On June 7, 1979 President Jimmy Carter initiated the month of June as Black Music Month. This month we not only celebrate Junetheenth but we also honor African American music makers from the founding of America to the present. We also wanted to acknowledge some Black musical artist from Oakland and the Bay Area from the most popular African American musical genres. (click on the link to check out the playlist or albums of these artist you will need an Oakland Public Library card to access resources)
R&B and Soul
During the 1980's and 1990's Oakland became a "hub" for R&B and Soul music with groups like En Vouge and Tony! Toni! Toné!. In 1989 two Oakland natives Denzil Foster and Thomas McElroy who were success songwriters and producers created the all female singing group En Vouge. The groups debut album Born to Sing was released in 1990 The single "Hold On" quickly became a chart topper. The duo also produced the debut album Who? for Tony! Toni Tone!. In 1986 brothers Raphael Saadiq, D'wayne Wiggins and their cousin Timothy Christian Riley formed the group Tony Toni Tone their first album was released in 1988 and the first single "Little Walter".
In 1984 Oakland's very own Sheila Escovedo better known as Sheila E released her debut album her The Glamorous Life. She began recording her first solo album with singer and musician Prince, whom she met at a concert when she was performing with her father the legendary percussionist Pete Escovedo.
Although Soul and R&B music was at its height during the 80's and 90's there were groups like Tower of Power and Sly and the Family Stone who not only laid a foundation for Bay Area soul music but for Funk music as well. Tower of Power formed in Oakland in the late 1960's and its lead vocalist Lenny Williams made several hit such as "You're Still a Young Man" and "So Very Hard to Go" which have become R&B classics. Sly and the Family Stone was a funk band formed in San Francisco in the 1960's. Funk music is a genre that fuses soul, rock and blues music and has created genres such as psychedelic soul and psychedelic funk/P-Funk. The band was led by singer-songwriter Sly Stone and some of their top hits are "Dance to the Music" (1968), "Everyday People" (1968), and "Thank You as the album Stand! The album stand reflects the social consciousness of the 1960's. In the 1970's sisters June, Bonnie, Anita and Ruth Pointer formed the Pointer Sisters. The group achieved mainstream success during the 1980's with hits such as "Jump (For My Love)" and "I'm So Excited". In 1985 the group two Grammy awards for the songs "Jump" and "Automatic". The groups popularity in mainstream culture made them some of the biggest icons of the 1980's. In 1950's San Francisco based singer Sugar Pie DeSanto was discovered by Johnny Otis, a well-known R&B producer. at the age of 19 singing in nightclubs. In 1959 her debute her first hit “I Want to Know,”. She was discovered by Johnny Otis, a well-known R&B producer. at the age of 19 singing in nightclubs Oakland based artist continue to make great contributions to the genre of R&B and Soul music with singers such as Keyshia Cole, Ledisi, and Goapele. One of the newest songstress in the world of R&B is Vallejo's Gabriella Wilson better know as the artist H.E.R.
Gospel
Gospel music is widely considered to be the most important African American musical traditions. The majority of African American music genres Jazz, blues, Rock and Roll, Rhythm and Blues (R&B) and Soul can trace their roots back to gospel music. Most R&B singer got their start singing in a church choir. Black gospel music can also trace its roots back to African American spirituals (also known as the Negro Spiritual). Throughout centuries of the African American experience gospel music has managed to provide messages of love, hope, and perseverance through the power of Jesus Christ. Here in Oakland, the Bay Area and Northern California not only have Black churches that are over 100 years old but Black Bay Area church culture has made contributions to the world of Gospel music. The most well-known gospel artists from Oakland are Bishop Walter Hawkins, Edwin Hawkins and the Hawkins Family choir. In the 1970's Bishop Hawkins founded the Love Center Church in Oakland, his brother Edwin became the choir director. The Hawkins family is the most successful gospel singing family to come from Oakland, Ca. Members of the Hawkins family also formed a singing group under the same name. Edwin Hawkins formed The Hawkins Family singers with his siblings; Walter Hawkins, Lynette Hawkins, Feddie Hawkins, Carol Hawkins and Daniel Hawkins and others. These Grammy award winning Oakland natives help to evolve gospel music when their re-released version of “Oh Happy Day” became an international hit. 
The Bay Area is also home to other successful Gospel musicians such as Andre Crouch, Daryl Coley, Terrence Kelly, Rusty Watson, Helen James Haynes Stephens, Danniebelle Hall, Steven Roberts, Dorothy Combs Morrison and Shirley Miller. Andre Crouch was a Los Angeles based gospel singer however this legend was born in San Francisco. Daryl Coley was a Grammy-nominated gospel singer was born in Berkeley, CA, and raised in Oakland, Ca. Terrence Kelly is the director of the Oakland Interfaith Choir, he is an Oakland native with musical roots from both his mother and father and he is based out of Oakland. Rusty Watson was born in St. Louis, Mo. He is a Grammy-nominated Choir Director at Love Center Ministries and calls Oakland home. Born in New Orleans, La and based in the Bay Area Dr. Helen Stephens was the Chapter Representative Northern California Chapter of the Gospel Music Workshop of America. Born in Pittsburgh, PA, and later moving to San Francisco based in the Bay Area, Danniebelle joined the gospel group of Andraé Crouch and the Disciples. She was featured on the classic Gospel recordings Soon and Very Soon and Take Me Back. Steven Roberts was a Bay Area native is an Award-winning gospel music writer and producer. Born in Texas, and raised in Richmond, Ca, Dorothy Combs joined the Edwin Hawkins singers and was the lead vocalist on the Grammy Award-winning song, "Oh Happy Day". Today she continues singing as a member of the Blues Broads. Shirley Miller is an Oakland native and a notable gospel singer. She came into fame by being the original lead singer on the hit Oh Happy Day. She currently is a member at City of Refuge Church
Blues and Jazz
Although Blues and Jazz are African American music genres that originated in the American south the Bay Area has been a Cultural Hub of this music. During the early 1900's through the 1940's the 1st wave of the Great Migration encouraged African American to move from the Jim Crow South to Northern cities in search of opportunities and better life. As African American migrants move they took their food and musical styles with them. This is how many cities out West became hubs for Jazz and Blues outside of the South. Oakland and San Francisco became the top two cities for Jazz and Blues performances. In San Francisco The Fillmore District was referred to as the "Harlem of the West," it was a center for jazz music in the 1940s and 1950s. The most popular Jazz singer from Oakland is the late Joyce Bryant. Joyce Bryant was a jazz singer and civil rights activist. She was born in Oakland in 1927 and had a flourishing career in the 1940's and throughout the 1960's. She was featured in mainstream magazines, film and television. In the 1960's Oakland based jazz saxophonist Pharoah Sanders and jazz guitarist Calvin Keys began their professional career playing in clubs in the Bay Area. In the late 1960's jazz keyboardist Gene Russell founded Black Jazz Records in Oakland, Ca. Jazz and Blues are some of the oldest African American music forms but it still has an impact and influence on younger generations. One of the youngest creators of Blues music is the Fantastic Negrito. He is multi nominated Grammy winner, his album Have You Lost Your Mind Yet? won a Grammy award for Best Contemporary Blues Album.
Hip-Hop & Rap
From the first Hip-Hop artist in history to receive Diamond status for an album in Oakland's own MC Hammer to the lyrical and linguistic stylings of Vallejo bred Mac Dre and E-40, the Bay Area's impact on Hip-Hop is undeniable. Since Hip-Hop's inception in 1970's New York City, the West Coast has been working to stamp itself as proprietors of Hip-Hop culture. As a result, artists like Egyptian Lover and Rodney-O & Joe Cooley out of Los Angeles produced the same Electro-Dance Hip-Hop sound from NYC, making them sonically indistinguishable from other popular East Coast artists at the time.
It wasn’t until the late 1980s that West Coast rap made a pivot into a raunchy and rugged style of hip-hop called Gangster Rap with breakout artists like Ice-T and Oakland-raised Too-Short, who released his highest selling studio album to date, Life Is...Too Short in 1988. Gangster Rap, which captured the narratives of gang life, poverty, and crime became synonymous with what music listeners deemed West Coast Rap; subsequently putting West Coast rap artists on the map while also pigeonholing those looking to break into the industry. During this era, the Bay Area witnessed the break of some of its most important gangster rappers –San Francisco’s RBL Posse and Rappin’ 4-Tay, Vallejo’s The Click and Mac Dre, Richmond’s Filthy Phil and honorable mention Master P, who started No Limit Records and Tapes from his small record shop in Richmond, CA; Hayward’s Spice-1, Oakland’s Richie Rich, The Luniz, Dru Down, 3X Krazy, and honorary Oakland resident Tupac Shakur.
Despite the gangster rap sound making waves across the West Coast in the 1990s, there were still artists who marked out their musical place in a different way, whose storytelling brought an additional perspective to living in California. Oakland rappers and rap groups like Del the Funk Homosapien, Souls of Mischief, Saafir, Casual, Digital Underground, Askari X, Paris, The Coup, Conscious Daughters, and Zion I just to name a few, showed the side of Oakland that spoke to Hip-Hop’s Blues & P-Funk origins and acknowledged the city's political history of Pan-Africanism and the Black Panther Party. Although both sides of the Bay Area rap spectrum spoke to the same issues of surviving traumatic living conditions and systemic oppression, these rappers’ approach emphasized lyricism, community, religion, and Afro-centricity.
The 1990’s MC Hammer & Oaktown's 3-5-7 takeover and the West Coast Gangster Rap explosion was only the beginning of Hip-Hop music in the Bay Area. It gained a new life in the 2000’s when a playful, dance-oriented, alternative style of rap called Hyphy Music, whose origins are often credited to rapper Mac Dre, pushed itself into the national arena. Hyphy or Hyper-active music, instituted a culture of care-free movements, attire, and new language that even Bay Area legacy acts like E-40 and Too-Short couldn’t deny, with their contributions to hyphy music producing some of their most notable musical works. The Hyphy Movement sparked a Bay Area renaissance with artists like East Oakland’s Keak Da Sneak, North Oakland’s Mistah F.A.B., and West Oakland’s J. Stalin presenting unification of music across Oakland that focused primarily on fun. The alternative nature of the Hyphy Movement garnered many of the younger acts that would arise in the late 2000s, 2010’s and now in the 2020's such as SOB X RBE, HBK Gang, The Pack, Trunk Boiz, Lil Kayla, Stunnaman02, Kamaiyah, Rexx Life Raj, Nef The Pharaoh, Larry June, Saweetie, and LaRussell.
The history of Hip-Hop in the Bay Area eloquently maps the many musical, cultural, and institutional shifts that have occurred in places like Oakland through storytelling. Through these lyrical stories, Black music history is kept alive even as artists change their musical styles, cease making music entirely, or posthumously. Over time as Hip-Hop and Rap music became more mainstream, musically acceptable, and racially diverse, the branches that hold this larger Black musical tree together have often become less visible. The Hyphy Movement is seldom regarded as the alternative music form that it was and It broke the rules of Hip-Hop in a way that wasn't always applauded despite being a prime example of counter-culture. Now that Hyphy music is lauded as the Bay Area's most distinct cultural characteristic, it's become more marketable and mainstream, with few people lifting up the names of the artists who risked it all in support of the movement. Ironically, this is the history of Black American music as a whole and further supports the need for continued remembrance and reverence of the Black musical tradition. Relating Hip-Hop and Rap in the Bay Area to other musical genres like R&B and Soul, Gospel, Jazz, and the Blues, cements Bay Area Hip-Hop within a larger and fuller context of Black American music.
~ Co-Written by Mariyam Bey.
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