November is Hip-Hop History Month — Congress officially designated it last year — and the Bay Area is celebrating how we dance a little different. Starting Nov. 1, the organization SF Hip-Hop is rolling out a slate of events that kick off with Hip-Hop Made the Bay, a celebration of the old school at the SAP Center in San José. Local legends Too Short and RBL Posse will join Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Ja Rule, Xzibit, DJ Quik, Baby Bash, Tha Dogg Pound and Lighter Shade of Brown.
“San Francisco’s always been at the forefront of breaking ground for a lot of new artists,” says Alex Aquino, who co-organized SF Hip-Hop Month with Kamel Jacot-Bell. Aquino points to the local radio station KPOO, which was one of the first to create a hip-hop show in the early ’80s.
“I think all these artists that are on those big shows have some San Francisco story of how we embraced them,” he adds.
As part of the festivities, Erykah Badu, whose Bay Area concerts always draw an intergenerational crowd in creative outfits, plays Bill Graham Civic Auditorium on Nov. 16. And San Francisco rapper Cellski — who started dancing as a b-boy and strutter as a kid in the ’80s — plays The Midway with Sacramento’s C-Bo and Oakland’s J Stalin on Nov. 15. Dave Chappelle and Killer Mike hit Oakland’s Paramount Theatre on Nov. 23, and Cream of Beat dance party arrives at San Francisco’s Great Northern on Nov. 28.
“He’s been a hip-hop pioneer since day one here,” says Aquino. “And so we just wanted to make sure that he gets his limelight.”
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