As I mentioned last week, the Golden State Warriors being in the NBA Finals puts all eyes on Oakland. Despite the images of the Finals in the Bay Area often focusing on the San Francisco skyline, Oakland is very much a subject of conversation. As evidence of that, Tony Reali, host of ESPN's Around the Horn asked his media panel during a break to list off the musical acts to come out of Oakland.
As you might expect, that's a long list, and it's interesting to watch the ATH guys first go with the first ones to come to mind and then start going to Google to look it up, with some surprised reactions to the results.
Reali makes sure to point out he wants "Oakland, NOT San Francisco acts".
Bomani Jones comes out with the quickest responses, listing off Too $hort and E-40. Pablo Torre says MC Hammer with an "I mean (come on)" as is the expected mention.
Then Bill Plaschke says "Somebody from Huey Lewis and the News has to be from Oakland." which prompts Bomani to give him a look and "hold on, hold, Huey Lewis is from Oakland??" and then goes on to joke that if anyone from Huey Lewis and the News was from Oakland in that era, his neighbors must have thought he was selling drugs.
Just so you know, Huey Lewis and the News didn't have any members from Oakland. Although they did have two members from Sacramento (Drummer Bill Gibson, and guitarist/saxaphone player Johnny Colla). Keyboardist Sean Hopper was from San Francisco and Huey Lewis himself was originally from New York.
Anyway, back to the ATH guys and their search for Oakland artists...
Pablo Torre, while busy scanning the internet for info says that 2-Pac lived in Oakland for a while, because he was part of Digital Underground which originated in Oakland. He also mentions Billy Joe Armstrong, lead singer of Green Day.
Then Bomani finds the motherload, mentioning En Vogue, Sheila E, Larry Graham (Sly and the Family Stone), Tony Toni Tone, The Pointer Sisters, and Lenny Williams.
Did they miss anyone who is like a "Come on, how do you miss them?"?
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