Image via Arthur Alcantar
Dr. Dre’s The Chronic being listed as one of the best Bay Area rap albums is why Alan Chazaro doesn’t trust anything generated by AI.
I’ve made up my mind: P-Lo—the Filipino-American, Bay Area rap savant and former Heartbreak Gang overlord—is Northern California’s franchise centerpiece. Think Steph Curry to the Golden State Warriors.
Both ballers (in a rap and basketball context) entered the game around the same time in the late aughts, when a globalized technological leap spurred on by San Francisco-based social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram happened. From that point on, they’ve each steadily built up their reputations across different arenas throughout the 2010s—one with ongoing NBA championship parades, the other with never-ending NBA championship parade anthems.
But it goes deeper than their career milestones. Steph Curry and P-Lo (real name Paolo Rodriguez) truly go bar for bar, and have developed an organic connection as Bay Area underdogs. It’s hard to fathom right now, but both Steph and P-Lo were once dismissively overlooked for not fitting the part. Steph was the mid-major darling with frail ankles who was notoriously passed up for Tyreke Evans, Ricky Rubio and Johnny Flynn in the 2009 Draft, and P-Lo was the unproven Asian American community college student with unrealized rap aspirations on the furthest edge of Contra Costa County.
So much has changed since 2009, when Curry was first drafted to the fledgling Warriors, and 2010, when P-Lo’s HBK counterpart and co-conspirator, IAMSU!, released the nascent crew’s first major mixtape, Su! The Right Thing. Despite being one of HBK’s lead producers, mostly laying the audio foundation for the group’s rapid national ascension (their breakout single, “UP!,” helped to establish a fresh Bay Area sound of stripped down party bangers) P-Lo’s solo rap stature was miniscule at the time.
P-Lo wouldn’t drop his first individual tape, MBMGC, until the summer of 2012. He followed that up the following year with MBMGC2 in 2013, which further positioned the Filipino artist as a leading voice in the region. He broke into the Billboard Hot 100 multiple times in that period, too, most notably as the maestro behind Wiz Khalifa’s “Bout Me” and Yo Gotti’s “Act Right” — the latter of which still stands among the most quintessential soundscapes of that rap decade. The influence from P-Lo’s sideshow-friendly production can still be heard in everything that would succeed it, particularly in DJ Mustard’s evolution. Indeed, the Crenshaw producer spent time around the up-and-coming Bay Area crew (and has often been accused of swagger jacking the Bay Area sound that P-Lo forged during that time, though P-Lo and HBK Gang themselves have often denied that claim and have always maintained a respectful connection with their Southern California brethren).
In retrospect, P-Lo had certainly defined his own trademark production style with keyboard-heavy, bass-forward tracks that mixed Hot Boyz-era Cash Money Records with darkly-synthed Bay Area mobb music from the mid 90s at a crawling-tempo. As someone who was around for the rise (and eventual disbanding) of HBK Gang, P-Lo’s individual ascension was far from a guarantee, and his blow up has been well-deserved and a long time in the making. His peers in Kehlani, Sage the Gemini, IAMSU! and G-Eazy were often the focal points with chart-topping singles of their own (many of which P-Lo graced as a producer). But as a leading rapper and figure head? Nah. To put it in basketball terms, P-Lo was never the blue chip lottery prospect that many in his class were perceived to be; he was a second rounder who hustled his way into a starting role, and then became indispensable at his playmaking position. Look at him now.
This past February, while Steph highlighted NBA All-Star Weekend in San Francisco with his usual airbending tricks and marksmanship — earning his second NBA All-Star Game MVP nod — P-Lo was equally active, putting on his Bay Area uniform (literally, he co-released a Western Conference-themed jersey that weekend) and running the point for the region’s rap culture. He captained a group of local celebrities and party goers who boarded a private ferry off the coast of Alameda island en route to the shimmering, skyscraper-lined port of San Francisco with a live DJ set. He released a limited edition public transit card in partnership with the Bay Area’s transit system. He printed out a physical map of Bay Area food and culture recommendations. He hosted a basketball game at the recently unveiled and Nike-sponsored mural of Kobe Bryant at the legendary Willie “Woo Woo” Wong Playground in San Francisco’s Chinatown.
P-Lo did it all for For The Soil, his latest album, backed by EMPIRE and the Golden State Warriors, who launched the world’s first ever NBA franchise-owned record label, Golden State Entertainment. The nine-track collaboration album is a hyphy billet-doux for “the soil where them rappers be getting they lingo from” a la E-40. This time, P-Lo reverts back to his true form as a producer. From Goapele to Karri, ALLBLACK to 22nd Jim, Ovrkast. to Lil Bean, P-Lo has rightfully assumed his role as a curator and distributor at this stage in his career, passing his mic around the Bay for a group project that, at least to my Bay Area-calibrated ears, is quietly among the best, most selfless full-length efforts to come out of the region in quite some time. And it slaps.
In the way Kendrick Lamar’s GNX was a high-profile attempt to serenade Los Angeles — with a deliberate curation of the region’s voices through its ranging cast of characters — P-Lo’s For The Soil is a distillation of the Bay’s present and future in hip-hop. The album never swerves into a different lane, never loses itself in the pursuit of something beyond its purpose or audience. It’s an intergenerational Bay Area function on record, a family reunion in a recording booth. And it slaps. Throughout, the album introduces a neo-wave of Bay Area artistry to listeners (Japanese-Panamanian newcomer Seiji Oda is straight gas on “Too Wavy” and Karri, the promising Filipino R&B sleeper from Oakland, is velvety AF on “Suede”) while simultaneously honoring the traditional iterations of the region (Too $hort rapping inside of a steakhouse).
In an epoch of regionally-untethered slop and paycheck features, For The Soil is the opposite, a Baytriotic assemblage made clear with the opening track, “Yeah,” in which the conductor proclaims “This for the soil nah this is aint for the mainstream” over Smeeze-inducing snare drums.
After a monthly sprint of performances, an album release party at Filipino fast food restaurant Señor Sisig and even suiting up for the NBA’s official All-Star Celebrity Game at Oakland Arena, P-Lo broke down his playbook over the phone and announced another upcoming album with Vallejo’s LaRussell.
You’re actually a Golden State Warriors fan. The season has been rocky but things are looking good now with Jimmy Butler. Thoughts on that trade, and have you been able to welcome him to The Soil yet?
P-Lo: That’s something we needed badly. Jimmy Butler saved my life. Shout him out. I haven’t met him yet. [But] the first day he got traded to the Warriors he posted one of my songs [on Instagram]. That means a lot. Growing up a lifelong Bay Area sports fan, whenever anything like that happens I’m honored.
Not sure if you peeped the stats from the NBA Celebrity All-Star Game, but the league actually sent media members an official stat sheet. Have you seen it?
P-Lo: Nah, I haven’t. I know I didn’t score any points though [laughs].
Even though you didn’t score, you ended up with the highest +/- differential on your team at +8. Your EMPIRE label mate, Shaboozey, was tied for the lowest at -16. How did it feel to lace up at Oracle?
P-Lo: Shaboozey, man [laughs]. But yeah, the feeling was amazing. Being able to just represent for our section like that in the game. Being in the Bay, and on top of that being at Oracle. All the rich history there. It’s important for Bay Area people to see Bay Area people in these spaces, you know? And just me seeing the fans. Bro, I was walking off the court and signing stuff. Some kid asked for my jersey. I was like, man, alright, so I gave him the jersey. Then another kid asked for a shoe. Then another kid asked for the other. I was like here, bro [laughs]. It was coo to represent in that way. That is a star studded field and to be able to represent was a real honor.
As part of All-Star Weekend, you released your latest album. It was one of the more creative album rolls outs I can recall. The ferry function. The Clipper card. The map. The basketball games you played in around San Francisco and Oakland. Your release party near the Warriors arena. What defined that whole experience for you?
P-Lo: For me, and my team, we just wanted to be able to most importantly show what the Bay is about. Showcasing the cool things we have to offer. Throwing a function on the ferry, know what I’m saying? That came about because they started to follow me on Instagram. I was telling [my producer and manager] Cal-A that we should do something and we hopped on the ferry and started spitballing, and just reached out to them after that. Then we got to sharing that access with the people of the Bay. That’s hella cool. I want to continue to do stuff like that. Especially during that weekend, when there was so much going on, I just wanted to add to it all, feel me? That weekend was history for us in the Bay. With Steph on his way out, you know? To have an All-Star weekend with him as the centerpiece, for the whole weekend, and releasing my music with the Warriors, that’s something I can tell my grandkids about.
That’s real. You should do an album release on BART next.
P-Lo: Fasho [laughs].
You mentioned Steph. I feel like your careers have actually paralleled one another. And you have a relationship with him. How does it feel to be doing your thing and repping the Bay on the same timeline as him?
P-Lo: Man, that’s a lot to be compared to him. Steph is such a cool, down to earth dude. He’s a mystic. He does so much for the area, for basketball in the Bay. I can’t even explain what he’s done. He’s made people proud. That’s what he’s done. If I can reach any percentage on any scale of what he’s done, I’m happy with that. I want to make people feel proud about being from the Bay, or wherever they’re from, honestly. That feeling can translate no matter where you’re from. We should all be proud of where we’re from, because that’s how you’re made. I don’t care wherever that is, that place made you who you are. It shapes us. I just want people to be proud. And Steph definitely does for us in the Bay.
Where does that feeling of altruism and community come from for you? That sense to care for others and give back so much? I’ve been around you enough to know that it’s a genuine part of who you are.
P-Lo: My family. My brother [Kuya Beats] is super big in the community, always working with the youth. He’s been doing that for a long time. He showed me the power of being a good person and how to bring people together. Also just my friends, my collective, the people I’m around. They allow me to do that. They trust me to do those things. And I trust them just as much. I definitely got it from them all. But yeah, especially my brother. He really has done so much for everyone, his students. Our community. They’ve all given me a lot, and I want to reciprocate that as much as I can.
I ran into your brother (shout out Kuya) at the NBA Crossover fan experience inside the Moscone Center during All-Star. Gotta ask, what’s big bro up to? He produced some of my favorite Bay Area slaps from the past decade.
P-Lo: He’s constantly making music and just being a dad, and that takes up a lot of time. He’s at the RYSE Center in Richmond right now, doing mentorships. He’s heavily involved. He definitely is still real grassroots with a lot of things. He’s the one who first told me to listen to 1100 [Himself] years ago. He introduced me to [Michael] Sneed, too. Ovrkast. Demahjiae. That whole camp. Kuya is the oracle. He’s truly the Bay oracle. He’s like everyone’s Yoda.
Kuya and you helped to catalyze the Bay Area as founding members of HBK. The Bay needs an entire HBK Gang reunion album. Is that something you think we’ll get eventually?
P-Lo: It’s something that we revisit every few years. You know? I think whenever the time in the universe permits it, it’ll happen. Me, personally, I’m not against it. But everything has to align with everyone. We’re all hella cool still, we’re family. It’s just a lot of moving parts with so many artists involved. Everyone is doing their thing right now.
I have to say, IAMSU! doesn’t get the love and respect that he deserves. He is one of the best Bay Area lyricists, like really could spit, and no one really seems to give him his flowers for that.
P-Lo: 100. Su has been doing it for so long, people just tend to overlook that, especially in hip-hop and rap. I’ve been around so many different artists and people, bro, but Su is truly one of the most talented artists I’ve ever been around. Easily. I credit a lot of my success to just being able to be around him, learning from him, me making a beat and him writing a verse in 15 or 10 minutes after just hearing the beat once. That gave me so much confidence coming up. With my production, my rapping. I give him all the flowers I can give him.
Post-HBK, you’ve really ascended in your career. You were one of the main faces for the Bay during All-Star, especially with your album release. Talk to me about that weekend. For folks who weren’t here, what was the vibe like?
P-Lo: It was just seeing the Bay lit. Know what I’m saying? That’s how it’s supposed to be. I’ve seen many different versions of the Bay. Since the early 2010s up until now, a lot has changed here. So to just see the Bay revitalized with energy, people outside, traffic around the city at midnight. It felt weird and different, like the old days. Just that spirit of the Bay. From what I know there was no trouble. None of that. The Bay really showed who were to the core that weekend with everyone coming into town. Showing how dope we really are.
Exactly. I didn’t see or hear about a single bipping either.
P-Lo: For real. Shouts out to the bippers for that. No bipping.
You said that the Bay felt like it used to. When did you notice a change towards something different here? Like, in a bad way.
P-Lo: Tech stuff coming into the cities and pushing people out. I think it all stems from that. That’s a major reason. Just having less places to do stuff, too. Venues. Clubs. Nightlife. Humans approach nightlight differently now because of the economy. Bottle service, all of that is different. It all stems from that economic point. It can be sad to see. The closures. Businesses that have been long standing in the Bay prior to the pandemic and the pandemic ending so many businesses that were barely breaking even. But the Bay has always just shown its resilience through every shift. It feels like it’s on an upswing right now. Lot of things are just kind of getting to a point where it’s a little bit more normal now.
One of those moments was at the Union x Jordan Brand event with Maya Moore and Jared McCain. I saw you and Cal-A there. Did you end up getting a pair of their Jordan 1 release?
P-Lo: I got them. I was super juiced to get those. Those things are going for like $17,000 in some places. I’m a huge sneakerhead, bro. I buy them all the time. It’s bad. I just be having to give away shoes. I get stuff sent to me, too. Shoe overloads. I try to spread the love.
You definitely are doing it, man. Your latest album is all about that, actually. What does For The Soil represent to you? And for people who don’t know, what does it even mean when we say we’re “from the soil”?
P-Lo: The soil is where you’re from. In this context, that soil is the Bay Area. I don’t think any place refers to themselves as The Soil other than the Bay. We released some clips of legends and people who are a part of the project talking about what the soil means to them. Goapele said something like, the soil is where things grow. That really stood out to me. The Bay is such a special place and such a… it’s truly an enigma. I feel like we’re all seeds that grew up out this soil. It breeds so many creative people. There’s so much nuance and culture and innovation here. Ive been able to get exposed to that just from growing up here. Bro, some people don’t even know what Dutch Crunch bread is. Like, bro. They didn’t even know.
Those non-Dutch Crunch eating heathens.
P-Lo: For real (laughs).
This album might honestly be my favorite of yours. How does it rank for you personally, and what did you realize in making it at this stage of your career?
P-Lo: I definitely think this album is [one of my best]. I was able to really grow. Not only as an artist but really as a producer. Just capturing and serving the artists who were a part of it. It really allowed me to get out the way with a lot of things in the music, to be honest. To let the artists do their thing. It was such a special process because we did that whole thing where we brought in a bunch of producers, rented an Airbnb in Marin County, stayed for a week and knocked out a bunch of stuff. Just to be able to be around all those creatives like that. Especially for the younger guys too, to be able to offer them that space to express their ideas and really understand how records get made like that. To provide that confidence that they belong in those rooms with all these artists. It’s just an honor to be able to give people that.
In Marin? That low key sounds like you were living in a Larry June song. Kayaking. Sipping organic juice.
P-Lo: Right? [Laughs]. We were in Marin. A crib in the hills. Just making some tunes, getting lattes. We had people from the Warriors come through. [DJ] D Sharp, David Kelly [the Warriors executive who founded Golden State Entertainment]. It was dope.
You’re one of the first rappers in the world to get an NBA franchise to fund and sponsor your album. C’mon.
P-Lo: Huge shout out to them for offering this opportunity to represent our region with such a big event coming to the Bay. They’re a real part of innovation. At one point they were the only major sports team with a music label. I think some soccer team in Europe has one now, a record label. But innovation truly comes from the soil. I think the Warriors have always, especially now, they’re trying to do things different and bring something new. Growing up as a Warriors fan, it was honestly a dream come true for me. I’m glad it all worked out and the team really just was very new to how music business works, too. And EMPIRE. They really helped us out, too. With everything: the rollout, clearing a bunch of stuff. Working together with Golden State Entertainment and EMPIRE, that’s a match made in heaven.
You spoke about getting in your producer bag for this album. How do you differentiate the beats you want to rap on, versus the ones which you don’t hop on? And with such a deep roster on this album, how did you determine which rapper would be good on which backdrop?
P-Lo: You know, I’ve worked with a bunch of these artists aside from this album. So I wanted to be able to create those scenarios for [Rexx Life] Raj and 1100, for Karri and Goapele. Really trying to find that perfect blend as a producer. Shit, really allowing the others to shine, like I said. Just giving them the space for that. A lot of the artists I chose was very intentional. They’re people I’ve collaborated with on their own stuff and my own stuff. They’re just the homies. I hope it came across that way.
I feel like that energy is kind of lost in rap nowadays. Do you think rap is missing that insular regional vibrancy?
P-Lo: A lot of times now, people are replicating other artists’ end results. It’s a regurgitation of the lives of others. There’s not always a story behind that. They’re just re-doing the end result of another person’s experiences, but what brought someone else to make that exact song? I never want to sound like I’m not from the Bay. I just want to continue to stand on that and double down on that. I want to sound like I’m from where I’m from. Feel me? Hip-hop at its core is against the grain. So I want to continue going against the grain of what the mainstream thinks is vibing. During All-Star, there was that TNT intro about the Bay and Too $hort was like, we do what they don’t do. You know? That’s something I’ve always believed. We do whatever the rest don’t do.
What’s something you still haven’t done that you hope to achieve?
P-Lo: Musically, I’m working on a new album with LaRussell. We’re working on that this month. It’s coming soon. I’m also working on a non-profit for younger musicians in the Bay, trying to do my own version of Youth Radio. We’re working on that right now and want to get that poppin’ in a few years. Really get that shit up and running. That’s definitely one of my goals. And man, just growing as a person. If I do that, everything else will come. That’s what I’m focused on. The art is only as good as the human. You can’t be making all this so-called art if you’re being a shitty person. I just want to continue to reach my potential as a human, and whatever God has for me. I’ma keep riding that wave.
