Ghost Ride the Whip

What do you get when you combine ecstasy pills, cars rolling with no drivers, and rhyme and meter rap? The Bay area Hyphy Movement. Hyphy is a slang for hyperactive, which is how people act when jacked up on X at a rap show. Our hero is Mac Dre, a wild skinny dude who is a cross between T oo Short and Shock G of Digital Underground fame, who both are coincidentally from the Bay area as well. The story is well documented by DJ Vlad, and interviews are done with Mac Dre himself, E-40, Keak da Sneak, MC Hammer, Too Short and Mistah FAB. They chronicle the humble beginnings of the movement in the streets of Oakland, which started with makeshift block parties that evolved into drag races that concentrated on a form of drifting cars in major roadways and intersections, of course before being caught by the police. The heart of the movement depended on artists selling their own work out of car trunks and in anyplace that would let them, including the corner convenience store.

The movement gathered steam and took on a different energy in about 1994 with the introduction of Ecstasy pills. The act of being high on the pills is referred to as ‘thizzing’. Rappers began to rap about thizzing all up and through their songs. I often wondered what would happen if X made it into the ghetto; a place full of poverty, heartache, struggle and pain. The feelings given by X were profound to the oppressed people in the hood and the practice of using X as an escape became commonplace. What concerned me is seeing young kids middle school age singing along in the crowds dressed in the rave-like garb talking about thizzing. One of the rappers said that he discouraged kids from thizzing, however kids do what they see older people do. As the movement jiggled and jingled on; our hero Mac Dre’s popularity grows by leaps and bounds. His music is getting popular all over the land and people want to get Hyphy with him all over the country.

The street foolishness also evolves from drifting and burning tires into ghost riding. Ghost riding is when a driver allows his car to roll at a very slow speed, usually less than 10 miles per hour and then gets out of the car and climbs onto the hood and dances or pretends to surf. If there are other occupants in the car they do the same, so you can see a slow moving car with 5 or 6 people standing on various parts of it with the stereo blaring some hyphy music. It’s no doubt something that sounds good when one is thizzing. One rapper made reference that if you want to be really cool, you do it on a residential street without hitting anything. If you really want to impress a girl, you get out of the car and walk next to it while talking to her. I couldn’t imagine a guy putting me through that. Ghostride the Whip is one of those movies that will leave you with a dropped jaw for sure. Check it.