Vallejo native DJ Gutta Butta puts his own spin on ‘hyphy’

LAS VEGAS – DJ Gutta Butta is a modern apostle of the Hyphy movement, repackaging decades of Vallejo history into contemporary sounds that garner the smirk of a thizz face and the pop of your collar. 

For Gutta Butta – aka north Vallejo native Essix Dixon – hyphy just means “hype.” When the bass’s reverb drowns out the hi-hats, that’s hype. When the 808s thump hard on the upbeat and even harder on the downbeat, that’s hype. When someone’s guttural voice sounds sleek alongside a lustrous beat’s bounce, that’s hype. 

“You didn’t just rep it, you knew what hyphy was. It was more of a verb than a noun,” explains the 31-year-old producer, who has worked with Vallejo artists such as LaRussell, Slimmy B, and DaBoii.

Ever since E-40 founded Sick Wit It Records in 1989 and Khayree established Young Black Brotha Records in 1992, “hyphy” has always been more of a state of being than a genre tag.

“It’s not really too much of the sound, but it’s the independent movement,” Gutta Butta said. “From the areas we go to - the Renos, the Portlands, the Seattles, [that’s] just the blueprint for how to get it independently without a major label backing.”

To Gutta Butta, the Hyphy movement is synonymous with Vallejo itself. “Nef the Pharaoh, his music is still hyphy to me,” Gutta Butta clarifies. “Slimmy B and SOB, that was just some hype. It’s all hyphy.”

Gutta Butta alludes to Mac Dre’s amicable nature as the true secret to success. “He went there [up-and-down the West Coast]. He did the in-stores…. You need to put in the work and go outside and meet these people and shake hands,” Gutta Butta continues. “I like to collaborate and bring a lot of people together.”

Gutta Butta has always been a connector in the community, but the early stages of his career featured far less creative freedom. “At first I was still on the management side, working with just one artist,” he recollects. “That didn’t work out too well, so I sort of started reaching out and working with everybody and being a producer.”

Speaking on Zoom from his Las Vegas home, Gutta Butta dons a bright yellow Murakami-edition Lakers jersey. The producer reminds me more of Rob Pelinka, the Los Angeles basketball team’s general manager, than a traditional beatmaker.

DJ Gutta Butta is a playmaker. He strategizes, delegates and executes his vision with the framework of a business operative. 

“I don’t really make beats myself physically, I have a producer team that I work with,” he said. “I really knew that sending beats around, trying to get artists on, didn’t really go too well. I just started investing, reaching out to people I already have connections with. Sometimes I buy verses, sometimes it be for collateral…. I have to use my money as a tool.”

Self marketing is Gutta Butta’s second nature. Whether he’s pasting multiple producer tags on his beats or hosting shows with Slimmy B and EBK Young Joc in Sparks, Nevada, DJ Gutta Butta doesn’t want to box himself in as a purely California-based producer.  

“I push past that,” he asserts. “I run ads all over the world. I do shows everywhere. I go everywhere and put my face to the name. A lot of people hear that ‘Yes Yes’ and be like, ‘Who is this guy?’ A lot of people just like to hear that tag sometimes when they hear that song.”

Gutta Butta proudly declares that his relocation to Las Vegas in 2015 served as the turning point for his career. “I get more work done out here,” he said. “That's when DJ Gutta Butta came to life.” He adopted his moniker and transitioned from being a wallflower during studio sessions to a mastermind behind the scenes.

During his time in Las Vegas, DJ Gutta Butta has adopted the tactics of his peers and predecessors’, choosing to liberally release his beats instead of letting them collect dust. He came to a realization when he was working with former Thizz Nation President J-Diggs. “I was seeing how he was moving and I saw how he was putting stuff out and I was like, ‘Shit, I can do the same thing,’” he recalled. “I tell everybody that, ‘The worst place for it is to sit on a computer.’”

This pattern of constantly releasing music bolstered the presence of Thizz Entertainment, where Mac Dre would deliver ten albums in the span of five years. “Vallejo gives you that mindset: you’ve got to grind, ain’t nobody gonna give you nothing. You’ve just got to go out and get it,” Gutta Butta proclaims, chronicling his work ethic through a lineage of Vallejo artists that believed in flooding the streets with a never ending stream of singles, mixtapes and curated compilation tapes.  

Gutta Butta’s plans for the future follow in Mac Dre’s footsteps. “I want to break a new artist. I think I’m ready to start my own label and get more into the CEO-side and A&R,” he said. Similar to how Thizzelle Washington introduced Johnny Ca$h and Mistah F.A.B. to the world, Gutta Butta intends to expand his own label, Purple Lane Entertainment.

On Feb. 26, Gutta Butta set that plan into motion. After a prophetic night recording eight tracks in one night with LaRussell, the pair released DJ Gutta Butta Presents: 3 Point Play. Fully produced by Mike G Beatz, the project is an extension of Gutta Butta’s gurgling mix of crunk and scattered piano chords, marking his official debut under the seasoned producer’s guidance.

By cultivating a new class of Bay Area-born disciples, DJ Gutta Butta is introducing the next wave of hyphy music in Vallejo. Although he might not be adopting the same style beats as Traxamillion and Swampkat, Gutta Butta is laying the foundations for a Thizz Entertainment-inspired empire; one scored by ray gun sound effects, thickset basslines, and an affirmative “Yes Yes” before every beat drop.