I have spent the majority of my life in the Sacramento area and grew up listening to rap from the area. Brotha Lynch Hung’s Season of Tha Siccness was the soundtrack to my youth and me and my friends would always get into arguments about whether or not he actually ate people (kids are dumb). There was something about Sacramento rap that was just so raw and grimey, especially when the top rappers from the area were either making songs about killing people or recording from prison like X-Raided.
The point is I’ve loved Sacramento rap music since an early age and am always looking for some new raps from the area.
But what makes Sacramento rap different from Bay Area rap?
Sacramento is maybe an hour away from the Bay (depends a lot on traffic and what you consider the Bay I guess) so of course they have a good amount in common and collaborate with each other frequently, but rap music coming from Sac has always been darker than the Bay’s, both musically and lyrically. In other words more raps about killing people and less raps about having ice on your neck. A good amount of the music carries a strong resemblance to Southern California’s rap scene as well due to the similar gang environments, but with that said the music is still completely unique.
Let’s take a look at the most visible rappers in Sacramento at this moment:
T-Nutty: T-Nutty is the Sacramento rapper with the most hype around him right now. He has always had a lot of talent and tons of potential, but after a promising start with some great albums, his releases have become more sporadic recently and he hasn’t put out a full length solo album since 2008. People have been anticipating his Tonite Show Album with DJ Fresh for a long time now and after tons of delays it is supposed to actually be coming out this month. Here is a dope song from that:
If the album lives up to or surpasses the expectations then he will probably have a much higher profile, especially in the Bay.
Luni Coleone: Luni Coleone has released some great albums in his day, as both Luni Coleone and (Mr.) Lunasicc, but that was a long time ago now and he’s been MIA for quite some time. He just dropped a new album a few days ago (his first in five years), has anybody heard it yet? Unfortunately his releases have not really been that great since the year 2000, which is a long time. Luni Coleone is still tight in my book though.
Hollow Tip: Hollow Tip released some straight up classic underground rap albums in the 90’s (go listen to Takin’ No Shortz), but it seems like he never really got the recognition he deserved at his peak. The quality of his music has been on a steady decline in recent years and while he still produces some tight music here and there, it sounds like he’s been phoning it in for years now. However, on this year’s Cocaine Cowboys with Smigg Dirtee it sounds like he really stepped up his game:
Hollow Tip & Smigg Dirtee “Rock a Mic”
If he starts rapping like that consistently again, then he could definitely start building up a larger fan base…
