7 years ago, I started Thizzler.com (actually, thizzler.blogspot.com back then) as a place to share music that I liked. My ultimate goal was that one day, when I had built the website’s audience up enough, that I could drop my mixtape and get it out to the people (and blow up and make millions of course). Luckily, the mixtape never dropped, but through Thizzler I ended up discovering and meeting most of the up & coming local talent in the Bay, and I realized that for all the talent that was out here, no mainstream outlets were covering it. And they were missing out, bad.
So in early 2010, I made it my mission to push a hard line for the Bay and to provide a starting point for Bay artists, a place where they could get heard and where they could discover other artists nearby. I started doing the Under The Bay interviews, which is how I first met a lot of artists at the time. I released 2 free Under The Bay mixtapes, with songs from each of the artists I interviewed that season. And finally, because Divshare & Hulkshare just weren’t cutting it, I decided to start a YouTube page just for Bay MP3s – and so on January 9th, 2011 the current Thizzler YouTube page was born.
Looking back, that was the turning point for Thizzler – YouTube is the 2nd biggest search engine in the world and now all the music that we were posting was being found there. Our subscribers grew, we broke a lot of songs and helped a lot of artists reach potential fans, and our first huge hit was the Thizzler exclusive drop of Sage The Gemini x iamsu’s “Gas Pedal”, which eventually went platinum. That was the first but far from the last – it’s safe to say we played some part in many artists careers as they rose in the Bay and made their way into the national scene.
As Thizzler has grown, the scene has changed. There are less venues now. Less showcases. Less outlets for artists to be discovered. Less industry people behind the scenes making moves. But there are more artists with potential than ever, and we’re really excited to assist however we can in making sure they get heard. And to any entrepreneurs, tastemakers, curators, interviewers & wigglers out there who have dreams of pushing Bay music in their own way, tap in – the more outlets the Bay has, the more opportunities we can create for Bay artists. Thizzler wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for my mentors in the game, and I’m happy to pay that forward to anybody who’s serious about creating something bigger than themselves.
In closing, thank you to all the artists who have supported us through the years, thank you to all the fans for always spreading the word about the slaps we post and huge thank you to all of the Thizzler staff for pushing a hard line with me, because without the team we could never have made it this far. But this is only the beginning – see ya’ll soon at 500 million views!
Here are some playlists we made that show our journey so far. Enjoy the slaps!
Thizzler’s Most Popular Uploads
Thizzler’s Most Popular Music Videos
Thizzler’s Notable First Uploads
