On the second level of the Santa Rosa Plaza, just across from the food court and next to Spencer’s Gifts, is Slick Bridge.
At first glance, Slick Bridge is a store that specializes in Hyphy-era memorabilia, a small slice of early-oughts Bay culture brought to life through throwback T-shirts, posters for Thizz Nation compilations and murals of Mac Dre.
For anyone who grew up in the region during the peak of Hyphy’s cultural cachet, there is surely a relic among the store’s collection that will provoke nostalgia for thumping bass and simpler times.
This, however, is not the full story of Slick Bridge. Moving through the front room, past the flat-brimmed hats and tall-tees, and into the back section of the space, there is a custom-built stage and DJ booth across from an iron press for T-shirt designs. Along the walls are signs for local clothing brands that have been invited to rent inventory space.
Everywhere one looks, there are paintings, drawings and etchings by local artists for sale wedged in between posters for live events happening in the store. All this, and I haven’t even mentioned the fully functioning recording studio they’ve built in their break room.
Historically, malls are more known for bland consumerism than they are for community-oriented organizing, but that doesn’t bother Mobsta Myk too much.
Owner and creative force behind Slick Bridge, Mobsta Myk moved to Sonoma County when he was in fifth grade in the late ’90s. He started rapping around the same time, inspired by his older brother, recorded his first tracks using a Karaoke machine and sold his mixtapes around town in order to finance better equipment.
He went to Santa Rosa High School in the early ’00s just as the Hyphy movement was starting to peak in the region, and performed shows at the Phoenix and Jasper O’Farells featuring acts like Andre Nickatina, Mistah FAB and Mac Dre himself. After more than 20 years of participating in the county’s hip-hop scene, he decided it was time to start giving back to the community, and thus Slick Bridge was born.
Slick Bridge currently operates as a retail space, a clothing company and design manufacturing hub for local creatives; a gallery for artists; a recording studio and distribution label with 9-10 local musicians being released through the name; and, recently, an event venue.
After almost four years at the mall location, Myk had the idea in January of this year to start hosting live events. To kick it off, Slick Bridge threw seven shows in seven days at the store with a roster of more than 50 performers and attracting crowds of up to 60 people. Recently, the store opened up as a market space for local artists to display and sell their work. A DJ spun records in the back while a live portrait artist took commissions up front for anyone who wanted to be drawn.
“For a while, we would go out and try to book a show, and they would ask what kind of show. We would say it was a hip-hop show, and immediately get shut down,” says Boogfromthe7.
Boog is a frequent collaborator and creative partner of Mobsta Myk’s who has been involved with Slick Bridge and the hip-hop scene at large in Sonoma County for just as long as Myk.
While Sonoma has always had a bustling music scene, hip-hop has often gone underrepresented on bills. Having hustled his music for more than two decades, Myk has adopted a Field of Dreams mentality: If he builds it, they will come.
“I want to keep building on what we already have and give artists a chance to get their names out there,” says Myk. In our conversation, I ask him if he thinks Santa Rosa, or Sonoma County at large, has its own identity as far as hip-hop is concerned. “We can,” he says. “There are so many people out here who want to make music who just need the skills to do it.” Why not Slick Bridge, then? Why wait for someone else to start organizing when one can just start to create a new cultural paradigm for their city out of a store in the mall?
Myk has even higher aspirations, though. He is currently in the process of registering a non-profit called Slick Bridge Arts, with which he hopes to open his studio for free education programming for area youth.
“The idea is to teach kids how to make music, but also the technical and business sides of the industry as well,” he says. Through Slick Bridge Arts, teens in Santa Rosa could have the opportunity to learn the fundamentals of producing, recording and engineering music, which Myk hopes will set them up for career prospects in the industry down the line. “People don’t really understand that music is a business. You have to be able to make good songs, but you need to know the business side as well.”
Myk currently mentors artists on distribution, event booking and marketing along with all the other hats he wears. Synthesizing all of these different avenues is the Make The Cut contest, a summer-long competition hosted by Slick Bridge for local rappers who are looking to level up.
Every Thursday for the months of July and August, aspiring lyricists will gather at Slick Bridge and face challenges such as the hottest song, crowd control and versatility of sound for a chance to move onto the finals. Competitors are judged by Myk, other members of the Slick Bridge family and a special guest each night.
The competition will culminate on Aug. 28 at Barrelproof Lounge in Santa Rosa, where the top two to four finalists will go head to head in front of a live crowd and panel of judges to determine the winner. The champion will receive a fully produced 10-song project, free distribution, a radio interview and the opportunity to tour the project in multiple cities in the region.
As a longtime resident of Santa Rosa, I have rarely had anything nice to say about the Plaza. But maybe I should be more like Mobsta Myk. Instead of wistfully imagining what should be, Myk has made due with the resources available to him and begun to foster a community within the strange realm of mid-century consumerism.
Maybe things would work a lot better if more people thought like him.
Maybe we should all get together and have a party at the mall.
Slick Bridge is at 2035 Santa Rosa Plaza, Santa Rosa. More at instagram.com/slick_bridge.
