Folks may wanna look out for new material from Oakland's Zion I. They recently teamed up with West Coast pioneer Too Short to do a slamming song called 'Don't Lose Ya Head'. which is featured on his recently released compilation called 'I Love the Bay'. On that compilation you will hear joints from Bay shot callers like Messy Marv, Mista FAB, Frontline, E-40, Bavgate, Big Rich and fellow Bay pioneer Mike Marshall just to name a few.

Too Short who has been doing some big things community wise as of late including opening up studios for up and coming artists and counseling youngsters at East Oakland's Youth Uprising, has long wanted to put out a compilation album that showcased the vast amounts of talent that exist here in the Bay Area. The compilation was released on his own All Night Music label and no doubt will eliminate some of the politics and frustration Short has experienced in the past.

For example, he and E-40 had collaborated on an album called 'History' that was nixed by Jive Records who didn't want the pair to put it out while they were both signed to the label.

In another incident, last year when BET did a spotlight on the Bay, Too Short took the camera crew around Oakland and had in tow many of the Bay icons who are celebrated here but often overlooked on the national stage. When the piece was finally aired, you saw most of the people he rolled with edited out the piece aside from a couple of shots here and there. That was a big disappointment. Short was able to repair that oversight with this compilation which is pretty good.

As for the cut with Zion I, it represents their commitment to unite the Bay Area rap scene in the three year tradition of their Paid in Full concert series where they bring together groups from the Bay's various rap scenes and clicks. For those who don't know here in the Bay for the longest time, there's been a so called Backpack/Hip Hop scene and a rap/turf scene. Such boundaries have come on behalf of music journalists and Hip Hop purist who have little or no connection to the communities where this music emerges. In their mis-guided wisdom they have somehow deemed that an Oakland artist like Too Short or the Deliquents are 'rap music artists while fellow Oakland artists like Zion I, Hiero or Living Legends are 'Hip Hop'. That has long been a notion completely rejected in these parts and was just recently underscored by Bay artist Del tha Funkee Homosapien in an Hard Knock Radio interview where he explained in great detail how and why all Bay artists are connected.

He noted that for the most part many artists came up together, attended the same schools and even were in the same groups early on. For the most part, you will find Bay artists are born from the same musical seed which is rooted in funk and out of that tradition they express themselves differently. As far as Del is concerned his style of Hip Hop comes from the same funk seed as Too Short

written by Davey D