By Matt Caputo
A few weeks ago, much to my surprise, I got a Myspace “Friend Request” from an actual person. For once, they weren’t trying to get me to click into some sketchy web-cam site. For a change, someone was trying to get me to watch basketball videos. These were highlight clips from “Yay Area’s Finest Hoop Mixtape Volume 2.” I watched. I enjoyed what I saw. I felt that the independent hustle and myspace grind of producer Travis Farris was well worth a column on our website. However, instead of giving you my own review, I felt I couldn’t better break down the the tape than the guy who put it together, Travis Farris.
This letter arrived at our office with two copies of the DVD enclosed.
Trash Talk, SLAM
1115 Broadway, 8th Floor
New York, NY 10010
To all my folks at SLAM,
What it really do tho? As you can see you got more than a letter from me. I wanted to give yall a copy of the craziest basketball DVD out, YAY AREA’S FINEST HOOP MIXTAPE VOLUME 2. As you can also tell by the name, I’m writing on behalf of all of Northern Califoolya, so I gotta hold it down for the region yadadadig. But chea, I was hopin yall could run some sort of review on the DVD (I swear its fire, yall gon see). If that’s not something that’s possible, its all good, I still want you guys to have sumthin cool to play around the SLAM office. So check out that DVD one time for the Yay.
On to other matters, I gotta give yall love for getting the Sac-town representa, Elston Turner Jr. in Punks last time. I also gotta take it back an ish or two, and thank you guys for giving us our much deserved respect for that playoff push (although a Baron cover would have been far more appropriate… you could fix that problem in the near future). But last but not least I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t ask for more shine. Some of the YAY AREA’S FINEST still need some love in the mag: My dude Devon Hardin from Cal is finna be a lottery pick in a year after he wrecks the PAC-10, the guy Terrence Jennings outta Sac destroyed the summer circuit and has climbed into the top 20 of the high school class of ’08, another dude to watch for is my boy Wendell Mckines out of Richmond on his way to New Mexico State (if u never heard of him, watch the DVD, he’s the guy who clears dude’s head on the tip dunk at the end of a chapter and the reverse tip-dunk on the end of the “Bang It” chapter), couple other names of note: HS players: Frank Otis, DJ Seely, Reeves Nelson, Matt Simpkins, Ramon Eaton (some say he’s the #1 freshman in the country outta Sacramento), Chris Brew, Jared Cunningham, Collin Chiverton, Kelly Kaigler, Tyree McCrary, and the list goes on. College: Demarcus Nelson (Duke), Rogdrick Craig (Son of 49ers legend, coming back from a heart condition to play for Texas Tech), Kyle Spain (San Diego State), Dior Lowhorn (USF), Eli Holman (Indiana incoming freshman), too many more to name; Other dudes: Ballaholic, Moses “Ghost” Keys (killed in the and1 game), Exile, Sante aka 757, Drew Gooden, Drew Gordon (I see yall hatin on him online in the HS rankings, watch the DVD, he’s got about 75 clips on there, all freshman and sophomore year), can you tell I could go on and on all day? I just got so much pride in my region, and I’m trying to see my guys shine like they should. But anyways, yall ain’t gotta print this, or listen to any of my suggestions, just enjoy that DVD and know we doin it in the Bay. Thanks for the years of good work by the way. Gone.
Travis Farris
CEO, Gutta Productions; Executive Producer, Yay Area’s Finest Hoop Mixtape
E-mail: [email protected]
Myspace.com/yayareasfinesthoopmixtape
