Mac Dre
Mac Dre biography and full discography: Vallejo’s Country Club Crest, Khayree, recording from prison, Romp and Thizz Entertainment, “Thizzle Dance” and the birth of hyphy.
The Crest
Andre Hicks was born in Oakland in 1970 and grew up mostly in Vallejo, where he went to Hogan High. He started rapping as MC Dre in 1984, then switched to Mac Dre, and always repped the Country Club Crest neighborhood. His early records with Vallejo producer Khayree made him a local star and a mentor to a young Mac Mall.
Records from a cell
In 1992 he was charged with conspiracy to commit robbery and sentenced to five years. He kept recording anyway, doing vocals over the phone from jail. Back n da Hood and Young Black Brotha (1993) came out while he was locked up, and Rolling Stone later wrote that making records while incarcerated “made national headlines and burnished the Mac Dre legend.”
Romp and Thizz
Released in 1996, he started Romp Records and came back with Stupid Doo Doo Dumb (1998). He then moved to Sacramento and founded Thizz Entertainment. Thizzelle Washington (2002) introduced the “Thizzle Dance,” and his goofy, wild, dance-first records became the foundation of the Bay's hyphy movement. “Get Stupid,” from Ronald Dregan: Dreganomics (2004), is often called hyphy's defining song.
Legacy
On November 1, 2004, after a show in Kansas City, Missouri, Mac Dre was shot and killed on the highway. The case remains unsolved. Thizz Entertainment, now run by his mother, has kept his music in circulation, and his influence runs through every Bay Area artist who followed.
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