Cellski

legendary underground bay area rapper hailing from the infamous 200 block housing projects on randolph street in the lakeview district of san francisco, california. he is arguably one of the best rappers/producers to ever come out of san francisco and the entire bay area. he is a pioneer of the san francisco rap scene along with other legends including rbl posse, rappin’ 4-tay, imp and jt the bigga figga. he raps about the harsh realities of the dark side of the san francisco landscape, like a west coast prodigy of mobb deep or a west coast buckshot from black moon circa 1993. despite all of the corny stereotypes about frisco, cellski accurately portrayed his side of town in the city by the bay as a drug-infested place full of poverty, gangs, guns, murder, crime and violence. most of his songs are about hustling, selling dope and surviving in the grimey streets of frisco. his first alb-m, mr. predictor (1995), is a bay area west coast hip hop cl-ssic. he has also produced tracks for fellow lakeview rappers unlv, young ed and imp. two of his songs were featured on master p’s cl-ssic and commercially successful west coast bad boyz vol. i & ii compilations (“stressed out” and “roll yo vogues” respectively). like most underground independent bay area rappers who aren’t signed to major record labels, his music is largely unheard of outside of northern california and the west coast.
as a youngsta i’ve always been around some funk
i’m watchin n-gg-s duck from buckshots of the pump
bein around this sh-t made a n-gg- violent at times
servin d the dope was beatin em down if they don’t sell mine
cuz you know that’s how the f-ckin game goes
n-gg-s gettin beat with bats gettin stomped with steel toes
a n-gg- was no older than thirteen or fourteen
when the bang was on i copped a gun from a dope fiend
little six shot, 38 special
when the bang is on you got to be strong livin up the ghetto
me and my n-gg-s walkin around straight gasin
mug on mean funkin wit n-gg-s all in my cl-ssic
four deep is how n-gg-s roll up in frisco
and everywhere you go a n-gg- got to pack a pistol
the beef is back on but i don’t really know the reason
supposed to be a truce but n-gg-s start bangin season
i’m lettin it be known i’m fadin n-gg-s with the chrome-9
me and my n-gg-s walkin around with macs and the 45
so how you wanna handle your biz ya b-tch made mark
leave ya dead two to the head in ocean view park
cuz when the bang is on n-gg-s comin out the cuts
wit artillery in their hand ready start to buck
at them b-tch made n-gg-s tryin to make my day
cuz that’s how it is when you’re livin in the bay

~ cellski “livin n the bay” (circa 1994)