After a four-year hiatus from releasing music, Oakland rapper, Ezale has finally given us another funky, Town jam called “Raised Like This.” With over 1 million views on YouTube, this song has one of the funkiest beats I’ve heard in quite a while. Produced by the late Hawk Beatz (R.I.P.) and boasting a slick synth melody with a funky backup guitar that, together, has a taste of Afrika Bambaata’s “Looking For The Perfect Beat,” which was the signature track of the movie Beat Street. This 1980s breakdancing-drama film is, admittedly, pretty good. This beat is also equipped with a baseline that has a sound reminiscent of the Parliament-Funkadelic style “fart-bass” and a perfect trumpet that isn’t too overpowering yet collaborates impeccably with all of the other instruments to provide that ideal hype necessary to get your blood moving and your back up from against the wall!

As if Ezale’s brash flow and Hawk Beatz’ raw funk production weren’t already enough to get you dancing and giggin’ at that summer B.B.Q., Bay Area sideshow, and driving celebrity Sideshow Tone - @sideshowtone appears in an all-black, brand new Ford Shelby Cobra Mustang as Ezale’s driver and shows off a little bit of his drifting and swingin’ while driving Ezale around The Town- Oakland, for an action-packed day that even includes a cop chase. Stewy Films directs the video and includes a beautiful memorial to Hawk Beatz at the end.

It seems like it was just a couple of years ago that Ezale hit the scene with his debut single “5 Minutes of Funktown” (from his mixtape Drug Funnie- a play on the name “Doug Funnie,” the main character of ‘90s children’s cartoon Doug) which is just shy of 7M views on YouTube as of the time of me writing this. In reality, that was actually eight years ago. In the meantime, he has done some notable work, including an installment of The Tonight Show mixtape series hosted by and co-starring legendary Bay Area producer DJ Fresh, featuring the single “Day Ones (The World’s Freshest).” Ezale has a charismatic, devil-may-care party style mixed with a street element that is very much in the spirit of the late and great Mac Dre. He typically raps about any aspects of being a player in The Game, as well as the daily struggle of maneuvering in the streets of Oakland, and other topics including prosperity, loyalty to friends and family, partying, and women, and is intent on bringing the funk back to the Town!

If you haven’t had a chance to enjoy Ezale, it’s not too late to get into a great young artist. He has already released two teaser trailers for his next single, “Hotel Motel,” and based on the name alone, and I already can’t wait for it to drop! All of Ezale’s music is released by Foreal Foreal Entertainment and is streaming on YouTube under the account @EzaleCantSeeWell as well on iTunes, Spotify, GooglePlay, and all other streaming platforms.