Why Is Everyone Making A Big Deal Out Of The London Breed Diss Track?

Screenshot of “San Francisco Our Home” by Chino Yang

San Francisco has a long, rich and storied history of shitting on its elected officials. So, why did a London Breed diss track that didn’t even go viral on its own from an unknown rapper in Chinatown create such a shitstorm? 

Which is a fair question because within a day of the video being released on Youtube, I received a DM asking me to post it on Bay Area Memes, and after watching it, I laughed because while the complaints are legitimate, the rapping is bad and the song is pretty fuckin’ awkward. But what are ya’ gonna do? Not everyone can rap like they’re from Vallejo. I decided I wasn’t going to post it because it just felt like more ‘Doom Loop’ content, which I’m sincerely tired of.  It also had less than a thousand views at the time. 

However, to my surprise, while the song still isn’t a viral hit by any measure, it has racked up 40k views on Youtube, and for some reason, really pissed off London Breed’s supporters and PR team. Which upset me because I’ve been shitting on London Breed for years and have gotten way more views than Chino Yang. Do I have to fucking rap to get a press conference? Do I have to spit bars? Do I have to ‘B-Rabbit’ the Mayor? 

“Everybody in the 415, put yo mutha fuckin hand up if it’s hard to survive!” 

Okay, no more 8 Mile references, but the response to the song was bewildering. First there was a press conference that lasted over an hour, and demands that Chino Yang apologize, which he eventually did, but made it clear he was doing so because he was threatened by someone “extremely powerful.” There are unsubstantiated rumors that Willie Brown threatened Yang, but that’s probably bullshit. And if it’s not bullshit, I need to get into the studio because being directly threatened by San Francisco’s elite political class is on my bucket list. 

Regardless of the song’s quality, Yang’s frustrations are real. Small businesses in both San Francisco and Oakland have been hit with a series of high profile robberies. One of my favorite donut spots in Oakland, Colonial Donuts, is run by an Asian family and has been targeted by armed robbers 3 times in the last few months. 

Crimes against Asian Americans in general have been on the rise since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the situation doesn’t appear to be improving. London Breed understands this and wants to get in front of it. But to play Devil’s advocate for a second, London Breed doesn’t control criminals or have any say in who they choose to target. To blame her for a nationwide crime spike and increasing racial tension is a bit naive. Do I think London gives a fuck about business owners? Not really. Does she care about reelection and understand that the Asian vote matters? Yes. Is she to blame for all of SF’s problems? No. Does the overreaction of her PR team reveal weakness? Absolutely. 

If I was London Breed, I wouldn’t be worried about what local rappers think of me. I would be trying to solve problems, but this is San Francisco, the city has bigger fish to fry like suing the state so they don’t have to build housing.

Fun stuff.

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