Hyphy

  There is a new movement that is taking the hip-hop community by storm.  Originating from the San Francisco Bay area, the Hyphy movement is the latest incarnation of hip-hop.  Like crunk, snap, gangsta, backpack and reggaeton, Hyphy (pronounced HIGH-fee) began as an underground phenomenon with only a few practitioners and a few followers.  But, like a brushfire, it has grown, and now all eyes are on the Bay.

  Like crunk, Hyphy is hard to explain.  Words are inadequate.  The music is almost a by-product of a larger movement.  Hyphy is a behavior, a lifestyle, a performance.  Describing the music to someone trying to understand Hyphy would be like describing rocket fuel to someone trying to understand aerospace dynamics.  It would be like describing a movie by telling them about the soundtrack.  To understand Hyphy, you have to witness it in action.

  Keak Da Sneak, the Bay-area rapper who coined the term Hyphy in 1998, has recently garnered nationwide attention for his efforts to put Hyphy on the map.  According to Keak, “Getting Hyphy is about letting go of all of your inhibitions and being who you really are—no matter what anybody thinks.”  And therein lies its appeal among the nation’s youth.

  You can’t talk about the Hyphy movement without explaining what it means to “go dumb.”  “Going dumb” is about abandoning inhibitions, letting the music take control, and is generally characterized by a lot of shaking and twitching and jumping around.  Sometimes called “getting stupid” or “getting retarded,” it is its own brand of hyperactive dancing.  Still having a hard time conjuring a mental image?  Imagine all of the world’s Ritalin being replaced by NoDoz and Red Bull.  There—you’ve got it.

  Then there’s “gas-break dippin’.”  In the Bay area, the latest popular pastime of Hyphy fans involves piling into cars and—instead of driving normally—they hit the gas, then quickly slam on the brake.  Gas, brake.  Gas, break.  Gas, break.  It’s like cruising, but jerkier.  If they’re really feeling the music, they open all of the doors, turn the music up as loud as it’ll go, and then go back to the gas-brake routine.  Yeah, it’s little crazy—a little dangerous—but it’s Hyphy.

  E-40, a rapper from Vallejo who has been in the game for years, is also one of the artists helping to generate a national buzz about Hyphy, and introducing it to the mainstream.  His latest single, “Tell Me When To Go” featuring Keak Da Sneak, has become the anthem of the Hyphy movement.  About gas-break dippin’, E-40 recently told the San Francisco Chronicle, “I’m just talking about the culture.  I’m a street narrator.  I’m not saying, ‘Do this.’  I’m just telling you what we do.  If it ain’t fit for certain people, don’t try it…It’s not nothing negative.  It’s really controlled chaos.  It’s a stress reliever.”

  I’ve suspected for about a year that The Bay would be the next Atlanta or Houston.  I’ve been publicly saying that The Bay will be the next hotbed of hip-hop for the last few months.  But I’ve gotta be honest:  I never saw Hyphy coming.

  If you’d like to find out more about the Hyphy movement, start by catching an airing of MTV’s “My Block: The Bay.”  Then look into the music of E-40, Keak Da Sneak, The Federation, The Team, and San Quinn. 

-From Pulse
   March 23, 2006