OAKLAND

COMMENTARY, By: Janea Asis

The Top 5 Songs You’ll Hear At The Side Show

1. “Hyphie” by E-40 and The Federation
2. “In My Life” by Juvenile
3. “D-O-G” by The Big Tymers
4. “What Is It” by Frontline
5. “Freak-A-Leak” by Petey Pablo

The Top 5 Car Assessories Needed For A Side Show

1. Fresh Paint & Clean Interior ( Preferably Leather)
2. Rims ( 20”in. or higher)
3. Music/Car stereo system
4. T.V.’s/DVD's
5. Hyped Up Engine

The Top 5 Outfits For Females At The Side Show

1. Mitchell&Ness Throwback Dresses/Skirts
2. Throwback Coats w/ matching hats
3. Roca Wear Coats w/ matching jeans
4. Apple Bottom Fits
5. Baby Phat Fits

Imagine this scene: you’re cruising down the streets of East Oakland, Macarthur BLVD. a.k.a. “Tha Strip” to be exact on a hot, summer dusk.

The streets are crowded with people standing on just about every street corner, females are wearing their most revealing outfits while taking their neighborhood walks and children are playing in a water fountain provided by a rigged-up fire hydrant .

Traffic is thick, some people have destinations while other just want to show off their candy painted cars, sitting on rims with TVs in the seats, windows down and the sound system thumping on full blast. So you continue to cruise down the strip when suddenly traffic comes to a complete halt. You see a lot of commotion at the intersection ahead so you get out of your car to get a better look.

A huge crowd of youngstas are standing around and cars are zig-zagging while their passengers are hanging out of the windows with the doors open.

All of a sudden a 5.0 mustang whips out of the blue and starts doing figure eights and donuts in the middle of the intersection. Then a group of dudes all on ninja bikes come down the street popping wheelies and doing other tricks. The audience of hyphie youngstas gets pumped up because the driver of the 5.0 has just started up the Side Show. There is no cutting through the large crowd so you’ll just have to sit there and wait until the police comes and breaks it up.

Side Shows originated in East Oakland and have been around since the 1980s, also known as the crack cocaine era, but back in those days the Side Show use to crank harder. By that I mean that it used to last much longer because the police didn’t try to break it up and it drew a lot more people. Almost everybody who used to make the Side Show fun is either dead or in prison.

Nowadays the Side Show is basically a huge gathering that has no specific location ‘cause it can move at any time. It’s where people of all ages and races from all over the Bay Area come to meet the opposite sex, listen to music, ride around and compete to see who has the cleanest cars and who can perform the best tricks.

Those who only want to spectate bring their video cameras to film girls that pass by and cars as they’re burning rubber. Those who actually participate in the Side Show has to have the cleanest cars, trucks, motorcycles or whatever the case may be and they have to have skills behind the wheel.

The 5.0 mustang crew and the Ruff Ryders Motorcycle Club are regular participants at the Side Show.

All year long people wait for the summer months to come just to be at the Side Show. During the year, they stack all of their earnings from their jobs, hustles – or by whatever means they’re getting bread – to buy their cars and all of the accessories (music, rims, paint, ect.). Soon as summer hits they bring out their prized possessions.

Most of the drivers in the Side Shows are dudes. Very seldom you will find a female who knows how to swang it. Females usually just watch but some like to dance and flash themselves in front of video cameras in order to get their 15 seconds of fame.

Although many people I know are down with the Side Show it is frowned upon by the authorities.

To me, the Side Show is a cultural thing. Just like other cultures have festivals, parades, or ceremonies to celebrate their heritage, young Black, Brown and Yellow Oakland has Side Shows.

Some people label the Side Show as being “rowdy” or “dangerous” but really it’s nothing like that. I mean, don’t get me wrong, sometimes bad things can happen.

In Febuary of 2002, 22 year old U’Kendra Johnson died when a side show participant – who was being chased by the Police – lost control of the car and slammed into the parked car that U’Kendra was in.

Although nothing can justify U’Kendras tragic death, it’s not right to strictly blame it on Side Shows. Side Shows bring people in my community together, which is not common because usually everybody is “funking” – fighting – over turfs, money or whatever.

Since U’Kendras death California has passed laws that gives police the right to impound the cars of those who participate in Side Shows for 31 days, with the owner having to pay $1,000 to get their cars back.

When I’m at a Side Show I just spectate which is satisfying enough for me. I’m usually with one of my cousins because they all have clean cars and together we make the Side Show hyphie. Every once and a while they’ll let me drive but that’s very rare because I don’t have a drivers license. During the Side Show I usually mingle with the crowd, dance to the music playing from someone’s car stereo or just watch people swang their cars or do tricks on their motorcycles.

One of the Side Show experiences I remember very vividly was on the night the Oakland Raiders made it to the Superbowl. The streets were filled with Raider fans and others who just wanted be out. It was so many people out that there was a Side Show on every corner in East Oakland. It was stop and go traffic on the streets all night. Me and my cousin were riding down the Foothill Blvd. Strip and we ran into a side show on Seminary Blvd.

My cousin parked the car and we got out so that we could walk through the crowd and see what we could see: girls dancing on the hoods of cars while guys video taped them, 5.0 mustangs and Chevelles whipping donuts at the same time and youngstas yelling out their hoods.

This lasted for about 45 minutes and then all of a sudden we were ambushed by the police from every direction. The police helicopter had the spotlight on the crowd and police officers started coming from everywhere. They hopped out of AC Transit busses, Expeditions and regular squad cars with riot gear on They began to wildly open fire on us with bean bag bullets.

Everyone frantically scattered trying to get into their vehicles and avoid getting hit. But the police didn’t stop us. We simply drove to the next Side Show which was about three blocks up. The night went like that (us going from Side Show to Side Show) until about 4 o’clock in the morning when we were exhausted and decided to call it a night.

I participate in Side Shows because you get to see a lot of clean cars and there really isn’t anything else to participate in in Oakland. All of the night clubs require for you to be 21 and over and all of the functions for youth my age get shut down by the police.