In Bay Area hip-hop, where San Francisco, Oakland, Richmond and Vallejo reign supreme, a producer from San Jose united the region and became a key architect of one of its most notable musical movements: hyphy. The party-centric subgenre became the Bay Area’s signature sound in the 2000s, and wouldn’t have been possible without Traxamillion’s uptempo, bass-heavy production on essential tracks like Keak Da Sneak’s “Super Hyphy,” The Jacka’s “Glamorous Lifestyle” and Traxamillion’s own “Sideshow,” featuring Too $hort and Mistah F.A.B.

Traxamillion, born Sultan Banks, died at the age of 42 on Jan. 2 at his aunt’s home in Santa Clara, where he was receiving in-home care for nasopharyngeal cancer. He is survived by his 19-year-old son Elijah Banks, his father Darryl Cudgel and countless friends and collaborators from the Bay Area hip-hop community, where he was a key figure.

“It’s my loss—it’s every rapper, it’s everybody in the Bay—it’s all our loss,” says Too $hort. “It’s a family, it goes generations. And he was a real member of that family.”

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