Big Tymin’: A Decade of Nef the Pharaoh

The moment I knew Nef the Pharaoh was a Bay Area icon-in-the-making? It was a balmy Frisco evening during a tribute show for San Jose mega-producer Traxamillion, whose sonic imprints laid the blueprint for the hyphy movement and helped reshape the region’s bass-knocking soundscape, and who passed away in 2022 from a rare form of cancer. Northern California had gathered to mourn with a pantheon of local rap legends in attendance, including Keak Da Sneak, Husalah, P-Lo, Big Rich and Erk tha Jerk, to name those within immediate eyesight. Then, as if conjured by the rap gods, Nef appeared.

The psychedelics-ingesting Vallejo spitter had slid through a side door to surprise the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd with an impromptu set. Someone handed him a mic. He waded through the sweaty drip of bodies to the stage, a cloud of weed smoke hovering above him like a coastal morning fog. He talked his shit, his bleached dreads dangling from beneath a fitted baseball cap. After a song or two, he parted with some heartfelt words, bouncing in the opposite direction he came from as the room split open, granting him passage — while chanting for more. He never looked back. In the following hours, other legends took the stage to pay their respects. But Nef’s presence was the most memorable, supercharging the already-amped room with his Mac Dre-infused energy.