Money B (Digital Underground)
Noted as having one of the most recognizable voices in Hip Hop, Money B. is a member of the Oakland-based platinum-selling Grammy-nominated rap group Digital Underground (D.U.). Responsible for giving Tupac his musical start as a member of D.U., ‘Pac made his debut on the 1991 single “Same Song” from the “Nothing But Trouble” movie soundtrack.
Money B. went on to be featured on Tupac’s first solo breakout song “Brenda’s Got A Baby” and career-making single “I Get Around”. Mon was there for many of ‘Pac’s firsts (song, tour, record deal).
Money B. plays himself in the 2017 Tupac Shakur Bio-Pic “All Eyez On Me” and has currently re-invented D.U. days while performing as Money B. and Young Hump.
YukMouth
One half of the platinum-selling group The Luniz. Yukmouth struck it big in the 90’s with the cult favorite weed anthem song, “I Got 5 On It”.
Tupac was an admirer of their music and shouted the Luniz out on a compilation song called “Let’s Fight (Jawz Tight)” off the One Nation album ‘Pac was completing before his death. This album was about reuniting the East and West Coast amongst the nineties beef.
Yuk was also in the studio with Tupac and at the now infamous E-40 video shoot for “Player’s Ball” which became a Bay Area iconic moment with Bay Legends all in attendance. Hearing Pac debut and recite the lyrics from the then-unreleased classic song “Hail Mary” stuck with Yuk forever.
In 1998, Yukmouth would pay tribute to Pac in the posthumous song “Still Ballin” and invited the Outlawz to rap on the remix.
C-BO THE MOB FATHER
C-Bo, notoriously known for his relationship with law enforcement, was one of the first rappers to be jailed due to his lyrical content, a scathing critique of political officials, including governor Pete Wilson, California’s Prop. 184 three-strikes law, and police on his track “Deadly Game” written with X-Raided.
Mac Mall
Mid-90’s rappin Vallejo legend noted with helping to keep the Bay Area on the Hip Hop map. In 1994, Tupac was so impressed with Mac’s music that he approached the young rapper about directing his video “Ghetto Theme”. Tupac had heard about Mac Mall’s independent hustle with Young Black Brothas Records moving over 200,000 units independently with his first release ‘illegal business’.
Mac shares a great story of Tupac pleading with his mom to allow the high school age rapper to attend the Soul Train Awards with him and she said no. Nevertheless he went and was amongst the stars Madonna, Jamie Foxx, Dr. Dre. All because Tupac wanted to expose him to the Hip Hop life.
