Shoreline Mafia is leading the neo- West Coast rap sound that will continue to make waves in the next few years. I first starting listening the Shoreline Mafia early last year, they had a familiarity about them that I noticed from somewhere. The smoothness of their beats and rhymes took me back to the early West Coast hip hop days, with sounds similar to Warren G and Nate Dogg, as well as obvious influence from Bay Area artists like E-40. It is obvious the Mafia is trying to stick to the roots of where their from, and they deliver their style with a a very dirty aggressiveness and grit that is not seen very much nowadays. It’s very much a fresh take on gangsta rap. The group is made up of Ohgeesy, Rob Vicious, Fenix, and Master Kato, and they are based out of Los Angeles, which apparent by their sound and flow. Ohgeesy and Fenix met on the streets of LA in a graffiti gang, and met the other two members a couple years later. They have actually been producing music since 2012, but did not start rapping as a group until 2016. Although they are producers, their two biggest tracks, “Musty” and “Bottle Service,” were actually produced by Ron-Ron, an LA based producer who actually has produced a lot of songs in the neo-West Coast sound. I will write more about Ron Ron at a different date. Not every song of theirs feature every member of the group. “Bottle Service” and “Musty” only feature Ohgeesy and Fenix. Ohgeesy in both these songs has such a laid back southern Cali style, not that unlike 236 or Westside Connection. Fenix also raps with this smooth style, but brings a grittiness that really makes the song pop. On the song “Bands,” Fenix is not present, But Ohgeesy provides the chorus for Master Kato and Rob Vicious to go at it, Rob definitely living up to the “Vicious” moniker, with a much gruffer sound kind of like 03 Greedo. embracing the neo-West Coast movement, Shoreline has collaborated with a lot of other gritty sounding LA based rappers, like 03 Greedo and Drakeo the Ruler. They also have a few trap flavored bangers as well, like “Whuss the Deal” and “Vicious,” but bring their signature grittiness to these tracks to keep them from sounding like generic trap. They also like to play into the meme culture about the LA public opinion of the group. Last year, a local LA news station did a news piece about the addiction to lean of many of youth in the area, specifically highlighting Shoreline Mafia, who rap about sipping a lot. They obviously thought this was comical, as they use the clip as the intro for the music video for “Bottle Service,” as well as using a sound bite from the news story in multiple other songs. Shoreline Mafia has such a great blend of gangsta rap and new LA influenced gritty trap that I know will resonate with older and younger hip hop audiences alike. Be on the look out for Ohgeesy and the boys, because in the coming years I am positive they will blow up even more and influence a lot of artists coming out of the West Coast as well. Check out their music in the Spotify link below!!

https://open.spotify.com/artist/4tYSBptyGeVyZsk8JC4JHZ?si=XBoUFUo8QjCTcymm5DZ0fw