misterelguapo:

So there was a hip hop meme earlier. I’m always late.

There’s a billion things I could post that I like, but I decided to post a song/video that means something to me personally. It’s a song called “California Livin’” by Mac Dre from Vallejo, CA. It’s from 1990 if I remember correctly. Maybe 1991. He was young and just getting popular locally.

Some of you might possibly have heard of him because he actually built a pretty big cult following later in his career (from the late 90s through the early 00s) doing more party/drug induced music on the Thizz Entertainment label. During that time period he was like a hero here in the Bay Area and his popularity was rapidly spreading in different parts of the US.

Anyway, this song was one of the first I ever heard from him and it made me a huge fan.

Fast forward a few years and I’m working in the hip hop industry here in the Bay Area and I got to interview Dre over the phone while he was locked up in Lompoc Federal Penitentiary. I still remember that. I still have a letter that he sent me from there.

Fast forward another few years and I get to interview him again, this time in person, a week or so after his release. I remember sitting in his brand new Chevy Impala that he just got and listening to rough mixes of the new music he had already recorded since getting out.

Over the years he became a star out here and we kept in touch and we’d see each other at random music events in the area. He was a good dude. Smart and talented as well.

He was a friend.

He was in van traveling on the freeway that was sprayed with gunfire on November 1, 2004 while in Kansas City, MO. He died from the gunfire and it literally devastated the hip hop community out here in the Bay Area.

As sad as I get thinking about it, hearing this song and seeing the video always makes me happy.