Listen up: The hottest new hip-hop tribute to San Francisco is here
You heard it here first: the newest hip-hop tribute to our City by the Bay. This new song by longtime denizen J. W. Friedman is a musical diary entry encapsulating why a lot of us chose to live (and stay) here. Add this to your essential Yay Area playlist ASAP.
The exclusive new jam name-checks all things local: layering (seriously, you have to), intersections all over town, and the barge in the Bay just outside of AT&T Park.
Muni Diaries Live attendees might remember as J as Satellite High, who first blew our minds with a whole album dedicated to Muni (read the interview here and watch this live performance). Sharp-eared podcast listeners may also recognize his name and style from our theme music.
Take a listen to the new tune:
J is also the cohost of the wonderfully snarky podcast, I Don’t Even Own a Television, wherein he and cohost Chris Collision read terrible books from beginning to end just so they can review them for the masses. To get an IRL sense of their sense of humor, come see Chris Collision at our Muni Haiku Battle, LitCrawl Edition this Saturday at Clarion Alley.
So does your street or Favorite SF Something get a shout-out in J’s new song? He sent us the lyrics so you can find out:
SF the letters of the golden streets
When I walk these hills risin up to meet me
From the dog days of summer to the coldest weeks
Keep it smooth even when we gettin rough discreetly
Put roots in the ground yeah your man is here
Ain’t no metaphor, y’all it ain’t no allegory
SF the letters gold standard cheer
Write your own San Francisco story
Nudge in your rib cage, thorn in your eye
Stay dipped in the city black and orange till I die
J-Church on a track way I’m runnin’ off time
No beats in your bucket less you gonna drop mine
Fog rolls in making it look dark and moody
Just off-track spitting like you BART or Muni
Cars got cable and the ppl spark the motion
This is our home turf from Embarc to Ocean
Blink and you missed tho
Lombard your twist take a
Tip from the local and don’t call it Frisco
And everything is lookin radical hey
This is fog city style, Baghdad by the Bay
Don’t raise we attacking the roof
Bring a shirt, two sweaters, and a jacket to boot
Been gone for a while but I’m back in the loop
24th St. and Mission Cadillac in the coupe
Head north following the city lights or something
Up to 7th on Divis when the nights are bumpin
stay straight
Some dudes will blaze the chronic
Only Haight in my heart intersects with Masonic
Keep it tight like that rush hour crowd down on Bryant
City large, kid, everyone around is a giant
Like a barge in the bay man we sound the horn
Said SF the letters and the word is born
Photo by Right Angle Images