G-Eazy: Listen. The past few days,
some terrible shit's been going on in our fucking country.
And shit keeps happening over and over and over again.
And this shit is a fucking problem.
[ Screaming ]
Oh, no!
Grace: ♪ If we shall dance, we shall dance for the night ♪
♪ I wish for love, but sweet love takes her time ♪
♪ Hand on my heart, allegiance to the night ♪
♪ Every star waits for the darkness to shine ♪
G-Eazy: ♪ Troubled mind of an artist ♪
♪ But the star comes alive in the darkness ♪
♪ Late nights, Lower East Side apartments ♪
♪ But the night is impossible to harness ♪
♪ Soon as it comes, it departs us ♪
♪ Couldn't stay and love you so I became heartless ♪
♪ Lost track of our long-term targets ♪
♪ Live and die young, leave a beautiful carcass ♪
Grace: ♪ Why do I cry when the tears never dry ♪
♪ Why do I ♪
Zach: We're in the -- the Seminary neighborhood in Oakland.
We're at a music video shoot for G-Eazy.
This is a legendary house
in the Bay Area called the Shmophouse
that is home to a collective called Shmoplife.
And -- Oh. -Take that.
Everyone gets a shot at the Shmophouse.
Everybody gets a shot at the Shmophouse.
All right. Cheers to the Shmophouse.
Cheers.
♪♪
♪ Yeah ♪
Christ, it's 2:00 p.m.
G-Eazy: ♪ I've been sittin' on the charts like a beach chair ♪
♪ My last album spent 52 weeks there ♪
♪ Almost finished with the second, you should be scared ♪
♪ Storms coming, you should go inside and prepare ♪
♪ No shortcuts, it ain't no cheats there ♪
♪ I brought the whole city out like a street fair ♪
What just happened there?
[ Laughing ] Too much -- Too much weed.
Too much. [ Laughter ]
♪ I get around, yeah, I'm on my Tupac shit ♪
And we're smoking a lot of weed, too.
-Medical marijuana. -Smoking a lotta weed.
Bay Area's a melting pot. You know what I'm saying?
-So -- -We the hyphy babies.
-Hyphy babies, exactly. -You know what I'm saying?
-Exactly. Hyphy babies. -Hyphy babies.
Real -- the real hyphy babies. That's what -- that's what --
That's what we can coin this movement is the hyphy baby movement.
Hyphy babies. 'Cause this is what we came from.
This is why -- That's the era we grew up in --
the Jacka, Mac Dre.
-Right, man. -You know what I'm saying?
E-40, Messy Marv.
Like, The Team.
Thug life. That's what we all about.
This is the first, uh,
these are the first gifts I've received in the Bay,
I think, aside from just a lot of, uh, weed.
Show the guy what that is, man.
We been starting this movement, man.
Yeah. Why did you guys make this shirt?
It's for police brutality. You know what I'm saying?
♪ Then we do the same shit the next day ♪
♪ The next star out the Bay is Eazy ♪
♪ Yadadamean? For sure ♪
♪ Yadadamean? For sheezy ♪
Zach: The Bay Area's counterculture
birthed the Black Panthers in the '60s,
in the '90s, created hyphy, a musical movement
where hip-hop guys did a lot of ecstasy.
And it was the spiritual home of Tupac Shakur.
Oakland got it. They got the players.
They got Section 8. They got Richie Rich.
They got The Governor. They got Too Short.
They got E-40. They got the Clique.
They got the -- The Bay Area is moving something.
You know what I'm saying? Don't get it twisted.
It's like they got the whole new revolution of music
that's coming out, niggas that's rapping from they heart.
And they not taking nobody else style.
They just do it.
Zach: Between the city of San Francisco,
Oakland and Berkeley across the bay to the east,
smaller cities like Vallejo to the north,
and the tech hub of Silicon Valley to the south,
today, the Bay Area is one of the most expensive regions
in the country to live in.
It's got Facebook, Google, and Twitter
and the biggest white rapper since Eminem, G-Eazy.
Sounds awesome, right?
I wanted to talk about G-Eazy. I know you guys are close.
E-40: Yeah. He's my little bro,
my little Caucasian bro.
What do you think about what he's been able to do in --
Incredible and so much in so little time.
Before G-Eazy, the city was run by artists like E-40.
Born Earl Stevens,
E-40 is the founder of the independent
Sick Wid It Records
and has his own line of malt liquors
and a fine wine that's extremely fruity.
He offered me a taste on a visit to his recording studio.
And I was quite thirsty, so I gave it a sip.
♪ You can tell by the way I carry myself, I'm a star ♪ ♪ A star ♪
♪ These Cartier buffs my face cost more than your car ♪ ♪ Your car ♪
♪ From a dollar man to a millionaire they stop and stare ♪ ♪ Stop and stare ♪
♪ Look at my IG, I'm everywhere ♪ ♪ Everywhere ♪
♪ That and they just be liking on me 'cause they know I'm the guy, guy ♪ ♪ The guy, guy ♪
♪ Blowin' this tree, put it in the air like Wi-Fi ♪ ♪ Wi-Fi ♪
What does your chain say?
Oh, man, this is just a -- Credit squeeze?
Yeah. That's just a replica of a, um, of a gold bar.
And, you know, it got, you know, diamonds.
It go diamonds on the side. So, you know,
the holes are so the diamonds --
Diamonds got to breathe.
If you ever see some shit where there ain't --
where that shit is sealed up and shit,
you might want to second-guess it.
[ Wine splashes ] -Oh, no.
That's party foul number one.
That is a -- Oh, God damn it.
I'll take care of it with a big ol' towel, man.
I been in the game since 1988, man.
Here it is, two-thou-wow-sixteen.
If you keep buying it, I'm-a keep supplying it.
Being woke and keeping my ear to the soil
and also being creative at the same time,
I mean, how you gonna lose?
You know, you lose when you're not in the loop
like a Hula-Hoop.
You feel me? -Yeah.
The recognition is, uh,
not really recognized by the masses.
They try to fly right over us like,
"Ah, there go the Bay. W-We know they got talent,
but we scooting over there and we flying to LA
or whatever else we gonna go." -Right.
But you look at it like, man, hold on, man.
We -- we got to just --
We got to make our presence be felt.
I didn't come up under nobody.
Like, I didn't come up under Dr. Dre.
I didn't come -- Nobody put me on.
Yeah. You know what I mean? We put ourselves on.
Nothing was never given to us.
We had to go out there and get ours.
We had to go out there and take it.
This is the mentality of the whole northern California.
You know, we went out there and made it unfold, man.
-Yeah. -You know,
from Magazine Street, you know,
lived it, did it, been in it, you know, the whole w-wow.
But played m-- do -- did music. You know what I mean?
-Yeah. -That's just -- And I won.
You know, I'm a motherfucker that beat the odds,
me and my family, the Click,
you know, straight from the motherfucking streets.
Everybody know it.
What were "the odds" when you say that you beat the odds?
You know, s-- being from the inner city
and, um,
really being a guy that, you understand me,
id what he had to do to get by and became successful.
I know you're close with G-Eazy.
You have Nef on your label. How'd you --
How'd you link up with Nef?
So I see him saying, "Bitch, I'm from Vallejo --
'lejo -- 'lejo," screaming it, though.
You know what I mean? And that's my soil.
Vallejo is where I was born and raised.
Zach: E-40's artist, Nef the Pharaoh,
has been catching the attention of Kendrick Lamar and Drake
and was a support act on G-Eazy's Endless Summer Tour.
Like E-40, Nef is from Vallejo,
which is about an hour northeast of San Francisco.
♪ Bitch, I'm big tymin' ♪
♪ Bitch, I'm, bitch, I'm, bitch, I'm big tymin' ♪
♪ Bitch, I'm big tymin' Bitch, I'm big tymin' ♪
♪ Ex hot boy and now I'm gettin' cash money ♪
♪ Don't fuck with broke hoes 'cause they don't get no cash for me ♪ ♪ That bitch broke ♪
♪ We up to 40 on the oppers, and we droppin' niggas ♪
♪ Y'all squad wannabes, y'all really not them niggas ♪
Zach: The tech boom brought jobs and money into the city.
But it forced longtime residents into suburbs like these.
♪ Racks on that bitch I'm talkin' money ♪
-So what's up, man? -Where are we right now?
Man, we in South Vallejo, California.
What's this neighborhood like?
Just like any other neighborhood around the world.
How so?
You see the gangstas.
It's calm right now. I'm not gonna -- It's a good day so far.
Yeah, It's a good -- It's a good day so far. What time is it?
-It's 6:00. -So what's going on today?
So I'm on the Endless Summer Tour with G-Eazy.
So that's pretty good. -How's that been going?
Uh, it's dope. We've been having a lot of --
doing, um, some outside stadiums and shit.
And it's been selling out, like, every night.
So... You have a big homecoming show, right?
Yeah. Yeah. I think, uh, we in the Bay tomorrow.
Yeah. Well, come on. We finna walk to the store and get some Backwoods.
-Want me to go? -Yeah.
We're gonna go to the store and get some rolling papers.
And we can't talk to a --
a rapper in the game that ain't listening
to any type of Bay Area music.
Do you want to break out of the Bay Area?
Oh, most definitely. I done --
I done seen the world already through G-Eazy.
What have you taken from being out on the road
and then coming back here, coming home?
Feel like you've learned a lot?
I've learned to appreciate
where I come from simply for the fact
I don't got to live here no more, man.
[ Door beeps ]
Nef is so friendly with his local store
that, the minute we went in,
he got behind the counter and proceeded to sell me
E-40's delicious line of malt liquor.
This is the hood store right here, man.
You feel me? Fulfill yo dream.
I got some -- I'm gonna get some heat.
But I'm doing to support --
-I know it. -You know what I mean?
I'm ringin' him up... -Hit me.
...at the hood store. Say that.
Man: You told me, when the cameras come out,
you was gonna freeze up.
Look at you. Don't freeze up now.
-Is this me? -Yeah.
Hey, give me some money. They gonna wreck my motherfucking car.
-Oh, okay. -This you?
-Yeah. -It's all good, bro.
We finna go back to the spot and get loaded.
You play too much.
What was that he said?
Every time they see a camera in the hood,
they think something bad's gonna happen.
-Oh, is that true? -Yeah.
What, like, news cameras come out?
Every time you see a camera around here, yeah.
Niggas get killed. Yeah, every time we get cameras in.
That's the only time you get a camera around here.
No shit. That truck is full of bulldogs?
You could put a naked woman on the Internet,
and they take it down.
But a cop shoot a black man dead in his chest,
that shit go viral.
And they keep it up.
They make memes about it.
When they show you the black man that they killed,
they only bringing up
the nigga's mug shot to make him look bad.
They not showing you the pictures of him
with his daughter.
They making it okay for them to just kill us off.
Police the biggest gang in America, my nigga.
We not even out here worrying about niggas sliding.
We're worried about the motherfucking police
coming through and slamming everybody
on they motherfucking heads,
stomping you out until you have a goddamn seizure.
Police the biggest gang in America, my nigga.
We not even out here worrying about niggas sliding.
We're worried about the motherfucking police
coming through and slamming everybody
on they motherfucking head and stomping you out
until you have a goddamn seizure.
Zach: We were hanging out with Nef
and a group of friends and girlfriends
when three patrol cars appeared out of nowhere,
and cops started grabbing people.
[ Police radio chatter ]
Hey. I got a gun right here.
Josh, gun. -Gun?
Gun.
[ Screaming ]
Oh, no!
They just pulled up, going on some bitch-ass shit.
I don't understand why they came up on them in the first place.
As I tried to figure out why this was happening,
I felt totally helpless.
I had never been in a situation like this.
And it was really frightening.
What I did know was that Bay Area cops had been
in the news a lot lately.
The Oakland police were just involved
in an underage prostitution scandal.
A report about the San Francisco PD
revealed people of color account
for nearly 40% of police shootings despite
representing just over 5% of the population.
And a few years ago here in Vallejo,
the officer-involved shooting rate
was around 38 times the national average.
As more angry neighbors came outside,
I started to get worried, and even the cops looked scared.
With so many stories about police shootings in the news,
I had no idea if this was about to escalate.
Zach: Nef, what the fuck just happened?
Nef: I don't know, man. They just...
We was just talking about this shit.
They said they liked your music, though?
Yeah. That's crazy.
They was like, "You don't know who this is.
This is Nef the Pharaoh.
I appreciate you, what you're doing for the city."
I'm like -- Said, "I love your last record."
Yeah. He was like, "I loved your last record."
I'm like...
We were just telling you it was a good day.
Soon as the motherfucking sun started going down
and it's cooling down, some shit gonna --
motherfucking police.
Man: Yeah.
It is what it is. You know I mean?
If he there doing his job, I-I don't got no say-so, man.
I'm just playing my part. -Yeah.
Hoping I can change the world, man.
You see what just happened.
Yeah. It's unfortunate.
Zach: In the end, Nef was searched and let go
while two of his friends were locked up on gun charges.
What happened? The popo pulled up on y'all, right?
Zach: Were you surprised to hear about that?
-No. -No.
-No. -Why not?
Because Vallejo's a small city.
Uh, was y'all walking or just posted?
Posted in the middle of the street. Yeah, yeah.
-We had E-- a couple E-40s. -They was just --
You had some E-40s?
-I maybe had just -- -Y'all went to M & M Liquors?
-Yeah. Is that your spot? -Good shit.
That's where I first started selling my tapes at in 1988.
Is the relationship between the cops
and the community pretty tense?
Everywhere. The good cops is bad
because they see what the bad cops do and don't say nothing.
So it's a catch-23, not a catch-22.
That's one thing about the Bay Area.
And everybody woke. You know what I'm saying?
From the Black Panther movement back in the days and whatnot.
-Sure. -And people stand up
for what's -- what they feel is right.
Right now, we're in South San Francisco.
There was a -- a gentleman named Mario
who was killed here last year, uh, by police.
And a lot of people are saying that gentrification is --
is exacerbating police brutality
in neighborhoods like this.
Ronnishia: So, Mario Woods, he was gunned down
by more than 10 officers, you know, actually...
-Right where we're standing? -Yeah. Shot in the back.
So it's like, now, where I'd walk down the street,
and I'd be able to see my neighbors
or, you know, see my friends
who were born and raised here,
I see, you know, white people walking their Yorkies.
Or my friend was just joking, like, she seen a white dude
on a unicycle.
Also another by-product of that is what you see right here.
You know, the war which is waged on us
is not just through gentrification,
but another way they're enforcing that is also
through police brutality. Right?
So we're not moving out fast enough in --
in terms of the housing crisis.
So the other ways that they do that
is over-police our communities.
Their job is basically to either lock us up or push us out.
How do you see them interacting with the community?
Their presence is not in essence
for us to feel protected
but to instill fear in us.
You know? So I'll see police officers
who hop out they car and just, you know,
harassing some of the young men on the corner, you know,
for no reason, getting pat down. Like, that's a routine.
'Cause, like, when we see a police officer,
we cringe in fear because we don't know whether or not,
at this point, if we're gonna be shot down
or if, you know, we're gonna be taken to jail.
And now there's this new phenomenon
because we have gentrification.
And this is now considered to be "prime real estate."
So more people are paying attention
to what they consider to be public safety.
But the question is, public safety for who?
For the people that are moving in.
Right. And not for us.
Zach: After we met Ronnishia, we went to Downtown Oakland
where the latest police killings of Philando Castile
and Alton Sterling sparked protests here
and across the country.
They echoed one of the most infamous
Bay Area police murders,
the Fruitvale Station incident in 2009
where 22-year-old Oscar Grant was shot in the back
while lying facedown, handcuffed, on the ground.
We're in Downtown Oakland right now.
The last 48 hours,
two black men were killed in Louisiana and Minnesota.
And then, in the last few hours,
multiple officers were killed in Dallas.
There's a protest going on over here.
There's probably at least a few hundred people
who have gathered right in front
of the Oakland Police Department.
Right now, you witnessing us
walk on the motherfucking freeway
that the cars drive on.
This is a -- a real-life working freeway.
We shut shit down in the Bay Area
when we feel something.
And right now, motherfuckers is getting killed by the police.
And nobody's doing nothing.
So we out here taking a stand for this shit, man.
Protestors have shut down a major freeway.
This is a -- a southbound freeway heading to, like,
San Leandro and Hayward.
We're in Oakland right now.
And there's got to be upwards
to 1,000 protesters flooding the streets.
It doesn't matter what -- what color your skin is.
What -- what's -- what's wrong is wrong.
And what's right is right. You feel me?
So you see these individuals out here standing up
for what they believe in,
trying to change the world.
The semi's trying to make it through.
[ Truck horn blaring ]
-Whose streets? -Our streets!
-Whose streets? -Our streets!
-Whose streets? -Our streets!
-Whose streets? -Our streets!
-Whose streets? -Our streets!
Zach: What's going on right now?
Stretch: What you're seeing is frustration.
You're seeing people making a stand
because, with everybody getting killed
and people thinking it's just business as usual,
they want to put a stop to business
and make people actually stop and think.
And they interrupt their day more than just a clip on TV,
actually having to interfere with their daily routine.
And that's what you have. It's like,
if you have the people that are supposed to protect you,
and they're killing you,
and you have nobody to do anything about it,
you get frustration. You get this.
You get violence. You get ignorance.
You get a lot of things that probably shouldn't happen.
But people shouldn't die.
The people that are policing the community
don't live in the community.
So we are looked at as just property.
We're not looked at as neighbors.
If you are policing your neighbors, you --
I think you would do things differently.
And you would have a more --
a more compassionate way of dealing with them.
-Hi, Miss Autumn. -He's wearing, in this,
incredible baggy pants and a... -Yeah.
Zach: ...oversized shirt that looks like it might be...
-Oh, triple XL, yeah. -Trip--
Were you cool with him dressing this way?
How do you stop a -- a -- a locomotive?
It's better to work with who you have
than to try to force an image on them
that they don't want.
Zach: The morning after the protest, we went to Berkeley,
G-Eazy's neighborhood.
Born Gerald Earl Gillum,
he's recently become one of the biggest names in the Bay,
working alongside artists like Lil Wayne
and Britney Spears. -♪ Yeah ♪
♪ It's nothin' that no one can tell me ♪
♪ I made it here dolo, nobody to help me ♪
♪ From the Bay, the birthplace of the hyphy ♪
♪ So, bitch, come and say to my face you don't like me ♪
Zach: But as a white rapper from an area that's getting whiter,
there's a lot of talk about whether or not G-Eazy
is gentrifying the music scene.
So we went to find out where he actually came from
and met up with his mother, Suzanne.
So this is the house that G-Eazy grew up in
with his younger brother. -Yes.
It -- it -- what he calls his grandparents' house.
My brother, my sister-in-law, my parents.
And then we show up.
And nobody really moves to make much space for us.
So we have a room in the tiny, little room upstairs
with a mother that made very little money.
Oh, so this is you and your two kids in a room?
-Yeah. It's hard. -Yeah.
Any single mom will tell you that.
How is Oakland different from Berkeley?
Oakland was the support for Berkeley
in some ways you'd look at it.
It was also the big city next to San Francisco.
I mean, it's almost a million people.
It's bigger than San Francisco.
Berkeley's the university. -Mm-hmm.
So you have the political correctness.
And then you have funky Oakland.
And, uh, Oakland is far more interesting
than Berkeley right now.
Why is it more interesting than Berkeley?
Because Berkeley, at that point,
had become too politically correct.
And political correctness only goes so far.
So black kids hanging out with a white kid
is still problematic.
In Oakland, it's really problematic.
Why is that?
Because the race relations are so tense.
What -- what do you think has led to the
tension in Berkeley? -I would say income inequality.
And that is prevalent in Berkeley?
It's huge. There -- there's no, uh,
low-income housing left in Berkeley, literally.
We were at the, uh, the protest last night.
-Oh, were you? How was it? -Yeah.
Did the police come out?
It was respectful on both sides.
-Good. -But it seems as though,
I mean, we talk about black communities here in...
-Mm-hmm. ...the Bay Area, they're all --
They're all being marginalized in a huge way.
I mean, you have mid-- plenty of middle-class blacks,
upper-middle-class blacks. You have got --
The education is really,
you know, bringing everyone up.
But, uh, but not everyone gets to education.
And, uh, so that's why black lives does matter.
♪ Yeah ♪
We're in Mountain View, California,
which is known as the home place of Google.
And we're at the Shoreline Amphitheater where, tonight,
G-Eazy is gonna be doing a show.
It's a big homecoming performance
for his Endless Summer Tour.
And behind me, he's doing meet and greet
with a bunch of eager fans.
And we're gonna be talking to G-Eazy in just a little bit.
♪ No shortcuts, there ain't no cheats there ♪
♪ I brought the whole city out like a street fair, yeah ♪
♪ And fuck it, I'm the coldest white rapper in the game ♪
♪ Since the one with the bleached hair ♪
♪ Yeah, you love it when I talk shit ♪
♪ I get around, yeah, I'm on my Tupac shit ♪
♪ I kinda feel there's no girl I could not get ♪
♪ I'm not found at the function if it's not lit ♪
Do you still live in the Bay?
G-Eazy: My mom, she -- she stays at my grandma's house.
Yeah. I'm trying to buy her a house out here.
It's, like, unless you're Drake,
how do you even afford to buy property out here?
So ridiculously crazy right now, you know what I'm saying?
-Yeah. -Everybody has a app.
You know, this is, like, the hub of it is San Francisco.
They want to live in Oakland and be cool
and then, you know, en-en-enjoy this, like, "Bay Area culture."
But it's, like, what's gonna be left
when everybody moves in
and pushes everything that made this, this out?
-We were with Nef. -Yeah.
And we just got rolled up on.
Has that sort of thing ever happened to you
and your friends? -Yeah. Yeah. Hell yeah.
Like, we'll be smoking weed or chilling or doing nothing,
you know what I'm saying, and just be bothered.
-So you've had issue-- -I mean, we were also, you know,
I -- I got in some trouble.
Like, I was -- I've done some bad shit.
One night, it was me and my homey.
And we went out and ran up on somebody,
hit him, ran his pockets,
you know, and then ran away. You know what I'm saying?
And we ended up getting caught.
I went to juvie for like a month.
I was, like, shit, like, this shit ain't cool.
Being away from making music and being away from,
you know, my homeys and, you know, everything.
I was on ankle monitor for six months after that.
People who have not sort of reached your level of success,
the friends you have here in the Bay...
Yeah. ...are -- are they still in Oakland?
Are they still in Berkeley? -Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah.
-Like, what happened? -All my friends are still here.
But it's, like,
you hear these stories about places
even with rent control. You know what I'm saying?
Like, landlords finding ways to,
like, you know,
maneuver and wiggle and get you out.
Do you see artists in your generation here
from the Bay being inspired
by what's happening sort of in the city in particular?
I mean, just seeing what I saw last night. Mm-hmm.
-The freeway was shut down. -Mm-hmm.
And this has been something that's ongoing in the city
since Oscar Grant. -Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
Nah. The riots are real.
The protests are real.
You wonder where it's going from here
in terms of, like,
culture being pushed out of the Bay,
rent prices going through the roof.
Our community has always been, you know,
at least between artists, you know, there's a glue.
There's a togetherness. We help each other.
I try to preach the gospel of, like, let's --
let's stay together. Let's get this together.
Let's help each other out. You know what I'm saying?
And let's just maintain this -- this Bay-ness.
♪♪
♪♪
Zach: G-Eazy wants the area to maintain its Bay-ness.
But it's hard for a lot of the people responsible
for the culture to stay.
Rent and evictions have doubled
and, in some cases, tripled in San Francisco,
affecting historically African-American neighborhoods
like the Fillmore and Hunters Point.
We met a group called Bikes Up, Guns Down
that uses dirt bikes as a way to combat violence.
It's a peaceful activity for the kids
but a terrifying one for those of us watching.
This guy's just -- Oh, my God.
It's also a symbolic way
of telling the rest of San Francisco
that communities like this still exist
and aren't going anywhere quietly.
♪♪
Imagine taking a left turn and seeing this.
And you're like -- I'd shit myself.
How is this not gonna end badly?
Oh, we got cops. We got -- we got cops.
Hi, there. -What's going on?
We're doing a documentary out here.
We -- we were just filming those guys. Officer: What's that?
We were doing a documentary out here, and, uh --
-On these guys? -Not on these guys.
But they -- but they were out here, so we started filming.
What are you guys doing out here?
-We're doing a documentary. -I-I understand that.
But you guys filming them is c--
you guys are kind of condoning it. You know what I mean?
Well, we were -- we, I mean, we weren't out here to do that.
We're just -- All right.
We'll pack up. Thank you, sir.
After we got pulled over for encouraging reckless behavior,
we met the guys back in the housing projects
of Hunters Point.
Why do you guys do the ride-outs every Sunday?
It's Bikes Up, Guns Down 'cause, uh, unfortunately,
a lot of people lose they life around here
due to the stupidity,
everybody shooting people.
So instead of us doing that,
we put all the hoods together.
We gonna put the chicken shit on display right here.
-Okay. -We -- we -- we gonna put --
Why do you call him chicken shit?
He chicken shit because they used to fall all the time.
-All the time. -Through the last past year,
he done -- he done been through about nine bikes.
Why does it say funeral on the back of this bike?
Uh, one of our homeys,
he passed away due to some violence.
This was his bike right here.
And one of the other homeys, he got it.
And then we just keeping it lit for him every day.
Zach: And this is something from his funeral?
Yeah. This is his funeral right here.
It's Bikes Up, Guns Down.
It's all around.
Zach: Nobody in San Francisco and,
like, the tech world and things like that,
they -- they don't come down here really.
No. Are they starting to, like, buy up houses and stuff?
No. They buying them, and they,
you know, they giving them to the rich people.
But they not -- still not coming here.
Yeah. But then, when they move us out,
then they gonna be here. -Yeah.
So they kicking us out for all this.
Ayinde: They taking the young niggas off the corner.
You feel me? They hopping on bikes.
They going around the city. Do you feel me?
And they not out here getting in trouble.
Zach: We left Bikes Up, Guns Down
and met up with a rap group called the Jealous Guys
who took us around Hunters Point.
The neighborhood was constructed
as a World War II military base.
And the barracks were eventually converted into project housing.
Now, with some of the only
affordable land left in San Francisco
and stunning views of the Bay,
developers have zeroed in on the neighborhood as prime turf
for the most common landmark of gentrification,
luxury condos.
♪ Some niggas pimp ♪
♪ Some live by the gun ♪
♪ Some got 'em .22s and did us at 21 ♪
♪ We gonna keep it lit like the old days at Candlestick ♪
♪ Rock the party like we too legit to quit ♪
♪ Keep it super live ♪
And you see, there ain't too much around --
[ Thump ] -Oh. Oh.
-Oh, Jesus. -Hey.
Man: Hey, that's why I don't let people ride my bike.
-Christ. -You're not fully --
-Oh, my God. -Not fully skilled like me, man.
He almost died right now.
You're not fully skilled like me.
-And that's live. -Nah.
All my brakes work. -Tell him.
-Tell him. -All my brakes work.
-Flex it! -Bruh, the event, uh, is --
is sectioned off from the rest of the city.
You feel me?
Ah, I just thought that guy died.
Nah, he good. They're having fun.
We're in San Francisco, California, uh, Hunters Point.
Right now, we on Harbor Road,
which is, uh, just one of the military houses,
also Oakdale, West Point,
as you see over there across the street. You feel me?
And then the redevelopments over here.
In the World War... -Uh-huh.
...this was all a naval base.
-Okay. -You feel me?
So when they got moved to after the war was over,
the government gave the land back to the city.
As you grow and get older, you -- you --
you -- you start being more conscious
and aware of the type of things
that's really around you.
You start asking yourself, you know,
how could you use your creative art,
your creative hustle, your creative form, you feel me,
to try and turn whatever your purpose is into a profit?
Everybody's just trying to figure out how to have fun
throughout the midst of your struggles.
Right. I-I see construction over here.
-That's -- yeah. -What's that?
But do you see the -- okay, you see --
you see the gray barracks right there?
-Yeah. -Then you see the ones
all the way across the street from there?
-Sure. -Them was all barracks.
Them just got rebuilt. Do you feel me?
Zach: What are those gonna be now?
I mean, put it like this. You feel me?
As they say, the biggest weapon of the oppressor
is the mind of the oppressed. You feel me?
So if you -- if you divided by a red line,
you feel me, one side of the street
could be 20% below the poverty line,
and the next side of the street could be millions of dollars
worth and up.
So you think they're building... They is.
...luxury apartments right there?
They is. Them is luxury -- All of this --
Right across the street from the projects?
All around here. All around here.
Zach: After Hunters Point, we went to the Fillmore neighborhood,
which was once known as the Harlem of the West
because it was the center of black culture
and home to thriving black businesses.
Now, the African-American population of San Francisco
has dwindled to just 6%.
And some activists say that number is closer to 3%,
making it one of the lowest of any major city in the country.
Look at this crew.
We're in the legendary Fillmore neighborhood of San Francisco.
I came here to meet a -- an artist named DaVinci
and, I thought, a couple of his friends.
But a lot more people showed up.
There's like 30 people here.
Willie: ♪ I could've went to college, but instead I got a rental ♪
♪ And filled it up with work and headed cross state line ♪
♪ Knowin', if I get caught, I'm finna do some state time ♪
♪ Either that, or it's federal, chance is that I'll be taken ♪
♪ Talk a lot of shit, but other niggas be fakin' ♪
Everybody know that a whole lot of the culture
and a whole lot of the game and a whole lot of --
-Swag, the lingo. -It's the reason why
Tupac came to the Bay. He -- he -- he lived in the Bay.
It's the reason why Tupac blow up.
Where did he live in the Bay?
-He lived in Maria City. -In Maria.
We put a street team together. -How many of you are artists?
-I'm a artist. -I'm a artist.
-Man behind you. -He a artist. He a artist.
He artist. Artist.
Everybody got a job out here.
So yeah. These houses, our parents came here.
Our grandparents and shit came here, '40s, '50s,
and bought these houses.
These houses was like... -Yes, sir.
...$15,000, $20,000 when they came here.
-Still own them, though, man. -It was a slum near.
It was a slum back then. -Nobody wanted to live here.
Nobody wanted to live here back then.
I'm a tell you why nobody wanted to live in Fillmore.
Why? Nah. No. Because it was too noisy.
What's happening here now?
What's happening here now is that
all these buildings, we own these buildings, man.
These motherfuckers are coming in.
They're paying rent to us, man. We the landlords. You feel me?
Yeah! Don't get it twisted, man, for real.
But nah. It's -- it's all love, though.
We appreciate all the love and all the money.
So you guys all -- you own property here?
We -- A lot of us own property here.
-A lot of us do. -Hey, man.
Yeah. Because you know what's going on with all
the tech and shit, right? -Sure.
Google and everybody leaving the Silicon Valley
coming to hang in the city? -Yeah, yeah.
So that's just raising the rent
and shit for everybody and... -Yeah.
...displacing a lot of people. -Speak on it.
And they gentrify the neighborhood.
But this is one of the neighborhoods
where you see everybody get along,
which is a good thing. -And we still here.
Yeah. We still here. We gracious, you know.
-It's, like, a last diverse... -Yeah.
-...neighborhood in the city? -You got to respect people
who've been here 50 years, man.
-You got to respect it. -You can't just come,
and since you -- -This is ours, man.
Y-you got the cool tech dudes and you got
the tech douchebags that we kick them in they ass, man,
and send them on they way. You feel me?
-Yeah. Yeah. -Period, man.
-Yeah. Yeah. -Period. You feel me?
We the best neighborhood to be in out here.
It's the closest to everything.
You can access all the hot shit from here.
You can walk downtown from Fillmore.
[ Indistinct conversations ]
Man: ♪ Wetter than a great white ♪
♪ No iPhone but your bitch gave me face time ♪
♪ Never slippin', keep that heat up on my waistline ♪
♪ I like to cannibal eat 'bout that action ♪
♪ Like Buffy, the body's ass, you know our guns clappin' ♪
♪ I'll spark up your whip if I catch you in traffic ♪
♪ These niggas be actin' funny to that 40 Star laughin' ♪
I woke up this morning
cut on my TV, and I seen a man murdered.
This same man selling CDs
in front of the store to get his fam further.
Six shots to the chest in front of everybody,
dead on arrival with six shots.
Watch the air come up out his body.
They say a gorilla can get killed,
and white America sad.
But a black man can die in America,
and no one's mad.
♪♪
See what I'm saying?
Quite a sound system in there.
I'm-a pop the trunk and show y'all what's in the trunk.
-Okay. -Trunk is retarded.
Tell him cut that shit down.
Cut that shit down!
-T! -T!
Zach: As people in Hunters Point hold on to what's left,
across the Bay in Oakland,
gentrification is already underway as well.
Mistah Fab has been called the crown prince of Hyphy
and is one of the hip-hop scene's elder statesmen.
He's also a community leader
who bought real estate on the block where he grew up,
hoping to curb the ongoing trend.
♪ Rich nigga but I'm still in the catch, bruh ♪
♪ Candy paint, got the whip lookin' wet, bruh ♪
♪ I'm shinin', bruh ♪
♪ And like my nephew, young Pharaoh, "Big Tymin'," bruh ♪
♪ And if them suckers outside, then we slidin', bruh ♪
♪ I swear to God, man, them niggas in hidin', bruh ♪
♪ And we ain't wastin' no shots on civilians, bruh ♪
♪ Too busy plottin' on ways to make a million, bruh ♪
♪ What up until then ♪
♪ I'm a be thuggin' inside them project buildings ♪
All right. They look good.
-Fucking with me? -Yeah. Yeah. How m--
How many diamonds are in there? -It's a lot.
Hey, man. You gonna wash my car, bruh?
What's up, bruh? Why you over here, bruh?
Man, bruh, I know you ain't tripping on a dollar, bruh.
That's the neighborhood detail man right there, man.
That nigga'll wash your car in the rain,
anything, nighttime.
Why -- Why would you need your car washed in the rain?
I don't know, man. But sometimes,
you just be wanting to be clean and wet.
So this is the dope spot?
This is the dope spot, man. This is the store.
We used to hustle to try to get out the ghetto.
Now, we have to rebuild and redevelop our neighborhoods.
So we have to put back businesses in our neighborhoods.
We have to buy property, open up a barber shop,
try to see some of these houses that's for sale
and see if you could come together and grab these spots
because, if you don't, gentrification
is so heavy in the city of Oakland
to where they're pushing out
the original citizen of that community.
Now, you won't see the cultural aspect of that.
We go out on the community, on the frontlines.
And we do things like bring business back here.
We give young kids summer jobs.
I do believe that there is something called white privilege.
And I do believe that there is something
called black inheritance.
And it's unfortunate. We didn't ask for it.
We didn't request for it. Um, it's the way that it is.
Is there racism in the black community?
Yes.
Is there racism in white America?
Yes.
How do we knock these walls down and say,
"Well, let's have a conversation as humans"?
If we complain about the laws,
then we need to be -- have lawyers.
We need to implement lawyers and inoculate our --
in the minds of our youth that this is the way
to change laws, put them through law school.
I see more people talking about they want to be
basketball players than they want to be judges.
I want to be a judge. I want to be a lawyer.
I want to be the police chief. I want to be
the operating officials for all of these things.
You know, we have to infiltrate the judicial system
in order to make a change.
-Yeah. -But there are people out here
who aren't spewing these ideologies to the youth.
So we're growing up with already entitlement from the world.
The world don't owe us shit.
We have to work for everything that we get.
That shit is hard. Mm.
Take this shit to the camp, man, and go -- go chill, man.
Have you noticed the cultural change in --
in the Bay Area? -Definitely.
Like, West Oakland, nowadays, you --
you s-- you might see, um, uh,
any walk of life with they little p--
just walking they puppy, duh-da-do,
just walking they puppy in the daytime
with the sun out with some, you know,
with a cup of coffee in their hand, you know.
I'll be serious. That tripped me out.
When I see that, I'm like, "Hold on. What the fuck is that?
Man, they trying to get us up out of here."
You feel me? They doing it.
You feel me?
Shit.
The hoods, it seems like, are disappearing.
So does that affect then the music scene?
What you mean by the hoods are disappearing?
Well, the -- the -- Well, I really mean, like,
the black community's disappearing in --
Tell me how. I -- I'm not -- I'm --
I want to know 'cause I think I got the same answer as you.
I'm talking about maybe San Francisco in particular.
And it's beginning to happen in Oakland.
Maybe it hasn't reached out to Vallejo.
Go ahead. I know exactly what you're talkin' about.
Yeah. I mean, what -- it's w--
San Francisco has one of the smallest
black populations of any major city.
Nah. What does it -- w -- what is it that -- that --
that's making everything small?
I just want to know. -Gentrification.
-Okay. -The tech industry,
white people.
They're jacking up prices
and making it harder to live in those --
in those communities.
And you telling the motherfucking truth.
-And -- -And that's exactly what
I was gonna pretty much say.
-Yeah. -The cost of living in --
in -- in -- out here is high as a motherfucker.
-Right. -You know what I mean?
They -- they tearing shit down and building new shit.
In -- in Oakland, it seems like the community is at least...
We trying, man. ...more and more coming together.
Certain -- certain people are trying.
-Right. -But if you look
at the Asian community,
in every major city across America,
there's a Chinatown. -Yeah.
Because they combine they resources.
[ Speaking indistinctly ] Can you get it -- Can you get it --
Man, don't spray it, Pete. -Give me my dollar, man.
Hey, man, can you give this nigga a dollar for me, man?
Do you have a dollar? Do -- do you have a dollar?
-I'm sorry, baby. -I done killed one for it.
[ Laughs ] I'm broke.
I'm broke, baby.
E-40: Oakland is so cultural, man.
Like, that's why I say you can't --
we can't allow ourselves to lose the city, man.
Like, so I-I advise people out there, man,
that's getting money, that's having money,
man, come back and buy some property in the city, man.
Buy some stuff. Open up some businesses.
Continue to inspire, man.
Keep your staple in the community very relevant.
♪ What up in here ♪
Zach: Independent artists like Mistah Fab may
not be well-known outside of the region.
But here, they play huge sold-out shows,
like the one he was headlining that night.
It was a performance honoring the late
Bay Area rapper Mac Dre.
And people of all ages and races
celebrated his legacy together
under a giant cloud of cannabis smoke.
[ Man speaks indistinctly ]
Come on, baby, baby!
-Goddamn. -Okay.
G-Eazy: Think about the first time I ever played in the Bay.
But I know it was for a couple hundred.
And now being able to coheadline
this motherfucking tour for 22,000 fucking people
in the goddamn Bay Area, that shit is crazy.
So, like, from the trailer, he'll walk here.
He'll walk to, like, stage.
-Yeah. -And then he'll stop,
like, literally in the middle on stage.
But he's completely concealed
because of these five video walls.
Well, this middle door opens, and he goes out.
So you do whatever you want. I'm so happy for my fucking brother
G, like, straight up.
Like, man, we all been growing together
for damn near 10 years.
♪ Whoa, whoa ♪
♪ We up to 40 on the oppers ♪
♪ And we droppin' niggas Ya'll squad wannabes ♪
♪ Ya'll really not them niggas Ya'll not them niggas, man ♪
♪ Ya'll fakers ♪
♪ Ooh, I'm ballin' like Baby ♪
♪ These bitches they wanna have my baby ♪
♪ I'm fresh like Mannie ♪
♪ That's why a fuck nigga can't stand me ♪
♪ Bitch, I'm big tymin'
♪ Bitch, I'm, bitch, I'm, bitch, I'm big tymin' ♪
♪ Bitch, I'm big tymin' Bitch, I'm big tymin' ♪
♪ Bitch, I'm, bitch, I'm, bitch, I'm big tymin' ♪
♪ Bitch, I'm big tymin' ♪ ♪ Ex hot boy and now I'm gettin' cash money ♪
♪ Don't fuck with broke hoes ♪
♪ 'Cause they don't get no cash for me ♪
♪ We up to 40 on the oppers, and we droppin' niggas ♪
♪ Y'all squad wannabes, y'all really not them niggas ♪
What's up, man? I'm Tez, Cortez Bryant.
I'm out here. You know, this is a historical show,
22,000. G-Eazy selling out his hometown crowd.
This shit about to be popping.
G-Eazy: This is insane for me.
When we announced this tour,
the first day tickets went on sale,
this show sold out.
Like, this one, 22,000 people bought tickets.
You know, and that means everything to me
to still be able to come home, you know,
and be embraced as that 'cause I'm from the Bay.
This is what I grew up listening to.
This is what I grew up within. You know what I'm saying?
Bringing Bay artists with me everywhere I go,
bringing my homeys with me everywhere I go, bring out Mozzy
and still bring out Nef, you know what I'm saying?
And bring out Peelo, and bring out Key,
and bring out 40 and bring out Mistah Fab
and, like, all that, then that's --
just me as a -- as, you know, as a fan of music,
that's my dream come true.
Every now and then, there'll be a show
that means more to me, that's not just a show.
This show certainly means more to me than anything else.
You know what I'm saying? That's the dream come true.
As a kid, I uploaded songs to Myspace at 15.
And to be in front of 22,000 people
where I'm from, like, that's --
that's the dream.
Zach: As G-Eazy took the stage,
I stopped to think about what I'd seen over the past few days.
I know that music isn't going to stop gentrification.
And it's not going to magically eradicate racism.
But looking around the concert that night at this young,
diverse crowd,
I was reminded about what music can do.
It can unite people.
It can spark a dialogue.
And it can help you forget about your problems,
if only for a little while.
[ Cheers and applause ]
But I'm tired of fucking innocent people
getting murdered. This shit is fucked up, man.
And this shit keeps happening over and over and over again.
And this shit is a fucking problem,
especially black people
getting killed by motherfucking cops.
[ Cheers and applause ]
And I'm a fucking human just like you're a human,
just like you're a human. And I feel this shit.
And this shit fucking hurts.
And this shit fucking breaks my fucking heart
every single morning I look at my phone,
and I see this shit.
And the past few days have been fucking difficult.
And I'm, like, here, I got to fucking perform
and get on this stage and still entertain people
and put a smile on people's faces.
But shit is fucked up going on out there.
And all I can say, as a person, as a human being,
standing here in front of 25,000 people,
unified and brought together by music in one
of the most culturally diverse places
in the motherfucking world, the place where I grew up,
the motherfucking Bay Area
where I'm proud to be from...
[ Cheers and applause ]
If you know any of these words to this song right here,
can we sing this shit together
and come together as people, bro?
♪ Even if I don't stay ♪
Let's go!
Lighters and cellphone in the air right now!
♪ Everything will be okay ♪ -Let's light this place up!
Come on!
♪ Everything will be okay ♪
♪ Everything will be okay ♪
I said light up the whole Bay right now,
lighters and cellphones in the air.
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