Dial 510-Hip-Hop

SoCal's rap trio the Pharcyde might have intended its Cali Comm tour as a showcase for all Golden State hip hop, but for the show's final stop, at the Fillmore, Bay Area hip hoppers steal the spotlight. If much of the country sees California as one big happy family, we northerners know that we're practically our own nation. Our music is no different: Bay Area hip hop has forged its own path since the early days of Too $hort and Digital Underground. With a locals-heavy lineup, Cali Comm is your best chance to see the region's top hip hop talent together in one room.

Longtime practitioners of the Bay Area bump are Oakland's Souls of Mischief. After flirting with mainstream success with '93 Til Infinity, the Souls, part of the much-loved Hieroglyphics ensemble, returned to their underground roots over the past several years. The group's youthful flights of '93 Til have given way to a street-hardened edge, but the dynamic storytelling and furious word-bending are still central to its blunt-fueled groove. On the collective's third album, Trilogy: Conflict, Climax, Resolution, released last year, it catalogs record biz fallout with "Fucked in the Industry" and copes with ghetto life on "Trilogy." Though their innocence is long gone, the Souls still counter thug bravado with hip hop's oldest maxim: Respect is earned through rhyme skills.

Fellow Oaktown duo the Coup aims to move the masses. With Boots Riley at the microphone and Pam the Funkstress on the decks, the Coup melds anti-capitalist politics with '70s-era funk beats. Even after the band had to pull prophetic cover art of exploding WTC towers from its recent album, Party Music, Boots still foments revolution. Injecting humor into his lyrics, he calls for action against inequality, economic disparity, racist cops, and the American system. Patriotic folks take note: Boots has barred anyone wearing star-spangled duds from entering a Coup show.