The first time Demone Carter hung with Sultan Banks was at a high school backyard battle rap. By the time Banks walked in, Carter was already waist-deep in a slow-moving rap battle that had long since become a war of attrition.

“Me and this other kid from Andrew Hill had been battling for an hour or so and it wasn’t very good or entertaining,” Carter recalls. “Then he strolls in, asks if he can have the mic, and he’s just brilliant, destroys both of us. He was clearly the best rapper there.”

Within a few months, Carter, Banks and their friend Jesse James formed a crew together, Lackadaisical, making their performance debut at an Andrew Hill High School pep rally in 1994. Just a few years later, Banks would change the sound of rap entirely, producing beats for hip hop icons like Keak da Sneak, Too Short and E-40 under the name Traxamillion. 

Sadly, this past weekend, Traxamillion passed away at the tragically young age of 43. Stereogum reports the producer had been battling cancer since 2017. Until recently, he had been living in hospice with his aunt in Santa Clara.

The late producer’s passing precipitated an outpouring of love online.

“We lost a true Bay Area cornerstone to cancer today,” tweeted hip hop tastemakers Empire. “Rest in Power to Traxamillion, the architect of the hyphy sound and a legendary producer to the fullest.”

“Rest up my fella you will be missed,” Vallejo rapper E-40 wrote on Instagram, captioning a video of Traxamillion developing his beat for the 2021 hit “I Stand on That” (featuring Joyner Lucas and T.I.).

Though he never worked with him directly, DJ Cutso of The Bangerz and Wild 94.9 tells Metro the two producers met often and shared a mutual passion for South Bay music.

“His mark on the Bay Area music scene will be indelible,” Cutso says.

Traxamillion’s distinct production—spare and gritty, but full of handclaps and the bounce of rubbery synths—laid the groundwork for much of the hyphy movement in the mid-2000s. Many genre classics often associated with Oakland, like “Sideshow” with Mistah F.A.B. and Too Short, and genre anthem “Super Hyphy” by Keak da Sneak, were brought into the world by the San Jose producer.

In 2018, Carter and his co-hosts on hip hop podcast Dad Bod Rap Pod interviewed Traxamillion for the show’s 30th episode. At the time, the producer revealed San Jose’s unique influence on his sound.

“He talked about growing up in San Jose and the Latino influence on his music, which was through freestyle and high-NRG [music],” Carter says. “Being from San Jose really helped shape what his sound would eventually be.”

And though the sound and aesthetic of hyphy will always be attached to his work, Traxamillion was never simply a hyphy artist, nor was his influence confined to the Bay’s hyphy years.

“He was a trailblazing pioneer,” Carter says. “The sound that he was a contributor to has really reshaped rap music. If you look at the stuff that DJ Mustard and YG and all these guys from LA ended up doing, it’s heavily based on the hyphy movement. A lot of what he contributed to is now just part and parcel of what we call rap music.”

Sirens, Traxamillion’s last album, was just released in May. The album featured all women rappers from the Bay Area, artists like Mother Goat, Qing Qi and Krissy Blanko, all going hard over Trax’s beats. The sample that opens late album track “Bounce Dat Ass” bursts forth like a rallying cry for the record itself: “I want to ask you right now, if you’re not standing at attention, to stand in vagina power and manifest your destiny.”

Ever a champion for his scene and his collaborators, as recently as July, Trax appeared in the music video for “What Happened (feat Lil Kayla),” from Sirens. In it, the San Jose producer drives a G-Wagon wearing an orange and black camo hat which reads “Slapps.” By the time the video was shot, he had been battling cancer for years.

“That’s who he was,” Carter says. “He was trying to make success for others. He was continually trying to make others shine.”

The rap gods have smiled on San Jose. This weekend’s Kings of the West extravaganza brings a completely stacked lineup—including Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, The Game, E-40 and Warren G—to the Shark Tank. These hip-hop heroes come to town as part of a broader series of concerts celebrating the SAP Center’s 25-year history. There isn’t much that hasn’t been said already about these OGs of West Coast rap. Whether you loved Are We There Yet?, prefer to partake in any number of Snoop’s cannabis-related online ventures, or want to go dumb alongside one of the Bay Area’s most infamous lyricists, it’s all here.

Kings of the West
Sat, 7:30 pm, $36+
SAP Center, San Jose

No one reps the Yay Area harder than E-40. But with close to 30 full-length solo releases, myriad collaborative projects and a serious knack for coining lyrical lingo, E-40 is sure to leave a lasting legacy in the hip-hop world far beyond the Bay. In addition to coming up with the likes of  Mac Dre, Too Short and Mr. Fab, the man born Earl Stevens has used his Sick Wid It label to put many more on the map—like Vallejo-based up-and-comer Nef the Pharaoh. SJSU students can catch this local legend along with P-Lo for free at SpartanFest. Note: only current students will be admitted.

E-40 & P-Lo
Oct 25, 6:30pm, Free For SJSU Students (Students Only)
San Jose State Event Center

It’s been 25 years since Too Short’s first LP was released and the Oakland rapper is still showing no signs of slowing. He released his 19th studio album this year, and just last week, he released two albums with E-40—the only other living Bay Area rapper to reach his level of national fame.

Too Short plays at La Fiesta Nightclub tomorrow. Here are a few video highlights from his catalog over the years:

Too $hort plays Fiesta Nightclub on Friday November 9th, along with Mr. Kee, Chraze-C, Reign, Why Hate, YB Ent, YDMC, Big Mister, Big E, Elite, Jeff Turner, Malicious Da Misfit and Natty K. Dirtbag Dan hosts the event. The show starts at 8pm. Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 at the door.

Nothing creates the right mood for Halloween like a spooky song, but the traditional horror hit parade can start to grate after the 4,000th time. For those who have had it with “Thriller” and (god forbid) “Monster Mash,” we’ve put together a fresh list of Halloween-themed jams.

Halloween—Misfits: Just about any Misfits song will do, but as Glenn Danzig’s definitive artistic statement on the subject, this one earned its name. Its under-two-minute gutter-punk assault is so bruising it takes several listens just to get a handle on the lyrics—but as usual, the wait is rewarded.

Monster—Kanye West featuring Jay-Z and Nicki Minaj: One of the best songs on Kanye’s masterpiece My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, “Monster” is the American Psycho of music. The song messes with a different metaphor, comparing murder, mayhem and other assorted horrors to the music biz (rather than Wall Street), but the basic ideas have a lot in common. The controversial video really drives the point home, and if you ever wondered what it would look like if one of Nicki Minaj’s personas attacked another one, it’s a must see.

Devil Town—Daniel Johnston: From the reigning king of outsider music comes one of the most emotional and striking monster songs of all time. In under a minute, Johnston paints a vivid portrait of every goth’s dream hometown.

Zombie—E-40 featuring Tech N9ne, Brotha Lynch & Kung Fu Vampire: With a catchy hook (“if you’re a zombie, monster, ghoul or fiend”) courtesy of San Jose rapper Kung Fu Vampire, E-40 teams with Brotha Lynch—a horrorcore rapper longer before the word existed—and Tech N9ne to spin morbid rhymes for the perfect zombie apocalypse soundtrack.

I Am a Vampire—Future Bible Heroes: If “I Am a Vampire” had been written in the ’80s, it would have been an alternative dance-club favorite. The song takes the perspective of the eternally young, chic vampire. Sure, you have to feed off of people and avoid the sunlight, but that’s a small price to pay for an eternity of being fabulous.

Gangnam Style—Psy: OK, we’re sort of joking, but everyone’s going to be doing the dance on Halloween this year and there will be more than a few bar-hoping Psy look-alikes. You might want to learn it. It’s not hard.

Superstition—The Kills: From the moment the guitar kicks in on the Kills’ “Superstition,” it creates a sort of vague foreboding anxiety that the best horror movies conjure up in the first 20 minutes—before anything bad has happened yet. There is just something about the minimalist, dissonant sounds this duo conjures up that is just creepy. That compounded with a repetitive song about superstition, creates a scary Halloween tune, where the beast that lurks in the shadows is fear.

What’s He Building in There?—Tom Waits: What is scarier than a creepy, reclusive next-door neighbor that’s receiving a lot of mysterious packages? Tom Waits channels the fun, spooky ambience of the Disney’s Haunted Mansion (the ride, not the movie), as he narrates a brief story of a suspicious man in the neighborhood.

Mind’s Playin’ Tricks on Me—Geto Boys: Not just one of the best rap songs ever, “Mind’s Playin’ Tricks on Me” is also maybe the best ghost story ever set to a beat. It weaves layers of guilt, violence and slipping sanity together to make you remember we don’t need paranormal activity to be haunted. The nerd-rock version by Atom & His Package is as awesomely fun as the original is creepy.

I Walked With a Zombie—Roky Erickson and the Aliens: Roky Erickson led the legendary psychedelic rock band 13th Floor Elevators in the ’60s, but got diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and spent much of the next decade in a mental institution. When he returned to music, the content of his songs changed significantly. Now he was singing about aliens, Satan and monsters, and doing so in an incredibly intense, emotional manner. While most of The Evil One is powerful, screaming acid rock, “I Walked With a zombie” is a somber ballad, and by far the saddest, most emotional song on the album.

The Man Comes Around—Johnny Cash: Now that this song has been used in a bunch of scary movies, TV shows and trailers (most notably the Dawn of the Dead remake), it’s been pretty much accepted as a modern horror classic of country music. Cash meant it as a serious hymn, and it almost makes religion cool. But isn’t it always like that with the Book of Revelations?

Bela Lugosi’s Dead—Bauhaus: The 2009 horror film The Collector was the second film (after the more famous Bowie vampire flick The Hunger) to use this song almost in its entirety. It’s maybe the quintessential Halloween song by now—the weird guitar effects and insane lyric delivery by Peter Murphy make it timeless.

That’s That—Groove Ghoulies: Lead singer Kepi Ghoulie is such a monster movie fanatic, that even on this 35-second love song, he can find no better words to express his feeling than compare it to his favorite Halloween monsters, giving us the immortal line “I need you like zombies need brains.”

What’s on your Halloween playlist? Email your song title with a short description to letters@metronews.com to be considered for our readers’ picks playlist.

Last week we wrote about the fact that several homegrown Bay Area rappers, including E-40 and Too Short, were oddly absent from the Rock the Bells lineup at Shoreline over the weekend, despite the fact that they performed at the festival’s San Bernadino show a week earlier. It appeared to be a simple scheduling issue, but E-40 thinks it’s more of a conspiracy—as in, an attempt by the City of Mountain View to keep him out of the Rock the Bells lineup—and presumably any show at Shoreline—for the last few years.

“For some reason, the city of Mountain View won’t let E-40 and Too Short perform. They can’t even give us an excuse or nothin’, they can’t say nothin’,” E-40 told Fuse TV in an interview. “They don’t even know why they won’t let us perform…They don’t want us performing on our own soil, man.”

Mountain View city officials said in a statement they have no control over who plays Rock the Bells, and that scheduling decisions are made entirely by festival organizers. Organizers from Guerilla Union and Live Nation, who jointly produced last weekend’s event, confirmed in an email that all scheduling for the show was done on the basis of availability.

The question then, of course, is why E-40 thought he was available when everyone else thought that he wasn’t—and where his notion that Mountain View had deep-sixed him from the Shoreline show came from in the first place. E-40’s publicist initially said he would look into the matter, but did not return a request for comment.

The Vallejo rapper and Mountain View may still make nice in the near future—RTB organizers have left open the possibility that he’ll perform at Shoreline next year.

Click here to view the embedded video.

One of the biggest hip-hop shows of the weekend arrived at an unlikely venue yesterday as Bay Area rap legend E-40 headlined Stanford’s BlackFest with one of L.A.’s hottest new MCs, Kendrick Lamar.

Metro photograph Aron Cooperman was at the university’s Frost Amphitheater to catch the action, which also included dance performances, vendors and a 3-on-3 basketball tournament.

Stanford is known for their labs, clinics, sports teams and ubiquitous sweatshirts—not hip-hop.  And certainly not two huge West Coast rappers, the legendary E-40 and rookie-of-the-year lyricist, Kendrick Lamar. Bother perform at the university Sunday, May 20.  

This year’s Stanford’s BlackFest Music Festival will be the largest yet, capping a long history that began as a family style picnic that started 20 years ago with activities that were centered around music, a  3-on-3 basketball tournaments, kids’ activities, dominoes and the like. It was fun and safe and simply grew as attendance multiplied. Through the years, it began fostering local acts and campus organizations as word spread beyond the campus.

In 2009, Day 26, an R&B group from Diddy’s reality show, Making the Band 4, headlined.  The following year, rapper Wale headlined and both events drew crowds of approximately 1,500, respectively.  Last year, Southern drawls and slumpy, keyboard beats boomed from the event as Big Sean and  Travis Porter headlined.  It was huge and, by then, a different monster.

The upcoming event, held at the Frost Amphitheater, features a balance of acts; veteran taste-maker and Vallejo icon E-40, known for verbose lyrics and his own lexicon of street slang is matched with Kendrick Lamar, Compton’s newest prodigal son; an MC with raps that skew more conscious than gangster. Both are heralded with huge followings. Local acts Black Greeks and Catch A Fyah will provide additional entertainment. Check out the newest (and most timely) collab between Kendrick and E-40 and Droop E (40’s son) “Catch A Fade”.

BlackFest is at Stanford University’s Frost Amphitheater on May 20. Tickets are $20 and doors open at 1:30pm.

FM station 94.9’s Wild Jam 2012 was set for this Thursday, May 10, and featured the most interesting line-up yet for the station’s sporadic HP Pavilion megaconcerts. Nicki Minaj, E-40, Gym Class Heroes, B.O.B., Dev and Neon Hitch were set to perform, with the headliners billed as “Nicki Minaj vs. E-40.” An intriguing tease, especially considering E-40’s collaboration with headliner Drake at the 2011 Wild Jam. But a tease is all it will ever be, now that this week’s Wild Jam has been cancelled. The question is: why?

When the cancellation was first announced last week, this didn’t seem like much of a story. Big shows like this can be shut down for a lot of reasons, and when 94.9 organizers pulled the plug, they said details would be forthcoming. Listeners speculated online about what the reason might be—slow ticket sales, first among them. And yet, the station’s crew has not only not announced further details since then, they seem to be actively avoiding the question. A call to 94.9 was met with the canned reply “Due to circumstances beyond our control, the Wild Jam has been cancelled.”

If those circumstances were indeed beyond the station’s control, what’s the harm in explaining them? One thing’s for sure: the questions isn’t going away. Listeners have only gotten more hostile on the topic, posting comments to the station’s Facebook page like: “So I’m wondering what is going on with Wild Jam? There is no further ‘update’ as promised…in fact any info about it at all is gone from the website. I am just wondering why it had to be cancelled. Seems like 94.9 should at least explain what happened.”

Another listener declared “Maybe instead of giving out drake tickets to new people you should give out drake tickets to the people that got screwed over for WILD JAM! Very disappointed in this station.” Yet another asked what, if anything, would be done to compensate those who had won tickets, and then accused the station of censoring comments on the topic: “And it’s weird how this post keeps removing itself.”

How this became a PR nightmare is difficult to understand. The station’s Wild Jams have never been regular events (there were two in 2008, none in 2009, two in 2010, and one last year), so rescheduling wouldn’t seem to be an issue. Some listeners seem to think that headliner Minaj pulled out, since she dropped the show from her list of tour dates, but since she could have done that after the show was cancelled, there’s no way to say for sure at this point. Minaj’s next shows are May 16 and 18 in Australia.