Bring the Bass Back 🔊

Welcome to Golden Dragon, a newsletter by Eric Diep about Asians in hip-hop and my takes on trending topics in AAPI pop culture. Golden Dragon is a rotation of interviews, reviews, news, critical perspectives, and random blogs about music I recommend.

• I take a trip down memory lane and rank P-Lo’s 10 best songs. I miss HBK Gang!

My first time meeting P-Lo wasn’t even for a story.

Nine years ago, the good folks at Audible Treats set up a lunch hang with P-Lo and me at Grill 21 in New York, where the restaurant’s tagline is “authentic Filipino cuisine.” I had dasilog and some lumpia that day. It was in May, around the time More Than Anything just dropped, an album that remains true to the Bay Area sound and pushes it forward. It was easily the album of the summer in 2017.

A month later, I got assigned a concert preview and wrote it for the Willamette Week, the Portland, Oregon alt-weekly I used to freelance for. I took my cousin to the show at the Hawthorne Theatre. He was on tour with Rexx Life Raj. When he did “Feel Good,” “Same Squad,” and “Put Me on Somethin’” to close out the show, it was a movie.

In 2026, P-Lo is preparing to drop new music (more on that soon). I thought it would be fun to put together a definitive ranking of his 10 best songs. I included songs he’s produced, even if he isn’t featured as a rapper. Drake’s “2 Hard 4 The Radio” makes the cut, a top 10 debut at No. 9 on the Hot 100 dated May 30. Others include some deep cuts from his days in HBK Gang, a collective he co-founded with Iamsu!, Chief, and Skipper.

Let me know if you agree or if you have any substitutes that are out of the box.

10. “Going to Work”

Back in the 2010s, I learned about HBK Gang through The Fader’s Naomi Zeichner, who spent a week with them for a feature during a time music publications still did those kinds of things. “Going to Work” was one of the singles from MBMGC 2, where he does interpolations of Drake’s “The Language” and 50 Cent’s “21 Questions.” “Going to Work,” produced by Iamsu!, is a good starting point for P-Lo’s music, a song that helped revitalize the Bay Area rap scene during a time when it was stagnant. 

9. “Show You” f/ Sage The Gemini

Sage the Gemini was red hot back then. “Red Nose” and “Gas Pedal” were all heat. When HBK Gang was active, they collaborated and made songs without any formal announcement, dropping the tracks on SoundCloud. On “Show You,” P-Lo drops one of the hardest opening bars: “Spanish girls call me chinito." He delivers a hyphy banger for the dance floor, keeping the mood light as he shows you how a real one does it.

8. Wiz Khalifa - “Bout Me” f/ Problem and Iamsu!

In my early days as a hip-hop journalist, major labels would host private album listening sessions and invite industry insiders to get a preview before the release date. I can’t believe this was 14 years ago, but I was one of the young scribes covering Wiz’s O.N.I.F.C. as he played the tracks off the album. “Bout Me” lives on the deluxe version, where I blogged that it was a “laid-back heavy-hitter.” Cringe lol. But I later found out P-Lo, part of The Invasion production crew, was behind the beat. It’s one of his early breakout hits and makes me nostalgic for this era of rap.

7. Kool John and P-Lo - “Blue Hunnids”

I’m deep in an HBK Gang rabbit hole. Off Kool John and P-Lo’s Moovie!, “Blue Hunnids” is slang for the crisp $100 bills you get withdrawn from your bank of choice. I think the popularity of Tyga’s “Rack City” influenced a lot of rappers to make songs for the strip clubs. P-Lo got ‘em shaking cheeks.

6. “Get Me Lit”

The coronavirus pandemic was a blur. When the world was stuck inside, artists like P-Lo made songs to get us through our boredom. The video for “Get Me Lit” was shot during social distancing protocols, featuring homemade clips of fans turning up to his song. “Get Me Lit,” like Tyga’s “Bored in the House,” was something to throw on when you wanted to dance your worries away. Watching the video back now, it feels like the pandemic was a whole other lifetime.

5. “Again” f/ E-40 and LaRussell

I love getting money anthems. P-Lo taps the Bay Area OG E-40 and newcomer LaRussell for a song about waking up and getting to the bag. “Time to bring the bass back” isn’t just a mantra for P-Lo; it’s a way of life where he consistently creates polished songs of Bay Area hip-hop. It’s like this beat was made for E-40’s absurd lines like “my life is real, it’s not a sitcom.” 

P-Lo is the only producer I know who bridges the gap between generations, often respecting the legends and putting people onto new talent. He’s heaven-sent.

4. Yo Gotti - “Act Right” f/ Jeezy and YG

When I was at XXL, my co-worker Dan Rys wrote an extensive feature on Yo Gotti for the October/November 2013 issue, which featured Black Hippy on the cover. Gotti’s I Am was his first album under a new partnership with Epic Records and CMG. “Act Right” was the lead single and was climbing the Billboard charts at the time. P-Lo didn’t have a producer tag back then, but this was a banger for the Bay. It brought the South and the West together, setting off a lucrative run for Gotti as a street-hustler-turned-CEO. “I'm going-going, back-back to the Bay / Rest in peace Mac Dre!” This song still goes.

3. Drake - “2 Hard 4 The Radio”

Some of the biggest records for producers are almost always diss tracks. P-Lo scored a big win by producing “2 Hard 4 The Radio” with Karri, OZ, Mars, Ben10K, and TD. The song pays tribute to Bay Area rap legend Mac Dre’s “Too Hard for the Fuckin’ Radio,” which I used to play at least once a day, riding around in my Honda Accord.

Drake has hopped on West Coast beats before (“The Motto,” “Who Do You Love?”). The timing of this song has OGs like Yukmouth upset over the Bay turning into groupies. The state of play: The Bay used to call out outsiders for stealing their swag and not giving credit. Drake does diss Kendrick Lamar and Mustard on “2 Hard 4 The Radio,” but the beat switch was perfectly executed, and it’ll grow into one of P-Lo’s iconic songs. The Boy is still ice cold.

2. “Same Squad”

P-Lo’s “Same Squad” is peak Mr. Bring the Bass Back. It’s a song that puts the bat signal up to assemble your crew for a night of debauchery. “Squad ain't with me then it ain't right” are lyrics that I reminisce on in my late 30s, wishing the homies were nearby to get our hangs out of the group chat. Every time I hear “Same Squad,” I want to bust out The Bernie.

1. “Put Me On Somethin’” f/ E-40

P-Lo’s “Put Me on Somethin’” has multiple meanings. P-Lo is so passionate about the Bay that he calls this a “statement song,” reminding people who disregard the region’s influence on hip-hop that the artists have been putting people on game for years. He also features E-40, his first North Star coming up, who now trusts him to be in the driver’s seat to take Bay Area rap to the next level. This is the quintessential P-Lo song I’d recommend to anyone, a slapper and set closer in the catalog that shows him fully coming into his own as a producer and rapper. All I know is gas, brake, dip!

Who knew J.I.D was an adventurous eater?