Trunk Boiz

Da Trunk Boiz
"Your name's been ringin'. I want to do some music with you." That's what multiplatinum rap icon Too $hort said when he approached the Trunk Boiz in 2010. By "ringin'," $hort was referring to the fact that the Trunk Boiz, an up-and-coming Oakland rap outfit and viral video sensation, managed to capture millions of YouTube hits and sell thousands of tracks on the web and the hand-to-hand underground market. That's precisely that kind of hustle that put Oakland on the rap map back in the eighties, when Too $hort went "ghetto gold" with virtually no radio airplay, selling over 50,000 albums out of the trunk of his car.
The Trunk Boiz (an acronym for Trunk Rattlin' Unique Non-Stop Knock) are carrying on that hard-hustle tradition into the digital age. They're probably best known for their song and video "Scraper Bike," a bonafide global sensation with four million YouTube views and counting. The video garnered the group a YouTube Award nomination in 2007 and coverage in the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Momentum bike magazine, Telemundo's MUN2.com and Bay Area Fox affiliate KTVU. They also appeared on their bikes in high-profile music videos for Kafani's hit "Fast Like Nascar" and The Federation's "18 Dummy."
Just what exactly is a "scraper bike"? It's an underground phenomenon, shot straight from the 'hood into cyberspace. The Trunk Boiz started the trend when they decided to trick their bikes out in classic Oakland style, complete with candy paint, flashy rims, and knockin' speakers. They wrote an ode to their customized rides, and the legend began. Now everyone from the street-corner hustler to the fixed-gear hipster wants to floss on a scraper bike.
It's this trendsetting, enterprising spirit that sets the Trunk Boiz apart. Harnessing their underground clout, the Trunk Boiz run their own entertainment company, G.N.D.T.—an acronym for "Gorillas N Da Trunk." The name is fitting because, according to group member B-Janky, if you bang a Trunk Boiz beat in your car, it sounds quite literally like "wild animals knocking in yo trunk."



That's the energy Too $hort wanted to tap into in 2010, when he lent a verse to the Trunk Boiz track "Don't Act Like a B!tch," a 'hood homage to $hort's famous catchphrase. That partnership landed the Trunk Boiz an opening slot at the KMEL Summer Jam that year, performing to an Oakland Arena crowd of over 30,000! (It's a complicated chain of events, but it began when Too $hort recorded a more radio-friendly version of the song with fellow rap legend E-40, who scored a hit with it and later released a remix featuring 50 Cent. Now Too $hort and the Trunk Boiz are frequent collaborators.)
Of the Trunk Boiz sound, B-Janky attests, "We make feel-good music. But we're versatile." Although they came up in the high-spirited Bay Area music and dance scene known as the "hyphy movement," the Trunk Boiz can't be pigeonholed. One of their most popular tracks, "Cupcake No Fillin'," is more a slow jam than a club burner, generating its own heat in the streets, particularly among the ladies. To date, it's sold over 20,000 units.
As rappers, producers, community activists, and entrepreneurs, the Trunk Boiz are as diverse as they are versatile, representing 'hoods all over Oakland and beyond. The group stands as a rare unified front that transcends turf antagonisms, with members from East, West, and North Oakland and throughout the Bay Area. The Trunk Boiz consist of the eight member collective, B*Janky, Filthy Fam, Artis, 2Deep, Reece da Beast, Yung Juice, Alexander tha Grate, and A Mac Named Sir.
Whether by blood or by association, the Trunk Boiz are family business. Those far-reaching family ties allow them to roll into any of Oakland's roughest neighborhoods and attract welcoming crowds. For street-team promotions, they often "ride around Oakland twenty-deep with the bass in the speakers," selling CDs "out the trunk" of a customized three-wheel scraper bike. You can't get much more Oakland than that.



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