The Bay Area is still mourning the loss of yet another Bay Area rap artist... Oakland's Rappin' Ron who rolls with Cell Block Records and is down with the click Bad Influence with his partner Ant Diddley recently died in a car accident.. Best known for their jam 'Smokin' Season', Rappin' Ron died while enroute home from work..He fell asleep at the wheel and crashed...

Over the past couple of years the Bay Area hip hop community has been besieged with all sorts of untimely mishaps and tragedies... DJ Cee who was the dj for Ray Luv and Mac Mall was shot as innocent bystander in December of '95...

Rapper Mr C of SF's RBL Posse was killed on New Year's morning of '96.. Earlier this year Vallejo rapper Young Lay after miraculously recovering from a gun shot wound to the head which left him in a coma, had to deal with the kidnapping of his year old baby and the death of his girl friend and the bay's mother when the house was set on fire.
Rappin' 4Tay was sent to prison for several months after he was convicted of parole violations..
Askari X after gaining critical praise for his ep Message To A Black Man was also sent to prison for parole violations. Community activist and rapper JoJo White of SF's Bored Stiff was tragically shot to death earlier this year...
DJ Caravan of Santa Rosa's FunkSoulJaz lost his life in some sort of untimely demise...
One of the rappers from Oakland's Black Dynasty had his life tragically end as he was shot while committing a robbery.
Oakland's Seagram was shot to death while hangin' out in the wee hours of morning in an Oakland neighborhood known as the Twamps..
2Pac Shakur was gunned down in Las Vegas shortly after the Mike Tyson fight while enroute to a club...
Oakland rap star Richie Rich suffered a broken jaw due to some sort of altercation which was rumored to be over a record contract dispute.

In years past the Bay Area witnessed the tragic deaths San Jose rapper Karizma while hangin' out in East Palo Alto and the tragic death of Vallejo's The Mac in a case of mistaken identity. Another artist killed in a case of mistaken identity of was Oakland's Plan B. Another Vallejo artist Mac Dre wound up having to serve time for 4 years after being accused of robbing banks.. and Oakland rapper Pooh-Man is presently doing time in San Quentin after he was convicted of sticking up a Walgreen's drug store..

It's amazing but there are some that look at this long list of tragedies and say this is proof that the Bay Area ain't no joke... Such mishaps is proof that the Bay Area is all about keepin' it real... Personally I think its sad..especially since I got to know or at least interview at one time or another many of the folks listed. Is it life imitating art or the other way around? I can only hope that '97 brings about much needed change.. both in attitudes and people living conditions...

Recently a song was released paying tribute to some of the rap artists who suffered mishaps in '96. It was put together by producers Alexander Mejia and Dave Meyers and features several Bay Area artist including Dru Down, JT Tha Bigga Figga, Tatatay from 11-5 and Mac Mall..Entitled 'Goodbye to '96...Hello to '97', this song is the bomb.. It uses the loop from Average White Band's 'School Boy Crush' coupled with a slammin' beat. It pretty much summarizes the sentiment felt by many here in the Bay..Let tomorrow be a brighter day... The song should be released to the public real soon on an lp entitled 'Chronicles Of The Bay'

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