Caleborate returns with “Hear Me Out”
"Everybody conversate the same now anyways, so don't mind me, I'm just trying to tell my story a different way," -- Caleborate continues to speak his truth and authenticity on "Hear Me Out", the first single off an upcoming August 2 EP. Caleb was always marked as up-next in the Bay's long line of up-and-coming MCs but 2017's Real Person authenticated him as a bonafide storyteller with a truth to be heard. Now that his rhymes have reached beyond Berkeley, into the far corners of Paris and Berlin, Caleb now must reckon with what newfound fame and attention will bring [...]
Best of 2018: Robert Alleyne’s favorite photos from 2018
The Seshen (photo: Robert Alleyne) I moved from San Francisco back to London early in 2018, and in some ways I thought I’d left the Bay Area music scene behind. Then the summer happened, and it felt like week after week musicians from the Northern California (or with Bay Area connections) were visiting. Jay Som packed out Oslo in Hackney, and Fantastic Negrito was, well, fantastic in Camden. Caleborate brought the house down in Shoreditch, and on the same night, the Pendletons brought the funk to East London. Jay Som Caleborate As winter closed in, the Seshen, Geographer, and Rituals of [...]
Beyond The Bay: Caleborate at the Old Blue Last, London
Caleborate (photo: Robert Alleyne) Bay Area rapper Caleborate played to a busy crowd on Friday night for the London stop of his European tour. The Sacramento-raised Berkeley resident, performed a set that leaned heavily on his critically-acclaimed third album, Real Person, at the Old Blue Last. A Friday night show in the hipster neighborhood of Shoreditch can be tough, and the 25-year-old musician had to call out a few overly intoxicated attendees distracting him during the deeply reflective "Down." This call-out was much to the delight of the many fans in the room. It did not distract from a performance that [...]
Mixtape: Local Musicians at Eleven Upcoming Bay Area Music Festivals
Download: Mixtape: Local Musicians at Eleven Upcoming Bay Area Music Festivals (Podcast #429) This episode first ran on KQED.org. With the debut of the Blurry Vision Fest in Oakland earlier this month, and Bottlerock Napa Valley and Carnaval San Francisco taking place this weekend, music festival season is officially underway in the Bay Area. This mixtape features music from Bay Area bands performing at festivals around the region in the next several months. Outside Lands may be the biggest summer music festival around -- with a 2018 lineup notable for the overdue inclusion of female headliners and a ton of [...]
Best of 2016: Pranav Trewn’s Bay Area Rap Hall of Fame
You’ll probably hear that 2016 hip-hop belonged to Atlanta. This is the year the region’s most prominent ambassadors cemented their status as national icons. Young Thug released three increasingly excellent commercial mixtapes that culminated with his greatest work yet, this summer’s JEFFERY, which nabbed him a handful of radio staples with “Digits” and the Travis Scott-assisted “Pick Up The Phone” along the way. Meanwhile, Future became a verifiable festival-topper, Drake tour mate, and bona fide rock star, landing his very own Rolling Stone cover over the summer. 2016 also saw the breakthroughs of sure-to-be career artists in 21 Savage and [...]
Live This Month: September 2016 — an audio guide to upcoming SF concerts
http://media.libsyn.com/media/thebaybridged/LTM_September_2016.mp3 Download: Live This Month: September 2016 (Podcast #391) Support for this podcast is provided by Goldstar. Visit their web site at goldstar.com/thebaybridged In Live This Month, we sample some of the great local and out-of-town bands performing in the coming month in the San Francisco Bay Area. We always include a healthy amount of new and emerging bands in these episodes, but this month's mix also includes a handful of reunions. While the founders of P.S. Eliot, Katie and Allison Crutchfield, are now occupied with Waxahatchee and Swearin', the sisters have reunited their early band for a series of [...]
Beyond the Bay and back: An interview with Caleborate
Caleborate, also known by the alias TBKTR (That Black Kid That Raps), is a Berkeley-based artist about to slam through an infamous regional glass ceiling — one that’s held back a number of promising local figures from receiving national acclaim. Furthermore, he’s doing it without leaving behind even an ounce of his celebratory hometown spirit. Caleb’s 2015 debut full-length Hella Good was a soulful meditation waxing poetic on AC Transit and Based ideals, indebted equally in time to generational icons such as Kanye West as it was in place to Bay Area legends like E-40. Yet with his forthcoming project [...]
Mixtape: Fourteen San Francisco Bands to Watch in 2016
http://media.libsyn.com/media/thebaybridged/Bands_to_Watch_2016.mp3 Download: Mixtape: Fourteen San Francisco Bands to Watch in 2016 (Podcast #379) Every year, it's an exciting challenge to compile our "Bands to Watch" mixtape: exciting because it heralds another year full of great music from the Bay Area's rising stars, and a challenge because there are far too many young acts worth including. This year's mix of bands to keep an eye on in 2016 collects fourteen artists from around the Bay Area. Notably, all of them are new to The Bay Bridged podcast, offering a variety of sounds that include forward-thinking bedroom pop, stripped-down singer-songwriter tunes, energized [...]
Caleborate transcends the Bay Area, represents his hometown along the way
Young enough to have an open mind, but old enough to be mindful, Sacramento-born/Berkeley-based rapper Caleborate is an immediately striking talent brewing in the Bay Area. He’s versatile, but shrewd — always adapting his voice to the particulars of what his tracks demand with a level of precision atypical of such a fresh voice. With an abundance of confidence funneled through a keen self-awareness, Caleborate can conjure up comparisons to College Dropout-era Kanye. Lyrically, the playful rapper is perceptively focused, but through wide-eyes transfixed on the road that has led him to his current heights, and with a view of [...]