and artist Rappin 4Tay
In the 1940s, during WWII thousands of African Americans moved to San Francisco from the South to work in the shipyards in Bayview/Hunter's Point. The Fillmore - also known as the Western Addition - had been a primarily Japanese neighborhoo at the beginning of WWII, but when through a sad chapter in American history, the Japanese American residents were forced into internment camps, many of them sold thier property quickly in order to avoid losing everything while in the camps, and African Americans working in the Bayview shipyards purchased many of the homes for thier family. As a result the Fillmore became a thriving black neighborhood with many black businesses and a hub of the West Coast Jazz and Blues scene in the 1940s and 1950s.
In the 1960s, the Fillmore became home of Bill Graham Presents and well known as a part of the 1960s rock music and R&B scene. However, the San Francisco Revelopment Agency moved on the black homeowners and businesses, offering them housing vouchers in attempts to gentrify the area and creating a scandal that hasn't been resolved to this day. Inspite of the attempts by the city to gentrify and relocate the minority communities, the Fillmore of today is a multicultural neighborhood with a large African American and Asian population, black community centers, festivals, and several blues and jazz clubs.
As a young man, 4Tay attended an arts high school, MacAtyre. This website contains an excellent review by two students from the school who interviewed him in the mid 1990s. Click on the link to read i
Below are some of the artists and organizations currently actively working with Rappin 4Tay
4Tay Cartoon Logo Art by Sumiko California
Although several Fillmore area rappers strived for success in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and many of them worked together, none of them ever became as famous and successful as 4Tay. Over the past 15 years Rappin 4Tay has worked with and collaborated with numerous other artists; notably, as a performer and a songwriter with Tupac Shakur in 1996 on the song "Only God Can Judge Me" (from the 2Pac Album "All Eyez On Me"), Bootsey Collins (Bulletproof Soundtrack), Berry Gordy (Dangerous Minds Soundtrack), JT The Bigga Figga (1996 - "Game On The Shelf"), Too $hort (1996 - "Never Talk Down", "She's A Sellout"), Snoop Doggy Dog (2000 - "Dogghouse"), and other artists too numerous to mention.
