Before his untimely death in 2004, Mac Dre had been a pillar of Bay Area hip-hop for over a decade. Whereas most rappers in the gangsta rap arena bank upon humorless braggadocio and empty threats, Mac Dre took a looser, more humorous approach to the genre. By exposing his lighter side, Mac Dre presented a more realistic and three-dimensional persona that endeared him to at least two generations of Bay Area hip-hop fans. Born Andre Hicks in 1970, the Vallejo-based emcee began recording in the late 1980s. His first few albums, beginning with his 1989 debut, the Young Black Brotha EP, were competent, if generic gangsta rap. He ran into a roadblock, both literally and figuratively, when he was arrested in 1991 for conspiracy to commit bank robbery.