Fab, who gained national attention during that era, talked about what it meant to the Bay during a recent interview on Lil Blood TV.
"Hyphy in my time was going to the house party in west Oakland and knew that it was fixin' to be some fights," he said. "It was gonna be turnt up, and when you see it, you were like, 'Man them niggas is hyphy.' We took that energy that was expressive and put it through music. I think a lot of people put me at the front of it because I gained a lot of notoriety during that time. But the [Sneak Da] Keek's and the [Mac] Dre's and those other people brought it to the world. We were able to take the energy from the negatives and have some fun with it. I enjoyed though, it helped change my financial status."
He also addressed the idea that hyphy music tarnished the Bay's image.
"I think digging deep into it, everything was derived from what happened on the turf. All we did was paint the image musically. Would you rather me get on records and lie? I ain't never sold dope in my life. I ain't never shot nobody in my life. People get on they Mark Twain and create these images and start believing it. That was really my life— I really was at the side shows, the house parties, I was on the road with Dre. It's only a gimmick if it ain't your life. And we had a whole audience of people that was doing the same thing. That's why they related to it."
The Hyphy Era drops on Sept. 23.
