Woodie

Antioch

Ryan Mitchell Wood was born on November 20, 1975, in San Leandro, California, and moved to Antioch at 10, raised by a single mother he came back to again and again in his lyrics. He went through Antioch High, Prospects and Live Oak without graduating, was running with the Norteños by his teens, and did time in Folsom State Prison for assault with a deadly weapon. His mentor, Carlos “Blackbird” Ramirez, died in a 1998 standoff with Antioch police.

East Co. Co. Records

He started rapping at 15 and taught himself to engineer and produce. In 1997 he started East Co. Co. Records, putting up his Buick Skylark as collateral for the loan, and in 1998 he released Yoc Influenced. He modeled the label on JT the Bigga Figga’s Get Low Recordz and sold it by hand, dropping CDs at record stores and putting up flyers himself. Murder Dog put him in front of a national audience, and Koch Records signed him for Demonz N My Sleep in 2001, which he produced almost entirely himself.

His beats were eerie and slow, creeping synths over heavy bass, and his lyrics were about sin, Catholic guilt, forgiveness and a mother praying he would quit: “Damn, I try to change my ways, but these streets are calling me.” “Norte Sidin’” was his biggest record, and “Yoc Life” became a phrase all over Northern California.

Northern Expozure

Woodie put the rest of East Contra Costa County on with eight volumes of the Northern Expozure compilation series. He produced “Journey,” the lead single on A-Wax’s Savage Timez, and brought up Big Tone and Lil Shadow. More than anyone, he made Antioch the center of Northern California’s Latino rap scene.

Rest in peace

Woodie died on March 7, 2007, in Florence, Oregon. He was 31. His death was reported as a self-inflicted gunshot, though the circumstances are still disputed. In 2018 his memorial marker was stolen from Holy Cross Cemetery in Antioch. Younger NorCal rappers, Lil Toro among them, named him as an influence.