#TBT: Keak Da Sneak

Keak da Sneak supposedly lives on a farm with his family somewhere outside Sacramento. Like Dave Chappelle, he leads a quiet, humble life that belies his status as one of the most important Bay Area rappers ever. Keak helped popularize hyphy a decade after he coined the term "hyphy" as a teenager growing up in Oakland. Keak's status as hyphy royalty, alongside artists like Mac Dre, E-40, Too Short, and Mistah F.A.B., is unquestioned.

This article covers a few of Keak's best songs from 1997 to 2008, the year when he released his best-known album Deified. Click through the image gallery to read on.

Keak first found success as a part of the Oakland rap trio 3X Krazy. They gained national attention for "Keep It On The Real," the lead single off their 1997 album Stackin' Chips. Keak is remarkably intelligible compared to his later work. He was 19 years old at the time.

"My real name is Kunta Kinte," he raps emphatically. It's true: his middle name is Kinte.

By the time 2003 rolled around, Keak da Sneak was five albums into his solo career and had already developed his signature snarl. "White T, Blue Jeans, and Nikes," the best song on Copium, features an appearance from the almighty baritone saxophone.

Keak might be seen as a forerunner to the mumble rap of today. But he could enunciated words immaculately when he wanted to. Whenever he says "yadadamean" -- a word he coined -- he delivers each syllable with the clarity and force of a bullet fired from Soulja Boy's draco.

By 2005, the hyphy sound was beginning to crystallize. Big Hollis's production on the club blapper "Town Business" recalls a comment made by Rick Rock, the genre's most important sonic architect, in an interview with Complex:

"[Hyphy was] high energy, bass line," Rock said. "It's gotta have a Bay Area element. No kind of nostalgic samples really. It's an energy that touches your chakras, your energy sources. Things that automatically make you feel great and you don't know why."

"Super Hyphy" perfectly encapsulates the moment when you realize you're tipsy. It also motivated an entirely sober teenage Danny Schwartz to get loose on the dance floor on many an occasion. "Super Hyphy" is one of the five most essential hyphy anthems in existence. It's such a good song that Keak included it in two different albums. Then again, he did that with a bunch of other songs.

If "Super Hyphy" is a top-5 hyphy anthem, "Tell Me When To Go" is arguably the goat. It is certainly the most popular song of the hyphy movement: it peaked at #8 on Hot 100. In a 2006 interview with Pitchfork, Keak explained how he added his verse: "I wrote that verse in five minutes. I just came up with it and told 'em to record the track. I'm always ready."

In 2007, Keak teamed up with Messy Marv and P.S.D. Tha Drivah to make an album called Da Bidness, the Bay Area's answer to The Firm. On "Burden Of His Youth," a Sade sample imbues Keak's rhymes with an arresting, nostalgic character.

Like Bay Area hip hop, Bay Area slang is extremely provincial. To get "blurpt" is to get pulled over by the cops. I'm not sure if Keak coined the term. It didn't catch on quite like "hyphy" or "yadadamean," but it does have a nice ring to it.

Young Thug's "Quarterback" has a complicated relationship with time. Keak's "Quarterbacking" does not. It exists squarely in the present, and invites the listener to succumb to its raw synthetic power.

In an interview with XXL in 2009, when the hyphy movement had lose much of its steam, Keak explained what was preventing the Bay from becoming a true powerhouse region:

"I think we need a lot more unity. Basically, the Bay’s story hasn’t been told. There’s something new happening everyday. It’s hard to really explain the Bay but we’re trying to preserve what we have for the next generation. We’re leaders, we’re trendsetters. Our slang, the way we talk, our dress. But it’s like being on the cover of Madden, we’re cursed. All these other regions, they be platinum before we even hear the shit. Niggas take from what we do, put it out there and make millions off it. But to actually do music where I’m from, it’s hella hard. You gotta put in extra work."