Whenever a rapper or hip-hop act emerges from the Bay Area, their artistic identity is immediately and perhaps inextricably tied to their Northern California origins. Vallejo rappers Mac Dre and E-40, for instance, may be hip-hop icons, but they will always be Bay Area-identified.
But for SOB x RBE, the young Vallejo act consisting of rappers Slimmy B, Yhung T.O., Lul G and DaBoii, the hometown ties have only seemed to complicate their sudden success.
After touring with Fairfield rapper Sage the Gemini last year, SOB x RBE burst into the mainstream as a featured act alongside rap superstar Kendrick Lamar on “Paramedic!”, the standout track from the star-studded “Black Panther”movie soundtrack released last month. They followed that up with their boisterous, aggressively fun debut album, “Gangin,” to critical acclaim. Now the group is on the road with a headlining stop Saturday, March 17, at the Fox Theater in Oakland before they join a bill in late April that has them opening for rap A-listers Post Malone and 21 Savage for a sprawling North American tour.
While the past month has constituted an explosion for SOB x RBE, who really only formed in 2016, the group speaks of the new fame and the Vallejo identity in equivocal terms.
MORE BY BRANDON YU
RoxRite is a b-boy who was raised in Sonoma County working to achieve a record 100 competitive wins. RoxRite makes B-boy history with 100th break-dancing title Bay Area actor Dan Hiatt appears in David Allen's exhibit, "Ghost Light," running at Z Space through March 21. ‘Ghost Light’ illuminates faces of Bay Area theater "Howl and Other Poems," a new vinyl box set, on display at City Lights in San Francisco. Ginsberg’s voice resonates at City Lights
“It’s a lot of hating. We get love, too, but more hate than love from our city,” reveals Slimmy B, 22. “There are a lot of people in Vallejo that don’t want to see us succeed. In our age group, (people) don’t want to see us win because they want to be in our shoes.”
The group can’t entirely feel the shift of their success — this week’s show will be their first performance since their album dropped on Feb. 23. But in Vallejo, the sudden exposure for SOB x RBE (an acronym combining two of their previous group names, “Strictly Only Brothers” and “Real Boi Entertainment”) has only made them magnified targets.
Speaking over the phone, they describe where they’re currently residing as “undisclosed locations” in the Bay Area. Slimmy B says he loves his city, “but staying in Vallejo, there are only two options: that’s really dying or going to jail. Because everybody knows us.”
Slimmy B is alluding to a sort of bleak, crabs-in-a-bucket reality that is rendered in glimpses on “Gangin.” On the most ebullient tracks, those details might be overlooked in the silky voice of Yhung T.O.’s infectious hooks, or as a form of flexing from the brash Slimmy B or DaBoii, whose bars often come out like the stinging, rapid-fire release of a wound-up rubber band. But in brief moments, tortured reflections peek through. On the song “God,” Slimmy B raps: “Tryna be a thug, thinks it’s fun if you want to/ N—s dyin’ everyday, who the f— this s— fun to?”
more @ the link:
‘Black Panther’ soundtrack propels Vallejo rappers SOB x RBE into big time
But for SOB x RBE, the young Vallejo act consisting of rappers Slimmy B, Yhung T.O., Lul G and DaBoii, the hometown ties have only seemed to complicate their sudden success.
After touring with Fairfield rapper Sage the Gemini last year, SOB x RBE burst into the mainstream as a featured act alongside rap superstar Kendrick Lamar on “Paramedic!”, the standout track from the star-studded “Black Panther”movie soundtrack released last month. They followed that up with their boisterous, aggressively fun debut album, “Gangin,” to critical acclaim. Now the group is on the road with a headlining stop Saturday, March 17, at the Fox Theater in Oakland before they join a bill in late April that has them opening for rap A-listers Post Malone and 21 Savage for a sprawling North American tour.
While the past month has constituted an explosion for SOB x RBE, who really only formed in 2016, the group speaks of the new fame and the Vallejo identity in equivocal terms.
MORE BY BRANDON YU
RoxRite is a b-boy who was raised in Sonoma County working to achieve a record 100 competitive wins. RoxRite makes B-boy history with 100th break-dancing title Bay Area actor Dan Hiatt appears in David Allen's exhibit, "Ghost Light," running at Z Space through March 21. ‘Ghost Light’ illuminates faces of Bay Area theater "Howl and Other Poems," a new vinyl box set, on display at City Lights in San Francisco. Ginsberg’s voice resonates at City Lights
“It’s a lot of hating. We get love, too, but more hate than love from our city,” reveals Slimmy B, 22. “There are a lot of people in Vallejo that don’t want to see us succeed. In our age group, (people) don’t want to see us win because they want to be in our shoes.”
The group can’t entirely feel the shift of their success — this week’s show will be their first performance since their album dropped on Feb. 23. But in Vallejo, the sudden exposure for SOB x RBE (an acronym combining two of their previous group names, “Strictly Only Brothers” and “Real Boi Entertainment”) has only made them magnified targets.
Speaking over the phone, they describe where they’re currently residing as “undisclosed locations” in the Bay Area. Slimmy B says he loves his city, “but staying in Vallejo, there are only two options: that’s really dying or going to jail. Because everybody knows us.”
Slimmy B is alluding to a sort of bleak, crabs-in-a-bucket reality that is rendered in glimpses on “Gangin.” On the most ebullient tracks, those details might be overlooked in the silky voice of Yhung T.O.’s infectious hooks, or as a form of flexing from the brash Slimmy B or DaBoii, whose bars often come out like the stinging, rapid-fire release of a wound-up rubber band. But in brief moments, tortured reflections peek through. On the song “God,” Slimmy B raps: “Tryna be a thug, thinks it’s fun if you want to/ N—s dyin’ everyday, who the f— this s— fun to?”
more @ the link:
‘Black Panther’ soundtrack propels Vallejo rappers SOB x RBE into big time