Sometimes success is the best revenge throughout history North (Narf) Richmond has always had to fight for everything, in the early days it was white supremacy and public officials, battling forced isolation the right to decent housing, good jobs, and resources equal to other parts of Richmond. However, “Technically, the neighborhood of North Richmond is not in the actual city of Richmond, instead, it is an unincorporated community in Contra Costa County that is surrounded by the city limits and jurisdiction of Richmond.” (2020 TheRealStreetz.com)
Although, this fact is true the small community of less than 5,000 wears it as a badge of honor, if you were to ask North Richmond residents (Narfers) where are they from the answer you will get 9 times out of 10 would be simply “I’m From Narf.” Over the years as blacks were finally and systematically allowed to move out of North Richmond the resource gap between blacks became a means of separation as the North became the epitome of the ghetto and neglect. Today those same stigmas have translated it into the city of Richmond’s “Real Richmond” vs Unincorporated Richmond’s “We The North” movements which has been playing out in the city fertile rap scene. In many cases, some media outlets have been reluctant to even give Narf Richmond rappers exposure due to its feared reputation, and for a while, Bay Area rappers were also skeptical about doing collaborations for the same aforementioned reasons. Despite these arguments, the North Richmond Hip-Hop scene is alive well and thriving with a cauldron of often-overlooked talented rappers at its disposal notables like Bla$ta, Waymobanz, Young Los, Way Way Santana, D’Barbie, Kavi Picasso, 8ooPeez, Butta Mackin, Weez Gotti, and Shakey Lepew to name few. However, currently at the top of the totem pole is Banga with his breakout hit single “Break A Hoe Remix feat. Philty Rich & Lil Yee.” B.Banga burst onto the rap scene way back in 2010 with the then-controversial So Smerkis Ent. track “What We Do It For” feat. Bla$ta (BEC) Butta Mackin & Bang Santana. The song became an instant cult favorite in the underground rap circuits across the united states. Sparking outrage from the opposition the song was originally pinned for, in response to a track that their Ops had previously recorded. At the same time, the song was taking off the popularity of Chicago Drill Music was blowing up which ultimately gave us a whole new genre of Hip-Hop and the content drew strong similarities. Likewise, the track was used as cannon fodder for mainstream media demonizing it as “Cyber Banging” one write at the time went as far as to raise the suspicions that the record was some sort of confession to a fatal crime “Another YouTube music video made by the group So Smerkish ENT from North Richmond is called “What We Do It 4.” The video contains explicit lyrics, multiple references to gun violence and explicit drug usage. In the video, a young man is heard saying, ”get whacked like Rickdell, Cool and Rio”— a reference to known rappers from South Central Richmond who were killed, Another person in the video says, ”Cool was ducking around the car just like an (expletive).” The line describes what went on that night in what appears to be a clear admission of involvement in the young man’s murder. Robert Rogers on November 16, 2011.
Nevertheless, 10 years later Banga as he is now called is still here and even more relevant than ever before having found success yet again this in the forum of the coveted two million views mark independently on YouTube and almost two million in streams for “Break A Hoe and Break A Hoe Remix.” In the same way, rappers aren’t so reluctant to feature North Richmond artists on their music or even do collaborations as before. Besides, there has been an uptick in the cross-pollination of artists from all over the Bay and even Detroit making music and money with said artists. Meanwhile, Banga took to social media for a victory lap thanking his fans and gloating to his haters with an obscene amount of cash playing Lil Wayne’s classic “A Milli,” and stating “I’m the first nigga from my hood Narf Richmond to hit that Milli.” In conclusion, maybe its time that some local bloggers put aside their biases when it comes to writing these top 25 rappers of Richmond https://www.kulturevulturez.com/top-richmond-ca-rappers/ or at least give the Bay Area the respect it deserves by doing at little more investigative journalism to know that some of the rappers on these proposed list have rappers who or either deceased or hasn’t produced any music in over 20 years. The least you could do is watch the Thizzler On The Roof YouTube Channel https://www.thizzler.com/ if you do not have where with all to discern what’s slap or nah!
Peter Ross Dreem.Live News
