7/7/2023 0 Comments Hip hop history bay area![]() ![]() Still, Filipinos have thrived along the Bay Area’s shorelines, allowing for many artists, activists and changemakers to emerge and collaboratively grow here-especially through the rebellion of hip-hop. Starting in the 1950s, low-income Filipinos were evicted to make room for “a Wall Street of the West.” The story is just one chapter of the ongoing battle to maintain affordable housing in one of the world’s most expensive cities. It’s no surprise then that there was once a Manilatown in San Francisco, which blossomed from the 1920s through the 1970s until it was systematically dismantled and cannibalized as part of the “Manhattanization” of downtown’s Financial District. Per capita, it’s among the most densely populated Filipino areas outside of the Philippines. With over 310,000 Filipino residents, the San Francisco Bay Area boasts the second-largest population of the diaspora in the United States. It’s global but it’s also bringing that back to a local scale.” Over the years Filipinos have found ways to integrate themselves seamlessly. “If you look at every pillar in hip-hop that exists, all of ’em, it’s gonna be at least one Filipino in there that’s a legend,” Guapdad says. Saweetie performs at Rolling Loud 2018 in Oakland. He just happens to be one “ Alpha ” in this group of trendsetters. And it’s helping to put Filipino Americans back on the map. ![]() It’s multidimensional and authentic, an unapologetic fusion. Guap’s style and albums are reflective of his modern Filipino upbringing in the Bay Area-which is to say, it’s not singularly limited. ![]() Hella in my upbringing comes straight from my Filipino side.” I went to an all-Filipino church for 15 years. My lola raised me in a biracial household, cooking and speaking both languages. “My direct portion is one-fourth Filipino,” he says. With his popular single “Chicken Adobo” (a love song inspired by his lola’s cooking) and his feature on Thundercat’s “ Dragonball Durag” (a tribute to the classic anime), Guap is constantly dropping hints about his Asian American upbringing and identity-though, most people admittedly don’t perceive him as Filipino upon initially seeing him. Alongside his Fil Am peers, Guap is voicing his multi-ethnic experience in an idiosyncratic, hyphy-melodic way, narrating where he’s from and his journey navigating the world as a Black Pinoy. It’s a relatable truth for many Bay Area locals, who’ve grown up here with mixed backgrounds and a fluid sense of self across the generations. They met and decided to move to Oakland and that’s how my roots started in the Bay,” Guap says. My grandfather is Black and was a merchant marine out there on a military base. My grandma is a short, 5’3” lady from Zambales in the Philippines. (Estefany Gonzalez) A-Side: Chicken Adobo performs at Lights On Festival at Concord Pavilion on Sunday, Sept. It also doesn’t even touch on the OG Pinoys and Pinays who certainly paved the path for this ascendance to happen. This list doesn’t even include the unquantifiable amount of genuine community work, activism and representation each artist has provided throughout Northern California and beyond over their careers and lifetimes. Ibarra is literally a scientist and co-founded the Pinays Rising Scholarship Program. Rivera added “author” to her resume with the publication of her debut book. H.E.R won four Grammys and launched the Lights On Festival, with nearly 6 million followers on Instagram. P-Lo produced “About That Time,” the most-streamed song from this summer’s Space Jam: A New Legacy soundtrack, featuring verses from NBA All Star Damian Lillard, G-Eazy and White Dave. Saweetie has two chart-topping singles and a McDonald’s meal with her name on it. You can’t talk about Bay Area music in 2021 without mentioning him or the “ same squad, same squad ” of Fil Ams from here, including H.E.R, Ruby Ibarra, Rocky Rivera, P-Lo, Kuya Beats and Saweetie, to name a a few. If you don’t know Guap, he’s an essential player in the Bay Area’s latest wave of Filipino American artists who’ve taken over the scene with their eclectically unparalleled vibrancy. ![]()
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