Image and video hosting by TinyPicWritten by Drew Ricketts

The NBA playoffs has enlightened the nation about California sensibilities in the form of Baron Davis and the Golden State Warriors. Something about the trade winds in the Bay Area, the swirling counterculture homed in San Fran and the urban chasm between L.A. and the real L.A. suggests that the state is really a country within a country.

In Danny Hoch’s one-man show “Jails, Hospitals and Hip Hop” his Flip character explains to Jay Leno in brief about the musical/stylistic differences between New York rap and West Coast rap saying that each reflects the geography and mindset of its originator. It is not a far-fetched idea to conflate the free-wheeling style of the Golden State Warriors, or the spacey musings of native son Madlib with the endemic spirit that is his hometown. Madlib leaves room to exhale marijuana smoke in the measure of his bars and beat structure. Consequently, he has gained a following specifically attuned to the aforementioned hippie sensibility of the Left Coast. Crafting masterworks with his eccentric peers (Jay Dee, MF Doom) and creating characters to extend his virtuosity to new planes (Quasimoto, Yesterday’s New Quintet) has certainly heightened his status as an alt-society, pothead favorite.

Despite seeming to belong to a faction of psychedelic musicians, Madlib belongs to the tradition of music much more than his renowned contemporaries. In a sense, the Warriors are also more involved in the history of basketball by similarly infusing a regional style into the conversation about the overall sport. Los Angeles produces this kind of iconoclastic, troublesome offspring, willing to take things where they need to go.

The founder of Stones Throw records, Peanut Butter Wolf, has provided a cistern for Madlib’s extraordinary brainchildren, including but not limited to: clay-mation videos, concept albums and bold chicanery. He has never been rebuffed by the mainstream because PBW does not necessarily need him to surface there. The two have combined the aesthetic of sneaker-fiendin’, weed-enthused, brazen Californians into fierce projects that find only small corners in this matrix we call hip hop. Their latest oeuvre “The Other Side” is a CD/DVD package that serves as an envoy through the cool kid section of L.A. The CD includes Madlib’s eclectic selection of reggae tunes like Leroy “Horsemouth” Wallace’s “Herb Vendor” and jazz abstraction “Nuclear War” from Sun Ra Arkestra to modern cuts like “Greenery” (Quasimoto) and “Infinity” (Madlib). Suffice it to say, the theme never diverts from mellowness, laxity and the larger point that L.A. is and forever will be a great place to chill and smoke out while ingesting sun and scene.

The DVD portion proves effective as an advertisement for trendy L.A. stores like AAArdvark’s and Sportie LA, which house rare sneakers and fashion plates galore. Wherever it may have astonished with name-drops, it lacked in substance. Peanut Butter Wolf goes from shop to shop trying on outfits and speaking to proprietors and chefs, asking few questions if any. Compared to the CD, the DVD may be the supplemental swag that you can live with even if you hardly watch it. I’m guessing that if anyone wanted to have a guided tour of L.A. hot-spots, he would not consult a magazine-sponsored DVD posing as a tastemaker’s Bible. Nevertheless, the Time Out “Other Side” package transports you to L.A. as swiftly as a Baron Davis crossover while you’re lamenting lulls in East Coast weather.

Go Warriors.

Special thanks to the writers at FreeDarko for informing my view of all things basketball/music lately.

To view artwork and video clips of TOSOLA, click here.

For more info on The Other Side Of Los Angeles, check out www.stonesthrow.com and www.myspace.com/madlib.