Hood Starz

I’ve been hearing a lot about Hood Starz. You had a big hit last year?

Bandaid: “Bay Swang” with Keak Da Sneak, that came out last year. Produced by Sean T. It got a real big buzz in the streets. Everybody wanted to know who the Hood Starz was.

Scoop Dog: Then we started doin shows and let the people know who we was. They see us in the shows getting wild, shakin our dreadlocks and goin dummy!

That song is off an album or it was a single?

Bandaid: It’s from our album, Hood Reality that drops January 24 nationwide. We was in the studio with Guce and Keak. We decided that we wanted to make a song representing the Bay cause we wasn’t feelin how so many cats been stealin the Bay slanguage and runnin with the Bay music. “Bay Swang” was giving it back to the Bay. Keak came through, blessed us, and it’s been grande ever since. We been hittin the streets, we dropped two mix CD’s, that’s what kept the buzz goin.

Scoop: You can still get them in the stores right now. Lawless Radio Show, that’s volume 2. And volume 1 is called Against The Law: Lawless Radio. It’s all Hood Star though.

Your new album isn’t out yet?

Bandaid: January 24, 2006. That’s our first album.

Scoop: We never dropped an album yet. All the buzz is cause we be on the streets hustlin, doin our footwork, tryin to make our name a household word. The Bay Area has been real receptive to us. They’re givin us a whole lotta love and showin us a lotta gratitude. We’re from East Palo Alto. That’s a small city on the peninsula right in between San Francisco and San Jose. Lotta people don’t know about us. We rep our city. Me and Bandaid gonna put it on the map. We like old school, we come from the era of Totally Insane and Chunk. That’s the only artists besides C-Funk that came outa East Palo Alto. That’s pretty much who our influences is. But we lead our own way, we don’t follow anybody. If you heard our music you know. We from the Bay Area, we rep the Bay real hard, but our music is distinctly different from any music in the Bay Area.

The whole Hyphy movement is going on? Are you with that?

Scoop: The whole Hyphy movement is cool. We support that Hyphy movement.

Bandaid: We are Hyphy, but our music ain’t Hyphy music. It’s hood music. But we love the Hyphy movement. We just a little different from everybody else. We don’t wanna fit into any category. But at the same time, we shake our dreads to the Hyphy music too. Don’t get it twisted.

Scoop: You could say we’re on the Hyphy sound, but it’s a different type of Hyphy. In East Palo Alto we got a whole different swagger.

Bandaid: We part of the Hyphy thing, but all our songs ain’t Hyphy songs. We got different songs. It’s versatile. We rep the Bay and the Bay right now reppin the Hyphy Movement. We’re part of that. We just got a diverse sound. When you get the album you gonna see that.

What is the definition of Hyphy music?

Scoop: To be Hyphy is to go dumb, go stupid, go retarded. It’s super hyper. It’s like energy mixed with alcohol. It’s energy mixed with your favorite type of drug, your favorite drug could be music. It ain’t got to be a narcotic. It’s that energy mixed with that drug.

Bandaid: And it ain’t just the music. It’s a movement!

Scoop: It ain’t just the beats that make it Hyphy. You can just be super pumped about your boys just winning a football game. That’s that super energy mixed with that football game—the football game is the drug and that’s what got you out there. You just wanna jump over the gate, run in the field, tackle one of them linebackers! You’re so damn hyphy, you just don’t give a fuck! Like right now I’m getting hyphy just talkin to you at this interview! I’m getting pumped, I’m getting juiced! I’m ready to go dumb. That’s hyphy. So off top I’m part of the movement without even tryin to be. It’s just a Bay thing. You gotta be part of this Bay world to know what that hyphy energy is.

You broke it down real good. It’s like when something happens your emotions get triggered. Your spirit comes out.

Scoop: You trigger and you just get hyphy! Then you just wanna do shit that the average person wouldn’t do. Make you wanna go jump on your car. Makes you wanna ghost-ride a whip, make you wanna jump our and watch the whip ride by. Make you wanna shake your dread and just go dumb.

It’s contagious too. When you were saying that to me, I caught it. Your hyphiness jumped onto me. I’m feeling hyphy now.

Bandaid: That’s why at our shows we’re retarded. We get on that stage and we ain’t gonna just walk around. We gonna do something silly, act like the real gorillaz, cause that’s what we is. We gorillaz and we come from the concrete jungle. EPA is a concrete jungle. It’s the smallest city in the Bay Area, but we make so much noise. And because we don’t get looked at as much, we get even dumber. My little city be feelin like: y’all ain’t talkin about us like you talk about other cities; y’all ain’t playin our artists or comin to our city. What? Y’all don’t think we good enough? I’m speakin for my whole city right now. That’s my whole city thinking and speaking like that. So when we have an event my whole city goes. It’s like if you keep a little kid in the house all day, then let him out at a toy store. He’s gonna go crazy!

It’s a double dose of Hyphy.

Bandaid: Exactly. It’s a double dose. The Bay Area always get blackballed, cause we thugs out here. The whole Hip Hop industry wanna X us out because we thugs, but they wanna use our slanguage and shit. We already got a blackball against us. So when we go to the big wigs and tell ‘em we got a group from the Bay they’re like, “Ah the Bay ain’t really doin nothing right now.” So we don’t get no type of shine. Much love to all the cats in the Bay cause before weren’t nobody fuckin with us, but now it’s hella niggaz is fuckin with us. It’s hella niggaz that come out and fuck with us now. The love and energy is back!

Who are some other artists from East Palo Alto that we should look out for?

Scoop: You should look for my boy G Boyee. Another artist is Madam Alizey. She get down too.

Bandaid: We also got Young Bucky. You can catch all of them on the Lawless mixtapes. Them artists is hot.

How did you two come together?

Bandaid: We from the streets!

Scoop: We been on the block forever. I was with a group called Totally Insane and he was with a group called Never Legal. My homeboy Ad Capone, he in the feds right now. Then a couple other dudes went to the pen. We just been in the streets. I was doin some solo music as Scoop Dog. Then after that me and Bandaid got together. He come in the studio and drop some shit on me. We been on the same streets, we done everything since we was kids together.

Bandaid: Everything from lickin shots to robbin niggaz—you name it, we done it. We ain’t no rappin niggaz, we some thug street niggaz.

In Oakland they have the Hyphy thing goin on with the sideshows and everything. Is that going on in East Palo Alto?

Bandaid: It’s all over the Bay! Richmond, Vallejo, Frisco, everywhere. That shit originated in Oakland though, don’t get it twisted. Hyphy, a lotta the Bay swang come from Oakland.

Scoop: That’s a Keak Da Sneak word. Off top, lotta this shit come from Keak, come from Oakland.

Bandaid: We 20 minutes away from Oakland. We 20 minutes from Frisco and 20 minutes from San Jose. We the center of the Bay. But right now Keak is on top of the Bay. And a lotta the shit that these niggaz be stealin come from right here. So for him to be on top he can rep the Bay. These other niggaz is using our words but ain’t yellin the Bay. Now we got our own nigga up there and muthafuckas in the Bay gonna feel that.

When did Hood Starz get started?

Bandaid: In ’99 I got caught up, I went to the pen. 2003 I got released, got back on top of my toes. Released another Never Legal album, didn’t really do no promotions on it and it was a flop. Then my nigga Scoop Dog was workin on some solo shit. When I came home I went to the studio to jump on his album and we laid something so clean we decided to make it the single for his album, but it never dropped. So we decided to do this Hood Starz thing. We also got a magazine called Hood Star Magazine that we droppin. Look out for that too. Double market, double promotion. You know how we do it.

2005 was a turning point for the Bay. We got the radio support, the clubs, the streets. Next year is going to be big.

Scoop: Something gonna blow next year. Something gonna give. Pressure breaks pipes, you dig? The whole Bay Area is applying pressure. The pipes gonna bust and it’s gonna be hot shit just flying everywhere. It’s a beautiful thing. All the artists in the Bay Area are coming together and showing love, they’re starting to support each other. A lotta people from different cities been supporting the Hood Starz. We ain’t got no bad blood with nobody. We gonna make it happen.