Lewis Watts, Joe’s Installation, West Oakland, 1993

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For the last installment of “Five-Tone Kit”, we’re East Bay-bound.

In the West Oakland of 1993, photographer Lewis Watts captured an unusual street (park?) installation by an enigmatic “Joe”.

1993 was moreover a remarkable year for hip hop in the Bay Area and across the country. From Wu-Tang to A Tribe Called Quest to Tupac to the Alkaholiks to De La Soul to E-40, it represents a crucial time in the history of an ever-evolving artform. Notably, it’s an Oakland group that is credited with the most enduring slogan of that time: “93 ’til Infinity“.

That group, Souls of Mischief, remain part of a larger East Bay hip hop collective, Hieroglyphics (still going strong), which also includes MCs like Del tha Funkee Homosapien and Casual. Above, Casual performs a track off of 2004’s The Hierophant at Amoeba Records in Berkeley, bringing some special guests with him.

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Obviously, this series has only scratched the surface. The Bay Area’s musical history is a complex one, rife with overlaps and anomalies. A helpful (albeit mostly defunct) resource on Bay Area experimental music history can be found here.

Surely the musical/sound art landscape of the Bay Area will continue to change and grow in unpredictable ways. But as the late Robert Ashley — another one-time Oakland resident — put it: “the landscape has to be there.“