03/29/04 | Balance

It is perhaps apropos that an MC by the name of Balance is leading the battle to restore order to a Hip Hop scene once bristling with creativity, now over-saturated in mediocrity and monotony. After witnessing the Bay Area and West Coast rap elite fade into obscurity for the last six years, Balance and a fresh collective of talent, known as the New Bay, are upping the ante of skill and hit making in the Oakland/San Francisco area.

"I’m from the period of where you couldn’t say you rap unless you came through the elders of Oakland or you earned your stripes battling" says Balance. "Too Short, Richie Rich, Hieroglyphics, Spice 1, Mystik Journeyman, Hobo Junction- all those who paid dues to earn their spot nationally had to earn it locally. That is how I came into it."

Prior to recording his debut album, The Day Kali Died, several veteran artists have taken umbrage with Balance and the members of the New Bay for their brash, yet truthful admonishing of their peers. “Everybody wants to pretend that things are fine and ignore the fact that we [West Coast] aren’t really popping like we used to,” states the young rapper.

"It’s no secret that we [the Bay Area] are losing on a national level," states the Oakland native. "As emcees, producers and recording artists we need to elevate our game in order to make our scene popping again. We’re in a depression era, and I know because I am a fan. I find myself buying fewer albums by Bay and West Coast artists each year. Other cities are making more interesting music right now."

Although Oakland legend Too Short is responsible for Balance’s first rhymes, the young emcee got his start battling, but mixed in with metaphors and clever word-play was West Coast subject matter. Throw in his Libra birthday and thus Balance was born.

Battling served its purpose, but sooner or later Balance knew he had to break himself into the Bay Area’s independent scene. Surfing the internet, Balance entered an online contest to appear on a compilation sponsored by Sacramento star Brother Lynch Hung. Doubtful he would win, Balance was surprised when his submission “I Told The Nigga” was included on the First Degree the D.E. album (1999). Creating a quite a buzz, several Sacramento labels would include the young rapper on compilation albums like Msane (1999) and Leaving The Life (2000). Balance formed a short lived duo, Tango & Kash, with Arthur King recording several songs, but only released the 12” record “Gold Diggers” b/w “I’m So High” (2001).

"I was creating a name for myself, but my homies really weren’t feeling the music, so I had to figure out what was next. That was a solo career and tackling the mixtapes and mix-CDs."

A huge fan of the New York mixtape scene, Balance found someone in the Bay Area looking to break new talent in a similar fashion in Oakland mixtape, king DJ T-Ski. Releasing compilations with new, exclusive new tracks through his Mad Idiot series T-Ski decided to take a new turn with Balance. After appearing on Mad Idiot #8 (2000), he paved the way for his opening the next six Mad Idiot CDs. Balance would later extend his reputation to other regions via mixtapes by veterans like DJ Vlad and DJ Absolut.

The intense buzz on the street soon took to the airwaves with Balance providing drops for radio station KMEL 106.1 morning, afternoon and night air personalities/DJs Chuey Gomez, Mind Motion, Sauna G, Rolo and Rick Lee. The weekends would be even more exciting when he would make an appearance on the World Famous Wake Up Show hosted by Sway, King Tech and DJ Revolution. One particular Saturday night in December of 2002, Balance and Locksmith of Frontline were featured for the entire show and ripped the performance so much that Sway commented, “These cats don’t sound like regular Bay Area dudes.” Balance responded “It’s a New Bay.” Two million listeners nationwide and countless others tuning in through the internet heard the birth of the children who would bring in the Bay Area’s new dawning. The crew of emcees who were repping the New Bay grew locally while doing shows together, but gained even more national attention when Locksmith shouted out New Bay during the MTV MC Battle (May 2003) where he placed second despite being the crowd favorite. “The New Bay started with me and Frontline (Locksmith and Left) of Richmond,” says Balance. “Then it grew with Mista F.A.B., Esinchill (Oakland), Certified Ryders (Richmond), Clyde Carson, and San Quinn (San Francisco). Really the New Bay are just cats trying to elevate their rap game. Anybody can be in the New Bay, theoretically.”

People started buzzing about the New Bay and an excitement has been created just on the name alone.

“You have to come up with a name for what is happening to promote yourself or whatever you are hoping people buy into,” assures Balance. “I know magazines and people like slogans or catchy names for new movements, styles or pieces of culture. I understand that things happen in movements. Individual successes start with a movement. The Industrial Revolution brought about many inventors just like The Harlem Renaissance did for artists and literature, the dope game did for street legends, and Hip Hop for our favorite rappers.”

With his mixtape appearances, radio drops and the press coverage he was receiving in west coast magazines, Balance finally felt it was time to begin his solo album. A meeting with Dj Quik gave him just the direction he needed. "Quik told me that he liked me, but my beats needed to be better. So from that day I went on a beat mission to find producers with hot music."

This beat search led to finding producers (E-A-Ski, OMEN, Malik Amir, Left, Bedrock) that laced him with 12 intense and system rattling tracks found on The Day Kali Died. Legendary producer E-A-Ski (Spice 1, Ice Cube, Master P, Naughty By Nature, E-40) took a liking to Balance after hearing his radio drops and laced him with four tracks, most notably guitar savvy “Come See Us” featuring E-A-Ski and Bay Area anthem “New Bay” featuring Frontline, Mista F.A.B. and Esinchill. DJ Mind Motion introduced me to Ski and we exchanged numbers and hooked up by just riding around the ‘Town’ listening to music for two weeks getting to know each other and each other’s taste. Then he tested me out doing this drop for KMEL that we wrote together. Then he gave me a beat for my album and we’ve been doing music since.” According to E-A-Ski, what Balance is bringing to the Bay Area rap scene is what he has been waiting for as a producer of fine music.

"I think Balance is definitely stepping the game up," says E-A-Ski. "What I like about him is that he is eager to learn and develop his abilities to make hit records. I’ve watched him grow from a freestyler to working hard to craft an album."

Producer OMEN, who crafted the heated song “H-U-S-T-L-E-R,” offers an ominous gangsta beat for Balance to lyrically tap the process of how this album came into being.

"This song was a long process. I was doing a lot of hustling on mix tapes, drops and shows- and I was tired of the A&R people I was meeting telling me that I should be more like Ja Rule or Nelly as far as my sound. I made a few songs like that, but they didn’t like it and I came to the conclusion that this wasn’t going to happen for me. I have to make it happen on my own. The magazines’ kept saying our shit wasn’t tight and I just got tired of hearing all this nonsense while my rep was being made from hustling my music. I wanted the song to represent the street drug game as a metaphor for how I hustle my music."

Other gems include “Curtains,” “In The Morning,” and the controversial “The Day Kali Died.”

"That song comes from straight anger. I just felt like the enormous amount of heat that California used to put out has died to a certain degree, and of all the things that made the music and culture great are now across the country. It’s like people are just raiding the tomb and taking all our treasures- especially in the Bay.”

Controversy is part of what is making Balance and the New Bay all the rave. “People don’t get mad at the fact that what we’re doing is new,” according to Balance, “It’s because they feel threatened and think we are looking down on them. We are not the backpack scene or separatists. How could you have this inferior position unless you know you have inferior product. The bottom line is cats out here that aren’t excelling like they used to, and they feel beat down because radio won’t play them in their own hometown. They talk big on record but really feel inferior because of industry conditions or whatever. People are sensitive and I feel it too, but all you can do is make a better record and step it up.”

Like a fine sculptor, Balance has chiseled and polished himself in the underground for six years to get to the point of recording The Day Kali Died. Taking his cue from the album title, Balance and his New Bay comrades are the start of a renaissance in Bay Area Hip Hop and music in general. From a music scene spawning the likes of Sly & The Family Stone, Con-Funk-Shun, Metallica, Green Day, Too Short, E-40, Toni Tone Tony, Hieroglyphics, Digital Underground and many more, Balance is here to... well balance the scales and revive the pulse of the West Coast and lead the exodus from the old into a new era.

Fore more information on Balance check out his official website at www.BalanceSkillz.com