so, the vast majority of the time.

If you're 25-year-old Ohio-born me, at least, in the... that moment, there's a breathtaking vista in virtually any direction. What song could possibly do justice to the wonder and splendor of this moment? This is my over-romanticized memory, so I'm going to further remember that KMEL, the famous Bay Area radio station, is blasting from my editor's car radio as he's driving me around Lake Merritt. And furthermore, this is the song KMEL is playing, a song that was at this point exactly 10 years old, but still felt and will forever feel infinite. That, of course, is 93 till infinity

by the Oakland rap group Souls of Mischief. Souls of Mischief part of the larger hieroglyphics crew. The hieroglyphics logo is itself quite famous, a circle with three dots over a horizontal line, like the expressionless emoji with a third eye, just as memorable and iconic as the gun-toting used condom. Just a different approach. In 1994, KMEL aired like an hour-long live rap battle between hieroglyphics and another Oakland crew called Hobo Junction.

It started as a dispute between casual from hieroglyphics and Sephir from Hobo Junction but radiated outward. Famous rap battle. Maybe the best ever rap battle you could listen to in real time on your car stereo. The hieroglyphics crew also included the Oakland rapper Dell the funky Homo sapien, whose ice cube's cousin. In 1991, Dale put out his first solo album, I wish my brother George was here, which is a Looney Tunes reference. Actually, on that album,

you'll find one of the most random and bizarre and infectious loops imaginable. I hesitated to wax rhapsodic about Lake Merritt because Lake Merritt has never necessarily been ground zero for Bay Area rap, and also starry-eyed 20-something white Midwestern knuckleheads moving to the Bay would have, over time, quite a jarring effect on Bay Area culture and sociology and an outright deleterious effect on Bay Area real estate prices. We're going to jump around

from rapper to rapper, from song to song, from emotion to emotion. But we'll start with Loonies. These guys first rose to prominence in 1993, when they get starred alongside the rapper Drew Down, D.R. You down on a song called Ice Cream Man. They aren't selling ice cream. Obviously, here's Yuckmouth. This was three years before Master P had a big song called Mr. Ice Cream Man on a big album called Ice Cream Man. Master P had moved from his native New Orleans to Richmond, California, 20 minutes drive or so north of Oakland. Like me, in a manner of speaking, Master P would eventually move back home, in this case, back to New Orleans. Drew Down and Looney's got pissed, of course, about this thievery of the ice cream man concept.

Words were exchanged. That battle didn't necessarily play out on the radio. Nevertheless, Looney signed to a major label and put out their debut full-length album, which to repeat was named Operation Stackola in 1995. Great title. Love saying that title. Operation Stackola's biggest hit by a substantial margin is I Got Five on it. Some thievery was allegedly involved as well in the pre-examination.

three Looney's Genesis of this beat. So Michael Marshall, a singer and songwriter from nearby Berkeley, California. He could sing gospel, he could sing R&B, he could sing pop. In the mid-80s, Michael was the lead singer and primary songwriter for an R&B group called Timex Social Club. It's unclear to me how a cartoon bomb with a cease and desist tape to it did not appear on their porch with a Timex branded watch. Counting down, good for them. Timex Social Club at a top ten pop hip in 19. 1986 with rumors.

Rumors remains the fucking jam. That's Michael Marshall on lead vocals, quite a distinctive voice. There's an anthemic yearning, a really appealing and palpable angst to this guy's voice, whether he's yearning for love or truth or weed. Rumors was the first track

on Timex Social Club's only album. 1986's vicious rumors. Track two, co-written by Michael Marshall, is called Thinkin' Abyssle. about you. And here's where the tumultuous journey to I Got Five on it begins. So soon, Timex Social Club breaks up in the group's producer, a guy named Jay King, immediately starts a new group without Michael Marshall called Club Nouveau. Club Nouveau's first album, Life, Love, and Pain comes out in late 1986. Same year.

Track one is called Jealousy and is a very explicit copy of rumors. Track two is called Why You Treat Me So Bad and Sounds Cool. quite a bit like thinking about you. Michael Marshall is not credited as a songwriter on Why You Treat Me So Bad, which is going to matter quite a bit a few years later when a Bay Area rap producer named Tone Capone, outstanding name, attempts to sample Why You Treat Me So Bad for a new song he's working on called I Got Five on it.

Yuck Mouth was the more prominent rapper in Loonies, or in any event he'd go on to have a far more prolific solo career. In 2003, actually, Yuck Mouth put out an album called Godzilla. He actually started a label called Godzilla Entertainment. And then one morning, the real Godzilla appeared on his porch, breathing fire in lieu of a cease and desist. It was a whole thing. But anyway, Yuck Mouth credits his old partner Numskull for sketching out the concept of I Got Five on it. The concept being, to repeat, everybody throw in some money and let's buy some weed. Outstanding concept, truly. Tone Capone, though, struggled a bit to get the sample

right, so in the end, he decided to replay to re-record key elements of why you treat me so bad. But for help with that, he turned to an old high school buddy named Michael Marshall. He's back. He is now functionally remaking a song that ripped him off.

Michael is very much into the everybody throwing some money and let's buy some weed concept, and he's got some great ideas about refining the hook. I do want to shout out the sample of Cool and the Gang's Jungle Boogie that almost haunts the completed I Got Five on it beat. The thing where you take a cheerful song and make it sound ominous,

I don't think it gets any better than that. So in 2019, when the trailer for Jordan Peel's new horror movie, Us, comes out. It starts with a family playing I Got Five on it on their car stereo. And then the trailer is set to a horror movie version of I Got Five on it. That thing where you take an old hit song and turn it into a scary movie soundtrack, I don't think it gets any better than that. But Michael Marshall was not necessarily celebrating. The Ringer interviewed him for a piece around the time of the Us trailer.

Turns out Michael had somehow incorrectly filed his paperwork back in the mid-90s and was not initially listed as a publisher on I Got Five on it. No publishing rights. He only started getting royalties in 2005, by which point he'd struggled for several years with drug addiction and homelessness. This entire debacle around how I Got Five on it was built and what it became and how he was excluded from much of that process, Michael would summarize it all by saying,

it's been a constant circle of fuckery in what seems like a conspiracy to not let me shine. Michael did get a solo career going in 2005. Also in 2019, that's him singing the old hippie jam, San Francisco, be sure to wear flowers in your hair. In the trailer for that rad movie, The Last Black Man in San Francisco, this guy consistently, when you hear him,

you know it's him, and you feel him. Also around 2005, Michael moved to California's Mendocino County and joined the increasingly lucrative weed growing community there. He's got his own grow now in Laytonville. He says that because of I Got Five on it, he's treated like a god. Rightly so. Good for him. As for Loonies, I don't mean to shortchange, Loonies.

They were not album artists per se, but Operation Stackle has got some jams, plural. Playaheda very much among them. Playaheda was a breezy and quite melodic song about how mad people were at Loonies for being successful. Yuckmouth again. Nice shout out to Michael Marshall there,

or nice shout out to the guys who rippe out to the guys who ripped off Michael Marshall or both. It's confusing. It's a constant circle of fuckery. Anyway, great chorus on play a Heda. It is a genuine thrill, both within and without the Bay Area. Whatever a Bay Area wraps on becomes a national hit, an international hit. A rare thing, too.

I got five on it peaked at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100. It was also, for the record, a number one hit in the Netherlands. A huge crossover hit. I can confirm, anecdotally, that I got five on it was very popular among 20-something white Midwestern knuckleheads. How many frat houses have you heard I Got Five on it's blaring out of in your life? Frat houses, plural. I thought so. Moreover, this is a National Bay Area hit that retains the weirdness, the ominousness, the eccentricity inherent to Bay Area rap.

That doesn't always happen, or does it? you decide if Oakland native MC Hammer's 1990 Mega Smash, you can't touch this, qualifies as eccentric. Pretty weird song, honestly, but I do wish it had a remix with a half dozen or so much weirder Bay Area rappers, the way I Got Five on it did. I don't recommend or even condone reading YouTube comments in general, but a YouTube comment on the I Got Five on it remix did strike me.

It says, I like the fact that there's seven rappers on here from the same place at that, and none of them sound the same. First up, it's our old friend, the ice cream man, Drew Down. You say you got five on my tender, you can vendor over the table, but be sure that you bring my son back to my stables. In 1993, Drew had a big hit with Pimp of the Year, NSFW. He made an awfully convincing case for himself.

Because I'm going to be the biggest rip up, but yeah, because a nigga is strong and wait too long when it gets. You heard him. Then comes a new numskull verse. It's fine. Then comes Richie Rich, formerly of the Oakland group 415, back in the late 80s when 415 was Oakland's area code.

Snoop Doggy Dog down in Long Beach, started out in a group called 213 and talked up Richie Rich quite a bit. And I do hear a resemblance, though I couldn't quite say why. Most CZACs believe that. I just got it. They both sound stoned all the time. That was easy. Spent some time with Richie Rich. Spent some time just with Let's Ride from 1996. He sounds like he's got like 5,000 on it. How many emcees must get this before somebody say don't fuck with rich. It's evidential.

The presidential slept on the wrist. Who that new nigger from Oakland with that brand and twist. Next up is E40. E40 is the best. E40 is the pride, the soul of Vallejo, California, which is a 45 minute or so drive north from Oakland, but you can cut the drive down to 45 seconds if you drive as fast as he often raps. 40 makes it happen.

Foske, slapping revenue gross and just a little bit light. Flambotting fumes linger, mighty clouds of northern lights. Respect to Victor Barron and you'll be violating my silver rights. You heard him, flambostin. E40 has been threatening to put out a book of rap. slang, much of it originating with E40 himself since like 1998. He is my all-time favorite Bay Area rapper and quite possibly my all-time favorite rapper, period. And he exemplifies for me Bay Area Rap's singular fusion of whimsy and menace.

He's playful, but it's the hardest playfulness imaginable. He sounds like a cartoon character. He sounds like a god. Really what it is, he exemplifies for me the series of reactions one ideally has to Bay Area a rap. Oh, shit. What? That's hilarious. That is you, basically, listening to an E40 song called Captain Save Aho. E40 has put out somewhere between like 30 and 50 albums, and it's mandatory that you listen to all of them. But go ahead and start with In a Major Way. From 1995, his sister, Sugar Tea, joined him on a song called Sprinkle Me.

I'll be more hip than the hippopotamus. Get off in your head like a neurologist. I'm a weight in Atlas. Got a pardon by the name of Tupacolus. The 707 my roots going to hell of far back to floor terrace. I'll pull a 40 out of my ball cap and then I flush it down my Sopagiaris.

Hippapodomis, Tupacalypse, Floyd Terrace, that's in Vallejo, esophagaris. E40 is the best. Next up, there's a new yuck mouth verse. It's fine.

Next up, after that, we got Shock G. Perhaps you know him by another name. You back to get my own. They let me flow on. I'm on it. Yeah, I'm on it. Yeah, that's Shock G from Digital Underground. You want to talk about a national Bay Area hit that retains the weirdness and eccentricity of Bay Area rap?

Look no further than 1990s Almighty the Humpty Dance, which I've made a point of referencing in as many episodes of this show as possible. My nose is big. I'm not ashamed. Big like a pickle. I'm still getting paid. I get laid by the ladies. You know, I'm in charge. Both how I'm living in my nose is long.

I get stupid. Has Bob Dylan, in all his voluble splendor, ever written a single line with a piercing moral clarity of both how I'm living and my nose is large? I don't think so. I just realized today that there's a 69 reference in the Humpty Dance. In a 69, my Humpty nose will tickle your rear. An eternally rewarding experience, the Humpty Dance.

It just missed the top 10. On the Hot 100, number 11, that's perfect to me somehow. As you might be aware, Tupac Shakur started out as a dancer for the digital underground. Tupac shows up on another of the best songs on E40s in a major way. It's called Dusted and Dusted. I'm running out of time here, and I've gotten to like 10% of the Bay Area rappers I was hoping to mention. Last guest on the I Got 5 when it remixed is Spice 1. Spice stands for Sex, Pistols, Indo, Cash, and Entertainment.

and he pretty quickly gets to three out of five here. Spice One is from Hayward, a half hour drive southwest of Oakland, if you're not driving at E-40 speed. One of Spice One's signature songs is called 187 proof, which is a crime storytelling deal, in which all the characters are named after types of Alps. alcohol or alcohol brands. Pepperman Schnapps shoots Mr. Martini with a Colt 45, etc. The video for a 187 proof depicts a bottle of peppermint Schnapps shooting a martini glass wearing a police uniform with a Colt 45.

It's like if Slick Rick took over Peewee's Playhouse, Menace, Whimsy, it's weird, it's hard. You couldn't tell that gin was a bitch, though, because she was fucking some nigger I could I'm heartbroken. I'm heartbroken, actually, that I can't do this. The whistle riff and young Selskies living in the bay. The whale sounds and Andre Nicotina's killer whale. The way the rap duo conscious daughters pronounce the word funky in the song Something

to Ride to Funky Expedition. The second best weed rap song in Bay Area and possibly world history, if you're interested, comes to us from RBL Posse, from Hunter's Point, San Francisco. This song is concerned more with weed quality than weed quantity. It is called Don't Give Me No Bammer Weed. I love saying, don't give me no Bammer Weed. Don't give me no Bammer Weeds. We don't smoke that shit in a SFC. Don't give me no Bammer Wees.

We don't smoke that shit in a SFC door. It's good advice. I do need to also mention Too Short. Arguably, E40 and Too Short are the Twin Towers of Bay Area Rap. Too Short is from Oakland and spent much of the 80s selling his own tapes, many of them quite lurid and pornographic, out of the trunk of his own car. To this day, whenever a rapper sells his or her own music independently,

you are legally obligated to mention how Too Short used to sell his own tapes out of the trunk of his own car. The first of those two short tapes came out in 1983. His 10-minute, extra-lurid and pornographic song called Freaky Tales came out in 1987. By the 90s, he was already a legend, a towering veteran, a sage dispenser of wisdom, and a world-renowned virtuoso

in his use of one word in particular, guess. Bitches come a dime a dozen, so don't get mad when I fuck your cousin. Your two sisters, I even fuck your ex-bitch, show dog in the house with some players shit. That's from I'm a Player from 1993. Every Too Short album is also mandatory. Go ahead and start with 1989's Life is Too Short.

He should have been on the I Got Five on it remix, but he and Yuck Mouth never got along. Too Short is dissed on the Looney song Playaheda, actually, for moving to Atlanta. At one point, Two Short's protégés included a rap duo called Bad Influence, consisting of the rapper's Rapin' Ron and Ant Diddley Dog. And apparently a lot of the hostility here stems from a freestyle rap battle between bad influence and loonies, where the loser had to buy the winner pizza. Tragically, this was not broadcast on the radio.

Is that rat battle protocol that the loser has to buy the winner pizza? I don't remember that from 8 Mile. That should be the rule. I cannot express how it changes a. physical place, how it changes the atmosphere, how it alters your own DNA to hear songs this weird and this bunchess and this steely and this goofy and this hard-nosed and this base heavy on mainstream radio. It was glorious. I imagine it was glorious to be there in the 90s. I imagine it's still glorious now. As for my stretch in Oakland for much of my time, the Bay Area was celebrating,

which is to say morning Mac Dre in particular. Last round. rapper I'll mention, I promise. MacDray was also from Vallejo. MacDray was also lewd and peculiar and wildly prolific. In 1993, he put out a song called Too Hard for the fucking radio. It was. In 1990, put out an album called Stupid Doodoo Dumb. It was. That's a compliment. Here is MacDray rhyming funnions and bunions on a song called Fishhead Stew. That's the chorus.

Unbelievable. MacDray was shot and killed in Kansas City in 2004. The Bay Area, which already loved him, has been extravagantly deifying him ever since. I heard his song, Feeling Myself, from the 2004 album, Ronald Dragan, colon, draconomics on KMEL like 50,000 times. I loved hearing it, each and every one of those 50,000 times. Heifie was huge by the mid-2000s.

I hope I get to tell you about, some other time. I was a knuckle-headed Midwestern white kid. I was trying in real time to wrap my head around how much of this music, this lifestyle I could even hypothetically claim as my own. None of it was the answer. And yet, it's a matter of appreciating the lingo, marveling at the lingo without actually pretending to use the lingo. I was not riding sideways. I was not ghost riding the whip. I was not personally acquainted with the thizz face, Never had five on it even once. Not really.

I was just another dopey kid along for the ride. Feeling electrified, feeling grateful, feeling infinite. All I could really do to show my appreciation as I drove around Lake Merritt was to turn the radio up. So that's what I did. We are fortunate to have two guests today. We have Oakland's own Logan Murdoch, staff writer at the Ringer, and co-host of the Real Ones podcast as part of the Ringer NBA show.

Hi, Logan. What's that name? But we also have Oakland's own Marcus Thompson, Bay Area columnists for The Athletic and author of books on both Steph Curry and Kevin Durant. Marcus, when Logan suggested we include you as well, he made a point of saying that you're from the same neighborhood as Richie Rich. So congratulations on that. Hold on. Hold on. Richie Rich for my neighborhood. Let's get this straight.

Let's get this straight. Excuse me. I misspoke. That's, there we go. He older to me, so he got it. Okay. Which neighborhood is that just for the record? We're from the deep east.

It's a whole other level out here. We're from the deep off in parts where, you know, the justification still ain't touched yet. That's pretty deep at this point, unfortunately. Thank you guys so much for being here. As an obnoxiously broad question to get us started, what makes a Bay Area rap song a Bay Area rap song? Like, what differentiates this music from what's coming out of New York

or out of L.A. or out of the South? What makes the Bay the Bay musically? I look forward to Logan's answer to this because he's a connoisseur of connoisseurs. Let's go. Yes. This is a quiz, Logan. Answer properly.

I think what makes that Bay Area is slap. A Bay Area is slap. Is that Bay Area people obnoxiously like it more than everybody else and we will let you know that it is the best thing you've ever heard, no matter what. Is that a fair thing, Marcus? There we go. Ding, ding.

If we lose our minds over it, I mean, if we're being just very technical about it, If it's done by anybody in the Bay Area, it's automatically Bay Area Slap. Like, it doesn't even matter the quality of the slap. If you did it and you from the Bay, it is now certified Bay Slap. Or if you set foot in the Bay for longer than two years, you're one of us. It doesn't matter. You one of us.

You have a Bayer influence. It's all because of the Bay that you have your success. Leave Master Pee alone, man. Leave Master Pee alone, right. That's what I thought. You had to go way back to the ice cream, man. Is it almost suspect when people outside the Bay Area like it too much? Do you almost prefer it when it's a local phenomenon?

No, you know what? In the Bay, we have this, somehow we've crafted this scenario, this imagination, where we are the underdogs in every situation, even though, like, you know, as Too Short said, a long time ago, it's money in the ghetto. And we actually have a pretty decent existence out here, right? Like, there are worse places. But I feel like any time you're in position to acknowledge the bay, we take all that.

It don't matter. Like, as long as you say it's from the bay or I got it from the bay or I love, like, it don't even matter. We take all that love, all that clout because we feel like we never get enough. No matter what, the rest of the world is always hating. So it don't matter who you are. If you just shout us out one time, we're like, let's go. You're it. One of my biggest childhood memories is when Jay-Z wrapped over the blow to whistle beat and the LeBron beep.

And he said, I fuck with Oakland. Oakland like Brooklyn. I said a thug tear when he said that. When he did that, it was a monumental moment in my life, in my young life. When he said Oakland was like Brooklyn, I was like, okay, cool. I've never been there before. But yes. But Brooklyn is now one of my favorite cities.

I've never been there. I don't know. But Brooklyn is now, yeah, I respect, I respected Brooklyn type. We are simultaneously never in need of validation and always in need of validation. Like, that's the big experience. We don't need nothing from nobody. We're going to do our own thing and we're going to create our own world and in our universe we are who we are.

And also, we would love you to acknowledge that. Marcus, am I correct in saying that, like me, you were in high school when I got five on it came out? Like, I feel like your personal experience of this song is very different if you were a teenager when this song came out. Absolutely. I was in high school when it came out. So it leaked a little bit earlier before it blew up.

It didn't blow up, like outside debate until I got to college. So I was in Atlanta when it popped. And I remember the stinging sensation of wanting to fight when I heard somebody talking about the song and they attributed to somebody said, ain't that outcast? And immediately I was just like, wow. I had to be like, come on.

Oh, bro. Like, no, no, don't you even start this. But this was out when I was in high school. The Lundies were legends by then. Their ice cream man album had already made them like hood legends. And this is on the hills of one of the Logan's favorites drew down. Best rapper to ever come out of Oakland, by the way. We have been rocking with C-Note music. You know, we have been kind of on that hype. So I remember this being playing at assemblies and games. And, Before they did it at Oracle, there was a certain addendum to the song. Logan, do you remember at the basketball game? The whole crowd is, I got five on it. Yeah, we added something very Oakland, two short's favorite word, right? And the whole crowd. This was like before it was even popping, though.

It wasn't I got five on it yet, right? So I distinctly remember that being a part of our school culture. And the administrators kind of being. and like, don't do that. Also, yo, that's fine. That's tight, right? Also, saying it under their breath. And then I did like it.

It was a very Oakland thing, for sure, no question. Yeah. Do you think that nationally people knew that Looney's were from Oakland? Was there like a palpable sense of pride that you had a song that broke nationally the way that did? So I got onto this late. I got on to obviously, because I grew up in 93. I was born in 93. So I grew up, like, late on to it.

So I thought it was a tight song in general. And then my mom's told me at like five or six. You know they from the Bay, right? More specifically, you know they from Oakland, right? And I'm like, word, it made me, to Marcus's point earlier in this pot, it made me love it even more because I was like, I didn't know that we were that important to the lexicon of the rest of the world. And I was like, this is our slice of hip hop.

This is ours. And I didn't know the meaning of it at all. But I just knew that this was ours. And I had a point of pride to knowing my little town was worldwide. You know why this was so huge, too, at the time. This was almost in the heart of the East-West battle, right? And it may be more at, no, it's probably the heart. If you go with Pock's death as kind of like, yo, all right, this is too far.

Right, right. Like, we've taken this way too far. This is like either at the beginning or the cresting of it or it's like right in the middle. But just I remember going to school in Atlanta. being in the South and perennially getting into these debates about who had the best music. And for so long, all of the best West Coast music was connected with Los Angeles, right? It was NWA. It's Ice Cube. And there was so much disrespect for Too Short that literally it used to be ready to go that.

But it was like, oh, Too Short can't rap. Because, you know, the East Coast dominated the narrative about music at the time. and it was like, yo, if you wasn't lyrical, you wasn't good, right? And Too short made this trek to Atlanta and kind of helped bring this Bay and this West Coast, this other version of West Coast music

on a national scene. But yeah, it was a big deal because you just didn't see us on that level. It was Ice Cube. It was Dr. Dre. It was EasyE. It was Snoop. And then maybe we get a humpty hump, right?

Right. Maybe we can tell people like, hey, Pac was in the town when he made. You know what I'm saying? Like, that's what Pac was mid-Oklift. Bridges got a baby. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Same song, you know what I'm saying?

Like, so we was kind of claiming that stuff. But the Lutys was down right, straight out of Oakland. Everything about him was Oakland. I mean, literally Scrilla National Bank is on the cover, right? Like, Scrilla was our word, right? Right, right. So it was our coming out party. It was our bar mitzvah, right?

It was our kin seyenne. Like, we grew up. That was our mark. Like, yo, we end this thing. Because after that, even like during this same time, Outkaz is coming up, right? So now the South is coming up. And the sounds are very, they're cousins in that sense, right?

You can definitely, because we was ride Southern Planoistic Cadillac folk music in the town, right? We down, internet, we down UFO slapping that. And they out there playing our music. music. So there was definitely a synergy between what the Bay was doing and what the South was doing. So we kind of arrived at the same time. It was

hell of cool just to experience that outside of Oakland. Because I'm doing all this in Atlanta, right? So it's all happening outside of Oakland. The ironic part about this about you talking about Atlanta and Too Short in regards to the Loonies is Too Short should have been on the remix

what they was beefing, you know? That's what they're great Oakland Beach, right? Yeah. It's the beef. At the time, it was beating. And the beef started in part because the beef started in part because Sue Short was in Atlanta and KM.O was hating on him because in part because he was in Atlanta. That's the ironic part of all this thing that's going on right now.

And numb said the line that almost destroyed Oakland, hip-hop, right? You can't, yeah. Like literally at that time, I remember there being a like, man, you can't say that about short. Like, we love the Looney's book. man. It's on play aheada, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's why the town got rid of show. Like, oh, okay. We love y'all, Lulies, but you went too far.

Relax. Relax. It's too short. Too short is a deity in the bay. Like, yes. It don't even matter. You could say whatever you want about Too Short. Too Short is a deity in hip-hop music. Everything he's ever done is now basically sanctified by his deification.

You can't, they learn that, though. Lundies had to learn that, and they did. But it was tough, man. It's tough watching somebody you love learn these tough lessons, man. They had to get that tough love because we did love the Lutis. Yeah.

Someone like Too Short or E40 or MacDray, when people on Twitter do these goofy best rapper of all time lists, are you hoping to see their names? Like, do you feel like the Bay's being disrespected when you don't see those names? Hell yes, but maybe not so much for, maybe not so much for Magdray

because MacDray was mortalized after he died. Right. He wasn't like, he wasn't. Hey, hey, say that. Can you say that, please? Can you call out the people who wasn't listening to the Mac Dre until that? Y'all were listening to MacDray. And when y'all listening to him right now, I was just feeling myself.

Y'all wasn't outside for she never seen. Y'all wasn't outside when it really had a trit for MacDray. That's another story. You can't be like, y'all listen to MacDray, but who's MacMall? Right, like, come on. That's a telltale side right there. Yeah, but I think we get offended when too short and E40 weren't on those lists for the simple fact that they have such an influence on the way rap is today when you talk about independence.

Independence started in the bay, then trickled out to the Houston's and all these other different places, you wouldn't have that independent ground without Too Short and E-40 doing it out the trunk of their car. And then Marcus talked about this earlier, about too short and going to Atlanta. He influenced a lot of Atlanta artists, including Outcasts, who give him his flowers, but nobody else seems to do that. And so we really do get offended because there is a real influence there with Too Short and E-40. All these guys have that type of,

like, nobody was on, no West Coast artist was on Biggie's album except for Too Short. There's a lot of influence, and that's why we get pissed. We just want our dude. Just put them on the list. That's all we ask.

Put them on the list. I think you're right, in lieu of being on the list, do would work, but that they're not, like, none of us are actually going to claim Too Short is the greatest rapper ever. We're not going to do that.

Like, we understand, we love hip hop, We know the levels to it, but there's no way you can take their impact in the culture out of it. My thing was don't act like Curtis Blow was out here doing complex rhyme schemes. You feel what I'm saying? But he was a pioneer. You know what I'm saying? So the pioneership of what they were doing, like that's what we wanted to credit for. Like, nope, when Short did this rock with EPMD.

And it's like these things weren't happening. When Short does, it was all good a week ago with Jay-Z. And keep in mind, this is at a time we're literally, we're at war in hip-hop. Like, literally, we're at war. So once again, the Bay brings everybody together. You know what I'm saying? So, like, that was an important thing. You're talking about some of the most meaningful collaborations at a time where it did get crazy.

Like, it was ridiculous. This old East West stuff. And like it was out of control and ridiculous. And here comes Too Short, who just had the clout to go to Atlanta and be like, yo, we about to do some music together. And everybody knew, you know, the Dungeon Family knew too short. Eight Ball, MJG, knew too short. All of new, Scarface knew Too Short.

Like, it wasn't about like, you know, we could nitpick the rhyme schemes and the patterns and all that. But yeah, that's cool. That's one element. But the other element is who pioneered this stuff. And just from the, I mean, I don't know how good this is, but the vulgarity, the willingness to say whatever, the gangster, like, all that is bay. This records was subliminal before, before, like, we got into that, right? It wasn't like, it was like you had to figure it out, you had to know, that was kind of part of the fun of it, was trying to figure out who was being talked about. And then when the Bay got involved, really Callie, it became, you know, we're saying your name.

Like, no, we call it you. I'm talking to you. You know what I'm saying? So, like, all those little influences, man, we just wanted somebody to recognize us for saying that. Because, again, we don't need validation, but we would like to have it. Right. As far as Bay Area Rap now, who is taking that mantle?

Like, E40 is arguably just constantly passing the torch to himself. But is there anyone relatively new now where you can see rising to legend status? Here he go. Go ahead. 20 years from now. Here you go. I got the artist, man. This is funny you ask this question because Marcus always be ready to do it.

I think the next person up, there's a lot of people that there's all black who's killing it right now. He's out of East Oakland. Not as far east is where Marcus and Richie Rich is from, but he's from the East. You got Offset Jim who's coming out. You got Offset Jim coming out. Offset Jim is another dude from the same hood. You got G.E.Z. You got a lot of people that are really coming up.

But the two ones that are the next ones up is Offset Gym. all black are the next two ones up right now unequivocally. Let me tell you my little sneaker. Okay. Give him some time, but little duty from Carter Block. Hey, little duty nice though. Don't be playing with me. He like 10 years old.

He's been doing it since he was 10. You heard it here first. I know. That's one other person that I would like to say. And this is somebody that me and Mark is like a little Zaybang from San Francisco, who was another dude that's really hard. That is hard. He's the next one.

up. And it's really great because we're having another renaissance of Bay Area artists that are all picking each other up right now. You know, because Kailani messes with all black. And then let me not disrespect. Guap Dad 4,000 from West Oakland, too. I was just kidding. I was wondering when you were going to get a little

piece in here, you know what I said? Yeah, yeah. Listen, you know, I got a new piece edited by Justin Sales, who's a producer on here right now. I sure. Go look at that on the ringer right there. Gwab Dad 4,000, West Oakland. Marcus, I asked you who you wanted to talk about, and you said three times crazy and bad influence. So what is it about them specifically?

So the part that I love about them, and I will always respect their part of Oakland rap specifically in Bay Rap, was the knock against us for the longest time was we couldn't actually rap, right? You know what I'm saying, right? Yeah, yeah. I heard that too. Yeah. Yeah, it was too short. You know, too short his beats laugh and he make a music, but he can't rap.

E-40 was saying weird stuff that people wasn't really feeling yet. Over-wrapping. He's making up work. Yeah, yeah, it wasn't. And I just remember being in college and in the South, but, you know, very East Coast influence, a lot around. And I just remember always being able to put on some three times crazy or some bad influence and make it anybody who had a criticism be like, oh, all right. all right, all right, because they actually knew how to rap.

And it was revelatory. It was like, so we got the slap, we got the swag, we got the moments, right? We got the songs. And we also have the bars, which I think was important. It was important to be able to say, yo, all right, you want to get respects on the grander scheme of hip hop. You actually got to be able to rap. And they show we had bars.

Looney's too. Like, yuck, man. This was also lyric. So for me, I think they don't get enough credit three times Bannifluid. And, you know, Logan, no, we always trade three times bars, right? But Aunt Dilley Dog from Bada Fluence is one of the greatest rapists I ever heard. I just, I can listen to him all day. We used to argue for hours about who was better out of him and rap and Ron, but it was about rap, right?

It was about lyrics, it was about bars, it was about schemes. And they kind of made that cool, right? It wasn't just about you got a slap and can you cuss. Like, it was like, how you go? put this together. You know what I'm saying? I remember hearing Angel Man from three times crazy for the first time. And he was in pockets that I had never even heard in my life.

Like he was going, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. And it was just, it was a cadence that I had never heard before. And I was like, these are some Oakland dudes talk about going up High Street and then going to San Leandro to get all some women. You know what I mean? It felt like this hip-hop was really real where I was from. Wait, one question for you, right? I don't want to cut it up.

What question is from Marcus? Who had the best verse on it right now? Who had the best verse? Give it right now. Are we talking about the remix? Do the remix. The remix. Man, that's not even fair, bro.

There's one answer. Rich and Rich. Richie Rich. Thank you. That's not fair, though, man. That's not even fair. That's not fair. What's not fair about that?

Because it's the coldest verse, right? It's the verse that... Yeah. But you're not going to disrespect Spice One verse on this day. I'm just saying. But no, Rich shut it down. Rich shut down the whole thing. Like, where are you from, Oakland,

that's it. Like, that's ball game. Shut it up. That's the verse whenever we out of town and you play, because this is the song that gets played out of town no matter what. Whenever we go to a party out of town,

we look at each other. We see the other Oakland dude. That's theirs. And we go, Oakland. We do the O and we say smoking. And we sat at the top of our lungs. You don't even got to smoke. But you say that part.

That's the funny part. thing. That's the best part of my guy. I got five on that. I didn't smoke at all. This was like, this was like our version of watching Cheech and Chong. Right. Like, it's like, I don't know, I'll smoke, but man, either it makes you want to smoke or you certainly just love the culture. You know what I'm saying? Like, it was, it was incredible. No, you, you're going to have to respect some of these verses, bro. Come on. You're going to have to respect some of these verses. Rich shut it down, but you kind of got to take Rich out the mix, bro. Why? I take Rich after Knicks.

All right. All right. I'm going to go with, this is what I said. This is my top three. I said, Richie Rich is first, but we'll take him out. Second one was Drew down. Third one was 40. Because he said, disrespect to Victor Barretted you be violating my civil rights. I learned penal code from E40. I learned a lot from E40. Educational. But so I felt like Spice 1 was very educational to be too, because I had no idea what

cannabis ativa, right? Like, I'm like, what? Rolling up cannabis and Teva. What does it happen? I was a square key and learned about it, right? Like a handful of broccoli. What does he mean? What does he mean?

Oh, now I know. Oh, broccoli. That's so far. Yeah, oh, now I got what you're talking about. So I'm okay. It was good. Yeah, I definitely, I'm going to go with E40. I'm going to go E40.

I think that we've settled a lot here today, fellas. And I'm very grateful to both of you. Thank you so much for being here and for talking, guys. This has been cool. That's right. Thanks to our guests this week, Logan Murdoch and Marcus Thompson. Thanks as always to our producers, Isaac Lee and Justin Sales. And thanks very much to you for listening.

And now, without further ado, here are Loonies with IGot5 on it. See you next week.