Fremont High School

4610 Foothill Blvd.

Hammer attended high school at Fremont, but there’s more lore here than just that. According to Hammer, The Robot dance was invented here in 1969 during halftime of a basketball game. The robot has that “Oakland hit;” it’s a little move near the end that distinguishes it from L.A. boogaloo. The West Coast boogaloo scene was big in the ‘70s, so when hip-hop came, Oakland was ready. All that really changed was the emphasis on the drums, as opposed to the rhythm or the melody. Boogaloo is a major reason why Oakland and the West Coast embraced hip-hop culture from the start—it was already here, in a sense.