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The Scrayper Boyz Bio
The Scrayper Boyz:
Were established in 2005 by Czar, the group’s founding member and “big brother.” The Group at one time consisted of 7 members however after going through the normal ups and downs of keeping a newly formed group together and relevant Zar saw fit to cut the group down to 4. Those 4 members are Zar-30 something Jwill 24 Yung Tay- 24 and The Prince-24. Since the end of 2005 they have developed a very strong following in the Bay Area and Central Valley. The group’s singles "Go Dumtastic", "Yellow Bus" "Get Stupid Now and "Side Show Flossin’" have hit the streets hard and often can be heard booming from cars in the area, as well as being spun at the hands of DJ’s in local clubs and at parties. The Scrayper Boyz also have been a runaway success on MySpace, earning more than 13,000 friends and 120,000 plays. In June 2006 The Scrayper Boyz’ maxi single "The Triple Stack” went on the shelves at Tower Records and quickly sold more than 500 copies. It also had strong independent hand to hand street sales.
In the Spring of 2006 the group and their then labelmates, The Warlords, purchased a 40-seat Big Yellow School Bus and headed to Texas for The 2006 Galveston Beach Party (Kappa Party). In Galveston they drove up and down the south beach strip shouting “The Hyphy Movement has arrived” through a bullhorn from the bus windows. Onlookers were fascinated by the spectacle of dreadlocked brothers in a yellow school bus with California license plates. They spent three days in Galveston and were the talk of the town.
Upon their return to California The Scrayper Boyz filmed and released their debut music video for "Yellow Bus" one of their more popular songs which features AtlanticRecords/Thizz artist Mistah Fab. It can be viewed today on You Tube and local cable stations, currently on You Tube the video has received over 80,000 plays
And is a favorite among hyphy bay area videos. The song “Yellow Bus” received air play on mix shows on various popular Hip Hop and R&B stations in their region.
During the past 2 years The Scrayper Boyz also have started a record label – “Black Fellas Entertainment” , as well as a clothing line “Scrayper Wear Clothing Co”., and they are working on producing an energy drink "Dumtastic. In a a time in the record industry where music is only one aspect of your success The Scrayper Boyz have come on strong in a short amount of time with not just music but a movement to keep them relevant in the industry for years to come.
The group’s first mixtape, "Scrayper Bizness the Mixtape, volume 1” dropped in November 2006 and is hands down a favorite among northern california’s mixtapes. The mixtape was sold through digital distribution and hand to hand street sales exclusively and surprisingly has done very well through the digital distribution outlets. Their highly Anticipated Debut Album “4 THA HARD WAY ” hits the stores and Itunes on April 22, 2008 They are confidant that the 3 years of hard work will pay off and that their heavy buzz and widespread fanbase will translate into store transactions. As of late The Scrayper Boyz continue to perform at shows in the Bay area and Central Valley increasing their popularity among unsigned independent artists. With the group’s
increasing popularity its only a matter of time before the labels come knocking.
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Press Clips:
The Scrayper Boyz expand on hyphy
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By Ian Hill
209Vibe.com
April 25, 2008 6:00 AM
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Remember hyphy?
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You know, that crunk-like hip-hop subculture that started in the Bay Area, stirred controversy in Stockton and Modesto and appeared ready to take over the country in 2006 and 2007 only to fizzle out?
Da Scrayper Boyz certainly remember. The Stockton rap act created a buzz with its catchy hyphy single "Go Dumtastic," a yellow bus trip to Texas and a show in Las Vegas. As hyphy peaked, Da Scrayper Boyz were working on their first full-length album.
"I really sat down with these guys and they said, 'We needed to make more timeless music. Hyphy's turning into a fad, and fads come and go,' " said Czar, born Ansar Muhammad, the group's manager and founding member.
LIVE AND LOCAL
The result is Da Scrayper Boyz' debut CD, "4 Tha Hard Way," which dropped this week. The album demonstrates how the group has transitioned from a niche subculture into a more mainstream act.
Tracks like "Sexy" and "Take It to the Flo'" take hyphy's main trait - the simple beats meant to make a crowd go dumb with delight - and gives it a smoother, Ying Yang Twins-esque glass that makes it friendly for today's clubs.
"God's Song," meanwhile, features a soul sample that sounds straight from a Kanye West production, and "Pea Coat On" has an R&B influence that might as well feature Akon. As the beats roll, Da Scrayper Boyz come with a rolling, thudding verbal flow that gets your head bobbin'.
And they haven't abandoned hyphy. "4 Tha Hard Way" features "Yellow Bus" and a remix of "Go Dumtastic." You can also easily spot the group driving around the area in their scraypers, the preferred car of the hyphy movement.
Scraypers are old rusty cars, preferably Buicks, that have been restored into colorful street machines. Some of Da Scrayper Boyz' scraypers are decorated with Pepsi and Sprite logos and colors.
"Where we come from (hyphy) is just a way of living," said group member Clint "Prince" Verge, 24. Czar added "it's bigger than the cars, it's bigger than the clothes, it's bigger than the look. The music's what it's all about."
Da Scrapyer Boyz also include twins Jeremy "JWill" and DeMonte "Young Tay" Wilson, 24. Czar formed Da Scrayper Boyz about two years ago after meeting Jeremy Wilson at work.
Now the group members are hoping "4 Tha Hard Way" will help them cultivate their individual talents and lead to future success.
"We're back. We're going to hit them hard," Prince said.
Ian Hill is the editor of 209Vibe, a local music and entertainment Web site and newspaper. Contact him at (209) 943-8571 or ihill@209Vibe.com.
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STOCKTON - It's nearing 3 a.m. on a recent Sunday, but the line of brake lights along Charter Way looks like a rush-hour commute inching its way through south Stockton.
This is no ordinary traffic jam, though.
Dozens of cars, trucks and SUVs bounce slowly down the road, often with people hanging out of windows, sunroofs or even open doors. They're on their way to a vacant parking lot to blast music, socialize and do tricks in their cars.
Welcome to the world of sideshows.
Just how long the roaming parties for teenagers and 20-somethings have been going on in San Joaquin County is unclear (they've been going on in Oakland for two decades), but this is certain: Over the past three months they have attracted increased attention from police, who say they breed violence, drunkenness, drug use and reckless driving.
Participants say this is an overreaction, that the sideshows are just harmless fun.
Since cruising the strip became popular in the 1950s and '60s, cars have served as a catalyst for socialization, experts say. Stockton bans cruising in parts of the city, and police in recent years also have targeted illegal street racers, who gather on rural roads late at night to see whose souped-up car is faster, a la The Fast and the Furious.
Sideshow participants burn their tires, spin donuts or "ghost ride the whip," where a driver exits a slow-moving vehicle and dances alongside the car or on its hood as the car coasts along, its driver's seat empty. The gatherings can draw more than 100 people.
Rick "Da General" Richardson, 30, CEO of 2 Da Face Entertainment in Stockton, said the events occur because there is no local nightlife. He's filmed recent Stockton sideshows for a two-volume DVD called "Stockton Gone Wild."
"There's nothing to do out here, there's no activity, there's no clubs, there's nothing," he said.
"We just sit there and party, we go wild."
Ansar "Czar" Muhammad, 34, member and manager of Stockton rap group Da Scrayper Boyz, called sideshows "your club in the street." Da Scrayper Boyz' song "Go Dumbtastic" is popular in the sideshow scene.
"All of the music is in the cars, all of the guys get to check out the girls, all of the girls get to check out the guys," he said.
Sideshows began in Oakland in the mid-80s and have spread to other areas because of the influence of the area's rap music scene; some participants recall sideshows in Stockton as early as 1988.
But the ideas behind sideshows are much older, said Akil Houston, a visiting professor of African-American studies at Ohio University. They can be seen in the hot rod culture that peaked in the 1950s, when teens doted on their cars to impress their friends.
"For a lot of young people, (their car is) their identity. If your car doesn't look good, if you can't do interesting and wonder things with you car, you're not interesting and wonderful," Houston said.
Sideshows are what psychologist Gary Howells calls a "reinforcing social encounter," which gives participants an avenue to get together with like-minded peers. With the added risk factor of performing stunts and running from police, participating in sideshows creates an endorphin rush in the brain that becomes hard to resist - and complicates the police efforts to eliminate the shows, he said.
"I don't think it's the kind of thing that's going to go away," said Howells, a professor at University of the Pacific who specializes in adolescent development and group dynamics. "It's too much fun, and too much of a rush."
The gatherings also allow low-income residents to reclaim municipal neighborhoods, said Marc Lamont Hill, an assistant professor of urban education at Temple University in Philadelphia. Often, many of the buildings in those neighborhoods are owned by landlords from outside the area, he said.
"Less and less of the ghetto is owned by the ghetto," Hill said.
When city residents take over a street for a sideshow, they feel as if they've taken back their property, he said.
That's not a new concept, Hill added. In hip-hop culture, city residents have long used graffiti to symbolically reclaim property in their neighborhoods.
The Stockton Police Department noticed sideshows becoming a problem in March and began a coordinated effort to shut them down in mid-April, said Pete Smith, a police spokesman. Since that time, police have arrested more than 100 people, given traffic or misdemeanor citations to nearly 1,500 more, and impounded more than 350 cars.
"I think that this shows that we're definitely taking a zero-tolerance approach to this, we're not going to stand by and let this kind of activity take place in this city," Smith said.
Some sideshow participants sympathize with police concerns. Deon "Purp Reynolds" Watkins, 30, has been attending local sideshows since the late 1980s, and he said some of the young people at the gatherings have little driving experience. That could cause tragic accidents.
Watkins also expressed worry about the amount of drinking and driving at sideshows.
"That's not good, that doesn't mix," he said.
Other sideshow participants say that, instead of writing tickets and impounding cars, the city should find an empty parking lot, put an officer there to keep the peace, and let the sideshows continue.
But that's not likely to happen.
"It's not up to us to provide a venue for this type of lawless activity," Smith said. "This is far from good, honest fun; you can't even see honest fun from where they're standing."
Record reporter Ian Hill contributed to this article.
Contact reporter Nick Juliano at (209) 546-8272 or njuliano@recordnet.com
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By Ian Hill
Record Staff Writer
July 23, 2006 6:00 AM
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It's Stockton rap fans gone wild: dozens of young people at an early-morning sideshow on Charter Way, spinning doughnuts before fleeing from the cops. The pulsing bass of songs like Da Scrayper Boyz' "Go Dumbtastic" boom from their stereos.
"Go dumbtastic/get stuperific/shake them dreads 'til you rupture your appendix," the Stockton group chants aggressively during the song's chorus.
Rap serves as the soundtrack and voice of the sideshow, a 20-year-old traveling party with roots in Oakland. The gatherings have received a popularity boost in recent years through the Bay Area's hot "hyphy" rap movement, which publicizes some of the car tricks from sideshows.
Getting hyphy - also called "getting dumb" or "going stupid" - is slang for having fun. Hyphy rap typically features chanting choruses rapped over uptempo, synthesizer-driven beats.
Hyphy rapper E-40's single "Tell Me When to Go" calls on fans to "ghost ride the whip" and "gas, break, dip" - two car tricks performed at sideshows.
The song's music video, which aired regularly on MTV earlier this year, featured cars doing doughnuts.
Young hip-hop fans "see the videos, they see it on TV, and they want to act it out," said Rick "Da General" Richardson, 30, CEO of Stockton's 2 Da Face Entertainment. He's been filming recent Stockton sideshows for a two-volume DVD called "Stockton Gone Wild." The first volume is set for release Aug. 15.
Sideshows began in the mid-1980s in Oakland, where "side" was slang for a nice car. Local hip-hop fans said the sideshow generates a fun, nightclub-style atmosphere, where young men can check out young women and vice versa, all to the tune of a bass-heavy dance track.
The song "Side Show" by Oakland rappers 415 set the rules for the gatherings in 1991:
"Now listen, this is the code to the show/for the people out there who just don't know ... if it's high performance, then swing it/if it's a motorcycle, you better serve it/and if you get a ticket, you better deserve it."
Sideshows spread to Stockton in the late 1980s as more Oakland residents moved over the Altamont in search of cheaper housing costs.
But urban car culture was not new to the city. "Cruisin" had been popular on Pacific Avenue since the early 1980s, said rapper Montrell "Trell Mix" Lee, 32.
Stockton rapper Deon "Purp Reynolds" Watkins, 30, said he's been attending local sideshows since 1988 or 1989 and that the style of sideshow cars has changed over the past two decades.
"At first, it used to be a lot of old cars, Mustangs, Cougars, Malibus, stuff like that," he said. "Now they'll make anything fast."
The growth of the Internet and DVDs have helped sideshows evolve. Urban DVDs such as 2003's "Oakland Gone Wild" feature footage from sideshows and are sold through popular Web sites such as Amazon.com.
Today's sideshow fans also use such social networking Web sites as MySpace.com to organize gatherings, instead of using word-of-mouth publicity as in the past.
Ansar "Czar" Muhammad, 34, said local sideshow enthusiasts have been talking about expanding the gatherings beyond the Stockton city limits, where a sideshow could be held on a large, open piece of property. He's a Da Scrayper Boyz member and the group's manager.
Muhammad noted that sideshows recently have morphed into "hyphy trains" - long processions of cars that disperse when police arrive.
Stockton police have responded to sideshows by arresting more than 100 people, issuing citations to nearly 1,500 more and impounding more than 350 cars since beginning a coordinated effort to shut down the gatherings in April.
But Muhammad said he didn't think police could stop sideshows.
"They haven't been able to stop it in Oakland for years. (Stockton police) are wasting manpower. They're wasting money," he said. "They're going to start seeing this stuff all over the country. I think it's going to start spreading like wildfire."
Record staff writer Nick Juliano contributed to this report.
Contact reporter Ian Hill at (209) 943-8571 or ihill@recordnet.com. Visit his blog at online.recordnet.com/blogs/blogs.php
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