Hip-hop

The NBA playoffs has enlightened the nation about California sensibilities in the form of Baron Davis and the Golden State Warriors. Something about the trade winds in the Bay Area, the swirling counterculture homed in San Fran and the urban chasm between L.A. and the real L.A. suggests that the state is really a country within a country.

In Danny Hoch’s one-man show “Jails, Hospitals and Hip Hop” his Flip character explains to Jay Leno in brief about the musical/stylistic differences between New York rap and West Coast rap saying that each reflects the geography and mindset of its originator. It is not a far-fetched idea to conflate the free-wheeling style of the Golden State Warriors, or the spacey musings of native son Madlib with the endemic spirit that is his hometown. Madlib leaves room to exhale marijuana smoke in the measure of his bars and beat structure. Consequently, he has gained a following specifically attuned to the aforementioned hippie sensibility of the Left Coast. Crafting masterworks with his eccentric peers (Jay Dee, MF Doom) and creating characters to extend his virtuosity to new planes (Quasimoto, Yesterday’s New Quintet) has certainly heightened his status as an alt-society, pothead favorite.