My family didn’t have cable television, but music videos from Andre Nickatina, Mac Dre and Spice 1 were in steady rotation in our home. To catch glimpses of our favorite Bay Area rappers, my siblings and I would rush home from school and tune into the California Music Channel.

I still have VHS tapes I recorded in the ’90s of my favorite CMC broadcasts: Messy Marv running plays as a mob boss in “On the DL.” Mr. ILL and Devon spitting game at a house party in “Can U Swing It.” Dancers strutting in San Quinn’s “Shock the Party.” It was CMC that encouraged my generation to revere Bay Area artists as much as we did their internationally known counterparts.

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