The underground Bakersfield hip-hop scene comes alive Saturday night with the Condors - By N.L. Belardes

King Mark and St. Patrick, both rappers from the Bakersfield hip-hop underground spoke with me a few days ago with studio guru, Caleb, all about their genre of music and how it’s making an upsurge in the local music scene. I wanted to know where rap was hiding out, what Bakersfield had to offer to the urban hip-hop community, and whether these guys were the only ones performing their blend of rap from the hood. So they offered to meet me downtown and give me the low down.



I discovered King Mark at a Halloween party pimped out and having a great time. I was trying to sell a few copies of my book, but the party-goers on hand were more interested in dirty dancing than they were in dirty books of a seedy Bakersfield past. King Mark and I struck up a conversation about music. The rest is hockey hip-hop history.

Within a few weeks King Mark and St. Patrick recorded the song, “Hat Trick” at LSN Studios for Growing Up Fighting: Bakersfield Hockey Volume 1. A Bakersfield native, King Mark has been putting together an album under the umbrella of Hood 2 Hood Records and Alldatime Productions, a grassroots style underground label by Devon ‘Tall Ben’ Johnson whose dream, I hear, is to put together three compilations of music from kids representing common themes and positive messages between rival gangs, underground hip-hop, soul, rhythm and blues, Gospel, and more.



I hung out with King Mark, St. Patrick and their studio recorder, Caleb Kelly of LGN Studios in the alley near the entrance of Maxwell’s Restaurant in downtown Bakersfield. That’s where we took the controversial “Getting arrested” photo that pokes fun at the local BPD’s locking up of the underground brotherhood here in Bakersfield. The compilations from Hood 2 Hood are The Outbreak, which you can find right now on CDBaby by typing in ‘Valley Fever’, and the forthcoming albums: The Symptoms, The Antidote, and The Cure.

The Outbreak features a range of music from Northern, Southern and Central California, as well as a connection to Georgia. The first two songs are killer West Coast sounding with a Dr. Dre and Tupac feel. You can listen to love songs, angry rapping songs, Bakersfield anti-cop songs, booty calliscious love tunes, and more. Oh yeah.

I was to find out some other important names and titles too, like Johnny Combat and Native’s Fill my Pockets and ‘G’ the Breathtaker and his album WLIN. King Mark said he was coming out with King Mark Small Businessman, an album sure to rock more than the local hip-hop scene as his music hopes to reach laterally between African-American communities, rival gangs, and more…



I spoke a bit to Caleb as well who says he has about fifteen clients in his studio recording at his respectable rates. He said he’s also done some drumming for Action Folk Singer. I don’t know about you, but that’s a lot of hidden talent in the urban underground. Will we be seeing more of it?

You know it. And it all starts this weekend at the Rabobank Arena when King Mark and St. Patrick get together to sing an extended track of “Hat Trick”, which is sure to be a historic night for culture, music, and hockey to collide… (Get tickets)

I’ll be there. Will you support?

This entry was posted by N.L. Belardes, on Thursday, January 19, 2006. You can leave your response.