THE RISE OF DODGE CITY MUSIC GROUP
The San Francisco, Bay Area’s own, Dj Xtra-Large, is definitely no stranger to the music industry. The veteran turntablist/producer has already logged in countless hours, crafting smash hits for a who’s who of West Coast Hip-Hop bigwigs; having, Snoop Dogg, Tha Dogg Pound, Too $hort, Spice1, E-40, B-Legit, C-Bo, Coo Coo Cal, Bad Azz, Ray Luv, Mac Mall and even the late greats Mac Dre, Pimp C and Tupac Shakur, among others.
Having first gotten his start way back in junior high, where he was a prominent fixture working his magic on the local party scene, Dj Xtra-Large‘s professional foray into the art form actually came courtesy of a best friend and, now multi-platinum, rapper out of Hayward, California, named Robert “Spice 1” Green, Jr.
At the still tender age of nineteen, Dj Xtra-Large, a founding member of Spice’s 187 Fac collective, put out his first major record label release, the gold-selling Spice 1. Dj Xtra-Large, has since produced three additional projects that have garnered sales of over 500,000 units, as well as two albums that have achieved one-plus million units sold to date.
In addition, Dj Xtra-Large has spent the last twelve years mixing and scratching his way all across the United States and abroad, even releasing his very own widespread mix-tape outing Bricks & Money, in Germany and the U.S. in 2002. Today, Dj Xtra-Large has refocused his time and energy on his hometown of North Richmond California, affectionately known as “Dodge City” and its abundance of hip-hop talent.
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)
In this small community of less than 5,000 over the years 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 into the city of Richmond’s “Real Richmond” vs “Unincorporated Richmond We The North” movements which have been playing out in the city's 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, Banga, Weez Gotti, Cassanova 300, JLR Delly, and 300 Twanny to name few.
The small neighborhood has had a string of underground successes most notably Bla$ta who has been the most consistent Who’s hit single “Blow The Wop” reaching over 1 million views. Similarly, his collaborator Banga also reached over 1 million views with “Break A Hoe Remix feat. Philty Rich & Lil Yee.” Weez Gotti who is set to be released from serving a 3-year prison punishment has made the biggest splash capitalizing off the success of his predecessors with “Big Stepppa,” with almost 4 million views to date.
Today rappers aren’t so reluctant to feature North Richmond artists on their projects as before. Besides, there has been an uptick in the cross-pollination of artists from all over the Bay Area and even Detroit respectively. With the experienced Dj Xtra-Large at the helm, the future of Dodge City Music Group has never been brighter.
Mrkeaus Miz The Manager Dreem.Live Media LLC
