What’s good folks? Y’all already know what it is. It’s your man SumOfMan, the bay area’s hidden gem. We’re back again with a Hip Hop Playlist, but this year we’re doing something a little different. Instead of dropping a top 10, I’m giving you a 2022 playlist of 2021’s dopest Hip Hop tracks, aka the Baylist. We gonna go ahead and jump right in, we got a lot to cover.
Underground & Underrated
To start our list I want to show love to my homies and tracks that deserve more views than they have. Stylistically speaking there’s a lot of variety in this part of the list. There’s classic Hop Hop Vibes, Conscious Street, blends of Hip Hop and Rock, and music styles that I don’t even think have a genre yet. If you want to show local love, start here. We got tracks from 1-AM, Señor Gigio, Lil MC, AO Lyrical, a gang of Oakland Mind Releases + More
Starts With: LiL MC – Deja Vu (Official Music video)
Lyrical Love
This section is for my wordsmiths. To me, the Bay Area is full of wordsmiths, but not many people put it down like the cats in this section. You got Snow tha Product who straight-up raps in Spanish and English. I actually found out recently she’s from San Jose. Of course my dog Locksmith, one of the most talented MCs out this mug. He’s untouchable IMO. Then there’s LaRussell who I hadn’t heard of. They got a whole project featured and it’s a slap from front to back.
Starts With: Big Bossman Tokyo (feat. M-Dot & Rev)
Dope Collabs
Here we have collabs fresh off the press. Honestly, every track in this section surprised me. There’s not one that I expected to be a thing. First off shoutouts to OG Rev who got two spots because both songs were that dope. One of them being a song with Mr. Dope Era himself Mistah F.A.B. You also got an E-40 track featuring Joyner Lucas and T.I. To me, that was hella random. One of my Favorite tracks comes from Kevin Allen, formerly known as Erk tha Jerk, featuring Rexx Life Raj and Jane Handcock. Don’t forget about Berner, featuring everybody and they mama.
Starts With: OG REV Feat. Sadat X – When You Squeeze That Trigger
For the Streets
For my ratchets. Y’all already know what it is. All slappers live here. No Bay Area list is complete without street music. The lifeblood and most common music to be produced here for more than 30 years. I might not always agree with the message, but it flows through me like the blood in my veins. One of my personal favorites here is Big Steppin’ by Stunnaman02. I’m waiting on that official video to drop. Check out his IG for all the dance challenge videos until the full thing drops. If you really want to go ratchet and fun, check out Putang Clan, make sure you play that loud in residential areas.
Starts with: Stunnaman02 – Big Steppin’
Honorary Baydestrians
Last but not least I want to bring in some honorary Baydestrians, folks who may not be from here, but put in enough work here to belong on this list. Oddly enough all the artists in this section are MCs and educators. Bay Area Hip Hop education is slept on IMO. In the bay, we’ve welcomed a lot of artists through the years and this year is no different. My last list excluded cats that I love so I wanted to make sure they had space on this one.
Starts with: Unlearn The World – Free 2 B Free
Bonus Albums
If you liked this list and you want more Bay Area goodness we’ve got more albums for you.
Drasmatic – Chakra
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nF_Rw21BFHp_lpdaERE2mbK84vha04jng
Yaphiet – 4 Da Homies, Vol. 2: ALL LOVE
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nE8BPLxvX_1vzALESYsqUWHdFCAuN9les
Vocab Slick – Language
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_malACcZWTaQK3EbCCcymYJEmdy9cdFbbA
Also, make sure to check out my partner Amani Jade’s R&B Baylist.
