Twenty-two years after he was killed in Kansas City, Andre "Mac Dre" Hicks has a street in the city that made him. The Vallejo City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday, September 8 to rename Taper Avenue in North Vallejo as Mac Dre Way.
## The block The honorary name covers all of Taper Avenue, a half-mile from Fairgrounds Drive to Taper Court. The corner of Amelia and Taper was his childhood address; the petition says the blocks around it are where he put together his first groups and built what became the Vallejo sound. The petition was filed in July by Michael "Miami the Most" Lott, one of the founding members of Thizz Entertainment, Dre's label.
## The room The Vallejo Sun reported a full house. Mac Mall spoke: "He helped start my career and helped countless young people get their start in the music business." Solano County Supervisor Cassandra James called it "a moment for hip-hop" and a moment for Bay Area history. Councilmember J.R. Matulac, who represents the district, said North Vallejo gets a "negative connotation" and the crowd in the chambers was the answer to that.
## The history Mac Dre debuted in 1989 with the Young Black Brotha EP. He recorded "Back N Da Hood" over a jail phone while serving four years on a robbery conspiracy charge, which is still one of the most inventive things anyone's done with a phone line. The albums that followed built the hyphy movement, and E-40 and the Bay carried it to the world. Hicks was shot and killed in Kansas City in November 2004. He was 34.
## The pattern E-40 got a section of Magazine Street three years ago. Con Funk Shun got a stretch of Florida Street in 2025. Oakland renamed a street for Tupac. The Bay keeps writing its musicians onto the map, and it keeps doing it for the ones who never left. "Naming a street wouldn't glorify the mistakes of his past," artist Mike "K.O.B" Rosenthal told the council. It recognizes what he gave. Thizz on a green sign.
## Sources - The Vallejo Sun, Sept. 9, 2026, Vallejo to name street after Mac Dre: https://www.vallejosun.com/vallejo-to-name-street-after-mac-dre/ - AllHipHop, Vallejo immortalizes Mac Dre with his own street: https://allhiphop.com/news/vallejo-immortalizes-mac-dre-with-his-own-street/

