Some smooth leather seats and Cadillac rap for a Wednesday evening — with a boxing bout or two to toughen us up. Taken from DaVinci’s MOEna Lisa. The new Shady Blaze video is below the jump because he raps too well and there is no amount of Bay Area bud that can make him mellow.

This is Part 3 of my interview with DaVinci and Al Jieh of San Francisco’s SWTBRDS label. In this segment we talk about the history of Bay Area rap, certain misconceptions about it, and how SWTBRDS fits into the overall legacy of the region. As our ride continues we talk more about the close knit […]

This is Part 2 of my interview with DaVinci and Al Jieh of San Francisco’s SWTBRDS label. In this segment we talk about the history of their label and how its heritage derives from the legendary Fillmore neighborhood where DaVinci grew up. — Alex Piyevsky Previously: Part I of Question in the Form of an […]

Below is my interview with DaVinci and Al Jieh of San Francisco’s quickly rising SWTBRDS label. My original idea was for the guys to take me on a guided tour of the Fillmore, DaVinci’s notorious home neighborhood, cited frequently in his songs as a source of both inspiration and frustration. Instead we ended up driving […]

Someone in the comment section said that DaVinci was boring the last time we wrote about him. I respectfully disagree. As the S.F. turf stalker says in the first bars of this video, he’s just low-key. There’s nothing flashy about the Fillmore rep or the district itself. It’s gritty dimly-lit, well-constructed rap music. Songs like […]

Tosten Burks rolls that cabbage like an egg roll. This is the collaboration no one was anxiously waiting for, but should have been. The shiny chrome Block Beattaz production and the effortless, measured, playful DaVinci arrogance give each other what both have been missing all along. For Huntsville’s go-to duo: a gruff, hardened voice to […]

Sometimes the simplest statement is the most effective. You should probably know about DaVinci and DB Tha General. The latter is frequently called the Boosie of the Bay, mainly due to their shared hardest-8th Grader-ever timbre. And they both rap very well. DB and DaVinci need to do more records together. Via Thizzler

The murder rap template has been as well-marked as a chalk outline, but credit DaVinci for the Law & Order Award for dramatic tension. Since his debut, The Day the Turf Stood Still,  the Fillmore rapper has understood the power of detail. On “Long Way From Home,” he’s taking trips out of state, to find […]

DaVinci: A Fillmore Story from WEREHAUS on Vimeo. Watch the video. It articulates everything about DaVinci that I’ve been thinking for the six weeks since I first heard Feast or Famine. The Fillmore raised rapper is a man of absolutes. No bullshit. No dance tracks. No crossover attempts. He has knowledge of self and understands […]

For me, this is aspirational rap. I have been trying to get to the car wash for the last three months, but rains and dazes have occluded me from my goals. One day. In the meantime, DaVinci finally drops a video for a song that he premiered last summer. Ample views of the Bay Area […]