by Cyril CordorRappers Band-Aide and Scoot Dogg make up the duo Dem Hoodstarz, a top-tier rap group in the California Bay Area hyphy scene. The two were friends since grade school, but also were cohorts hustling in the streets of their East Palo Alto, CA, hometown. After Band-Aide finished serving a five-year bid in San Quentin State Prison around 2002 (Scoot previously had spent 18 months in a juvenile correctional facility), they each wanted better lives for themselves and decided to commit to music full-time. One of their first singles, "Can't Leave Rap Alone" (2004), featuring Oakland, CA, veteran Keak da Sneak, started to put things in motion for the duo, paving their way to become local favorites. Dem Hoodstarz's released their first full-length album Hood Reality in 2006 on their self-owned Lawless Records. Its favorable reception, in addition to the hyphy phenomenon spreading nationwide and translating onto the Billboard charts, garnered them a distribution deal with Warner, who issued their second album, Band-Aide and Scoot, later that same year. Winners of the Rookie of the Year title at the first Bay Area Rap Scene Awards, the duo kept delivering to Bay Area radio non-stop hits (as were their remixes) over the following couple of years, including "Grown Man On," "Waken Them Up," and "That's What's Up." Successful and signature hyphy producers Traxamillion and Droop-E were consistent collaborators for many of those songs.