10.21.2022
Album: Tales Of The Town – Tales Of The Town
Tales of The Town is A Multimedia Project That Explores Nearly 100 Years of Oakland’s Black History; the New Album Brings Bay Area Musicians As Diverse as G-Eazy, Rexx Life Raj, EluJay, Jane Handcock, and J. Stalin to Paint a Picture of Oakland’s Vibrant Music Scene
Hosted by Abbas Muntaqim and Delency Parham of the Hella Black Podcast, Tales Of The Town Details the Rich History of Oakland Through a Podcast, an Album, and More
Episode 5 of the Tales Of The Town Podcast Focuses on Oakland’s Music, Recounting the Careers of the Town’s Biggest Stars and Welcoming Tajai of Souls Of Mischief and Goapele as Special Guests
The Announcement:
Tales Of The Town provides crucial context for the vibrant Oakland music scene, telling the story of the city’s rich political and cultural history through a podcast, an album, and eventually a documentary film. Today, Tales Of The Town releases the brand new Tales Of The Town album, Spanning 11 tracks, Tales Of The Town is a project that emphasizes the depth and breadth of Oakland’s music scene. Though some songs, like the searing “F*CK 12” FREESTYLE ft. Guapdad 4000 & LaRussell tackle social issues that affect Oakland’s Black community, other songs like “GET DANGEROUS” ft. 22nd Jim & Lil Bean and “PARTY WITH THE GANG” ft. G-Eazy, P-Lo & FREDOBAGZ show how the community blows off steam.
The album shows off the stylistic diversity of the Town’s scene, offering meditative R&B in the form of “RISEN” ft. EluJay & Jane Handcock, which addresses the issue of gentrification in the East Bay, before switching to creeping mob music–the shimmering production style that defines Bay Area street music–with “BLACK JACOBINS” ft. J. Stalin & Koran Streets, a powerful treatise in favor of revolution and against police violence. Featuring a cast of characters from all over Northern California, from Oakland artists like ALLBLACK, Rexx Life Raj, and ymtk, Sacramento street hero Shootergang Kony, San Francisco rhymer Lil Bean, Richmond native P-Lo, and many others, all of whom donated their verses to benefit the People’s Programs, Tales Of The Town is available everywhere via San Francisco’s own EMPIRE.
The new album arrives alongside the latest episode of the Tales Of The Town podcast. Episode 5 of Tales Of The Town is the second of a two-part installment about the history of Black music in Oakland. While the first part focused on Oakland’s history as a hub for jazz and blues, Episode 5 examines the careers of some of the biggest stars to ever spring from Oakland, and examines the Town’s thriving contemporary scene. The podcast hosts, Abbas Muntaqim and Delency Parham, welcome two crucial Bay Area figures, Tajai of the mighty Souls Of Mischief crew, and acclaimed singer Goapele, to explain the creative processes behind some of their most well-known songs, including Souls Of Mischief’s Bay Area rap classic “93 ‘Til Infinity.“
Hosted by People’s Programs’ co-founders and the co-creators of Hella Black Podcast, Abbas Muntaqim and Delency Parham, and produced by award winning documentarian and audio engineer, Maya Cueva, Tales Of The Town hopes to give an in-depth overview of what makes Oakland so special, and inspire others to research the fascinating history of their own hometowns.
Proceeds from the Tales Of The Town album will go towards supporting People’s Programs.
Listen to “Tales Of The Town” wherever you get your podcasts
Stream Tales Of The Town: https://music.empi.re/talesofthetown
Subscribe to “Tales Of The Town”: http://linktr.ee/hellablackpod
Tales Of The Town tracklist:
1. 23 IN THE 4TH – Tales of the Town & Mani Draper ft. Rexx Life Raj
2. ALL BLACK POWER – ALLBLACK & YMTK ft. Kevin Allen
3. RISE UP – OG Dayv & Pallavi aka Fijiana
4. GET DANGEROUS – 22nd Jim ft. Lil Bean
5. WE MADE IT – Prada Mack ft. Samaria
6.RISEN – Elujay & Jane Handcock
7. PARTY WITH THE GANG – Tales of the Town ft. G-Eazy, P-Lo, FREDOBAGZ
8. BLACK JACOBINS – Fully & J.Stalin ft. Koran Streets
9. “F*CK 12” FREESTYLE – Tales of the Town ft. LaRussell & Guapdad 4000
10. HOLLA – Shy’an G & Ian Kelly ft. Myl3z
11. TO THE STREETS/ CLIPPED WINGS – ShooterGang Kony & Wantmoren8 ft. Jalil Muntaqim
Please contact Michelle or Annjie for more info.
The Background:
Tales Of The Town is a podcast about Black Oakland. Detailing nearly one hundred years of Oakland history through the people whose families have called Oakland home for generations, the stories of Oaklanders and their experiences in “The Town” are brought to life through a podcast, album, book, and short film.
Tales of The Town explores the first and second Great Migrations that brought Black southerners to Oakland en masse, Oakland’s historic sports teams and players, legendary musicians, the first Black Student Union at Merritt College, houselessness, gentrification, The Huichin Chochenyo Ohlone people, and much more!
Hosted by People’s Programs’ co-founders and the co-creators of Hella Black Podcast, Abbas Muntaqim and Delency Parham, and produced by award winning documentarian and audio engineer, Maya Cueva – the first episode of the podcast releases next Tuesday, September 20th.
Abbas and Delency teamed up with artists from all over the Bay Area to produce 11 original songs and put together a Tales of The Town album. Every artist and producer featured on the album donated their voice and production, and all proceeds from the album go towards supporting People’s Programs. The album features music from artists such as Rexx Life Raj, G-Eazy, P-LO, LaRussell, Guapdad4000 and more! The album is set to release October 14th, 2022.
Links:
official site | linktree | soundcloud | spotify | apple
Tales Of The Town: https://music.empi.re/talesofthetown
“PARTY WITH THE GANG” ft. G-Eazy, P-LO, FREDOBAGZ: https://music.empi.re/partywiththegang
“GET DANGEROUS” by 22nd Jim ft. Lil Bean: https://music.empi.re/getdangerous
“RISEN” ft. Elujay & Jane Handcock: https://music.empi.re/risen
“F*CK 12” FREESTYLE ft. LaRussell & Guapdad 4000: https://music.empi.re/fuck12freestyle