''We Were Hyphy'' is a 2022 documentary film about

Hyphy The term hyphy ( ) is Oakland slang meaning "hyperactive". More specifically, it is an adjective describing the hip hop music and the culture associated with the area. The term was first coined by Oakland rapper Keak da Sneak. History The hy ...

, a sub-genre of hip-hop. The term hyphy ( ) is Oakland slang meaning "hyperactive". More specifically, it is an adjective describing hip hop and the culture associated with the area. The term was first coined by Oakland rapper

Keak da Sneak Charles Kente Williams ( né Bowens; born October 21, 1977), better known by his stage name Keak da Sneak, is an American rapper from Oakland, California, known for his scratchy, gruff voice and for coining the term '' hyphy'' in 1994. Early li ...

Synopsis

This music documentary traces Hyphy's genesis on Bay Area streets and examines its influence with interviews from well-known Hyphy figures including

and

Mistah FAB Stanley Petey Cox (born January 23, 1982), better known by his stage name Mistah F.A.B. (backronym for Money Is Something To Always Have–Forever After Bread), is an American rapper, songwriter, entrepreneur, community organizer and activist. ...

to modern-day artists such as

Kamaiyah Kamaiyah Jamesha Johnson (born March 13, 1992) is an American rapper and singer from Oakland, California. Her debut mixtape, ''A Good Night in the Ghetto'', was released in 2016 to critical acclaim. In 2017, Kamaiyah was named as one of the ten ...

Rafael Casal Rafael Santiago Casal (born August 8, 1985) is an American writer, rapper, actor, producer, director, and show runner originally from the San Francisco Bay Area. He is also an online creator of music, poetry, web shorts, and political commentary. ...

, P-Lo, and G-Eazy who grew up during the Hyphy movement and were deeply influenced by it. The film takes viewers on a journey through Hyphy culture and sound, "showcasing a movement that uniquely captured a special time and place in modern history." Through interviews with Bay Area artists including G-Eazy and

, journalists, and industry professionals, We Were Hyphy provides an intimate glimpse into Hyphy culture from two perspectives – through the eyes of the artists who created the iconic sound, and through Bay Area residents who grew up under the influence of hyphy's "uniquely charismatic spell". The documentary opens on scenes of

West Oakland West Oakland is a neighborhood situated in the northwestern corner of Oakland, California, United States, situated west of Downtown Oakland, south of Emeryville, and north of Alameda. The neighborhood is located along the waterfront at the P ...

, and shows a mural of

Mac Dre Andre Louis Hicks (July 5, 1970 – November 1, 2004), known by his stage name Mac Dre, was an American rapper from Vallejo, California. He was an instrumental figure in the emergence of hyphy, a cultural movement in the Bay Area hip hop scene ...

and slow motion footage of a black muscle car doing a

doughnut (driving) A doughnut or donut is a maneuver performed while driving a vehicle. Performing this maneuver entails rotating the rear or front of the vehicle around the opposite set of wheels in a continuous motion, creating (ideally) a circular skid-mark p ...

. "‘Hyphy is a lot of different things. But at its core, it’s music,’ the film's narrator Benjamin Earl Turner explains." The regional subgenre, which the film succinctly describes as a sped-up and more eccentric version of

Mobb Music West Coast hip hop is a regional genre of hip hop music that encompasses any artists or music that originated in the West Coast region of the United States. West Coast hip hop began to dominate from a radio play and sales standpoint during the e ...

, itself an earlier, grittier genre of Bay Area hip-hop, culminated in a number of high-profile releases: Super Sic Wit It by

, Super Hyphy by

Keak Da Sneak Charles Kente Williams ( né Bowens; born October 21, 1977), better known by his stage name Keak da Sneak, is an American rapper from Oakland, California, known for his scratchy, gruff voice and for coining the term '' hyphy'' in 1994. Early li ...

, Feelin’ Myself by

and, of course,

Tell Me When To Go "Tell Me When to Go" is the first single from E-40's BME/Warner Bros. debut, ''My Ghetto Report Card''. Keak da Sneak is also featured on the track. It was produced by Lil Jon, and one of the first singles to kick off the hyphy movement on a nat ...

, by

E-40 Earl Tywone Stevens Sr. (born November 15, 1967), better known by his stage name E-40, is an American rapper. He is a founding member of the rap group The Click, and the founder of Sick Wid It Records. He has released 26 studio albums to date, ...

. The film also tells the darker side of the hyphy movement's history, namely the impact that the untimely death of

in 2004 had on the movement. The documentary reflects how hyphy is "an energy, a feeling" and something "that you feel inside," sampling from some of the genre's top hits and using archived footage to create a vivid experience that transports viewers to a different time and place.

Cast

The film features a number of the original Hyphy artists and additionally speaks to newer artists who were inspired by the Hyphy music of their youth. Featured Hyphy artists include

, and

Contemporary Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from approximately 1945 to the present. Contemporary history is either a subset of the late modern period, or it is o ...

(as of 2022) artists include

, P-Lo, and G-Eazy.

Reception

The movie was well received, in general, with Zoe Zorka, in

The Source ''The Source'' is an American hip hop and entertainment website, and a magazine that publishes annually or . It is the world's longest-running rap periodical, being founded as a newsletter in 1988 by Jonathan Shecter. David Mays was the ma ...

saying it "takes viewers on a journey through the unique Hyphy culture and sound, showcasing a movement that uniquely captured a special time and place in modern history." Bryson "Boom" Paul, also in

noted that the film is a "beautifully shot, heartbreakingly sweet story" that it is "a love song to all those who were brought together by the sounds of the Hyphy era. However, Nastia Voynovskaya in KQED noted the limitations of the documentary to fully explore the complexity of Hyphy saying, "We Were Hyphy is just one hyphy history, not the hyphy history. Could a completely thorough, definitive documentary about such an explosive, chaotic movement even exist? We Were Hyphy is a good starting point of a conversation on screen."

References

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External links

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‘We Were Hyphy’ Review
2020s American films 2022 documentary films 2020s English-language films 2022 films American documentary films Documentary films about music and musicians Films set in Oakland, California Films set in San Francisco