A detailed tracklist of Turf Talk's West Coast Vaccine was released yesterday with production credits heavily in favor of spaceage slapper sculptors Droop E and Rick Rock. The album is out on June 5 on Sic Wid It and you can check the tracklist after the jump along with our Gen F on Turf from the current issue.
Got Slaps?
Turf Talk goes above & beyond
By Nick Barat
By the time rap history books catch up and canonize this first decade of the two-thousands, Turf Talk’s 2004 debut The Street Novelist will be remembered not as an early salvo in the hyphy movement, but a minor hip-hop classic, slotted right next to Spice 1, MC Eiht and the rest of the West Coast’s thug elite. The beats on Novelist are banging and futuristic, no less party-ready than any other moon rocks from the Bay, but Turf used them to drop corkscrew rhymes about hiding drugs in the shrubs (“Bundle Bush”) and talk about how it fucked up his hustle when the government took away food stamps. The album stayed true to Cali rap’s starched Dickies lineage while blasting into another orbit entirely, and in the process established Turf Talk as the state’s young turk.
Shuffling between Vallejo and Los Angeles as a child, the rapper born Demar Bernstein grew up idolizing his older cousin, Earl “E-40” Stephens. “40’s the tree, and we the branches,” he says. “In LA I would have Federal posters up on my wall, Mr Flamboyant posters.” The cover of Turf Talk’s new album, West Coast Vaccine, even features the MC hooked up to an IV on an operating table surrounded by stacks of albums, including E-40 and The Click’s Down and Dirty. “I always try to impress 40,” says Turf. “But every time I think I’m gonna get him in the booth, he tears me apart. I’ll do a verse, and he’ll say ‘Ugggghhh, I like that, Turfy!’ Then he’ll bust the same style.”
The family members share an affinity for unlikely lyrical detail and a consonant-grinding delivery—who else could make gangster rap sound harder just by pronouncing the Rs?—but Turf Talk has always distinguished himself with a grimier approach. Yet this past year, Turf saw his biggest mainstream recognition to date, touring Europe for two months as an invited guest of DJ Shadow, who featured the MC on the bouncy single “Three Freaks.” “Shadow showed me this is a real career,” he says. “I didn’t do rehearsals before I left to Europe. Now I always soundcheck with my DJ.” Despite any newfound professionalism, West Coast Vaccine doesn’t see Turf Talk abandoning his soil for the glamorous life any time soon. “I got shot, went through family problems, politic problems,” he says of the album’s genesis. “I got slaps, but this is not really a friendly album.”
Intro
Special guest; Akronems of Writers Block
Produced by NickFury
Bring The Base Back
Produced by Rick Rock
Doe Boy w/ E-40 & B-Legit
Produced by Droop E of the Pharmaceuticals
DJ scratches performed by DJ E Rock
Record Company Skit
Super Star w/ Lock Smith
Produced by C.M.T & E.A. Ski
I Got Chips w/ E-40
Produced by Rick Rock
Scratches performed by DJ E Rock
HK performed by Stress of The Federation
That's That Turf Talk
Produced by Tha Bizness For Tha Bizness Productions
HK performed by Goldy Gold of the Federation
Broke Niggas!
Produced by Droop E of the Pharmaceuticals
PoPo’s w/E-40
Produced by Droop E of the Pharmaceuticals
Back In The Day w/ Cartoon “Ruff Rider West” & Jelly Roll
Produced By Rome for B.Y.I. Entertainment
Money on ya Head w/KnockaMichie
Produced by Rick Rock
Le Me Holla at You w/ Rick Rock
Produced by Rick Rock
Fresh is the Word w/E-40
Produced by Jake 1
Dj Scratches performed by DJ E Rock
X w/ Yuk Mouth
Produced by Rick Rock
Liquor Store Skit
I'm Ghetto
Produced by Rick Rock
Stop Snitchin' w/E-40
Produced by Droop E of the Pharmaceuticals
Minnie Minnie w/ Freeway
Produced by Droop E of the Pharmaceuticals
Rippah w/ Too $hort
Produced by Troy Sanders for the Beat Connection
Shinin'
Produced by LA
Groupie
Produced by Traxxamillion