A handful of nerdy high schoolers lurch off the floor at the Fountain Valley Skating Center. It’s a Thursday night and for the entire day, the planet has been dealing with the passing of their Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin. Silence falls over the dated building tucked away in a western Orange County parking lot […]
Santa Ana’s We Up Next Fest Taps Into the Future of West Coast Hip-Hop
Music’s democratization is the brightest spot in this current technology-driven epoch of humanity. It’s brought us some of the most phenomenal figures in just a matter of years and gave rise to local movements that encompass perfectly the realities of regions around the world. Orange County’s inaugural We Up Next Fest buttressed this sentiment […]
Long Beach’s Agenda Festival Amuses the Youth
Kids don’t scrounge up change and beg their parents for movie money anymore. Six Flags is no longer the wave. Their taste have grown more expensive and the bulk of their viewing pleasure comes from IG. That stood out clear Saturday at the Agenda Show and Festival inside Long Beach’s convention center where streetwear brands […]
7 Things To do at Agenda Show 2018 in Long Beach
In the hyper-paced world we live in, by the time a new phenomenon is sprung upon us, another wave is in the queue, waiting to wash that one away and recapture our imaginations all over again. It can be elusive. Events like Agenda Show bring to a halt, if just for a second, the essence […]
Finding My Favorite Type of Country at Stagecoach 2018
“I like everything except Country” is one of the most overused, ignorant phrases in the American vernacular today. For one, you can surely find at least one Country tune someone has heard and liked. Second, there are several type of subsets through the genre, and at least one you’ll take to. I made it […]
See It or Skip It: How to Spend Your Time Wisely at Coachella 2018
With over 200 acts taking the stage throughout the two weekends of Coachella 2018, there are names you won’t think twice about passing on to maximize your festival experience but those inevitable slots of uncertainty bring stress and anxiety to what should be a carefree weekend in the desert. We’ve compiled a list to ease […]
The Tanning of Coachella: Beyoncé, Blackness, and the Collision of Cultures
In 2011, music executive and advertising guru Steve Stoute, released his book The Tanning of America: How Hip-Hop Created a Culture That Rewrote the Rules of the New Economy. Stoute analyzed how Black culture permeated mainstream America, going as far as proposing its swell helped Barack Obama get elected. Stoute and his readership may be […]
Coachella 2018 Comes Correct With the Rock, Despite What the Haters Say
Dissonant groans among music fans shriek toward a fever pitch annually, in the earliest days of the year grâce à the unveiling of Coachella’s polarizing line up. Lately though, the complaints have taken on somewhat of a theme; the festivals distance from the “Rock ’N Roll” acts that brought the desert event to prominence from […]
The Main Squeeze Tames their Three-Headed Monster of Rock, Funk, and Soul One Lick at a Time
In 2010, Corey Frye came back to his college town of Bloomington, Indiana after a stint working for Celebrity Cruise Lines. During his visit, the former Hoosier and Classical Vocal major ran into his now bandmate, keyboardist Ben “Smiley” Silverstein, spawning a relationship that’s kept the singer away from home for five years straight. Frye, […]
HB’s Yung Pinch Keeps His Cool Through the Turbulence of the Music Industry
20-year-old Huntington Beach native Yung Pinch sits placidly on a couch in a dimly lit room full of blue lights behind a pair of John Lennon shades under wild, wavy, young Ozzy Osbourne-esque locks. It’s unclear whether his cool can be credited to a kickback, coastal upbringing or to the calm brought on by the […]
Steve Aoki Builds a Kolony for Music Lovers on his Latest Outing
Orange County’s Steve Aoki lays one of the newest bricks in the foyer of American culture on his fourth studio album, Kolony — a project he refers to as an “American album.” The pioneering producer and mega DJ uses each of his latest LP’s 10 tracks to craft the next anthology in Americana, pairing his EDM […]
Tony $antana’s New Content Series Hopes to Unlatch the Door to the Hip-Hop Industry
“If somebody handed me a Sprite bottle for some money, I’m bout to open two of them muthafuckas,” Tony $antana slushes in between sips of a Rasperry Sour at Anaheim’s Packing House. The 22-year-old encourages the often jettisoned tactics of today’s flyest rappers, who build their brands and portfolios quicker than they add to their […]
The Best and Worst of ComplexCon 2017
ComplexCon Long Beach ConventionCenter 11/4-5/2017 Over the weekend, we ventured to the Long Beach Convention Center once again for the second annual ComplexCon, the two-day celebration of street wear, art and hip-hop presented created by Pharrell and Mark Ecko. Traversing the landscape of this year’s hottest styles and music made for some interesting observations, panel discussions and […]
J Balvin Collects Plenty of Praise (and Bras) From OC Fans at the Observatory
J Balvin The Observatory 10/6/2017 Watching the chart positions and hearing the songs of Latin pop cut into the mainstream these past months has been a marvel in itself. But the frenetics of fans huddling up to connect with each other and the artists behind these songs makes for one of the most electric, gripping […]
Annimeanz Wants to Be More Than The Next Big Mexican Rapper
Annimeanz is the Rodney Dangerfield of hip-hop. The Latino rapper has completed two projects this year —with a third on the way— and counts over 100,000 YouTube views of his content since January but the Cudahy, California artist still can’t seem to get no respect. “Right now, my biggest concern, truthfully, is that as a […]
Day N Night Is a Hit With Hip-Hop Heads at Angel’s Stadium
Day N Night Angels Stadium Parking Lot 9/8-10/2017 Friday, Sep. 8 12:20 p.m. Just realized I forgot my debit card somewhere. Wonder what my durag is worth in cash… (Nick Nuk’em) 12:42 I’m just assuming every 5’0 white kid is Matt Ox. I’ve seen 684 of them already. (NN) 1:25 Leven Kali having technical difficulties […]
Day N Night Un-Rapped: 7 Non-Rap Acts You Can’t Miss
This weekend’s Day N Night Festival promises three days of hyper-foaming bass from a trap heavy roster featuring the likes of Lil Pump, Travis Scott, Famous Dex, and several other ruckus-loving rappers. Surpluses of circle pits certify fatigue and unsightly sweat-patches but Day N Night shines a light on another side of contemporary tunes—a smoother […]
Cry Because the Old Grieves Was Trapped, Smile Because the New Grieves is Running Wild
Seattle rapper Grieves just dropped his fifth LP Running Wild, the happiest-sounding album of his career following a decade of releases that often found the artist, well, grieving. But on the fifth time ‘round, Grieves, born Benjamin Laub, lurched into a closetful of new pockets to procure a hemmed version of himself, a different look […]
Pecks Defeats Obstacles of Street Life and Evolves Into an All-City Kid
“I’m tryna block out the possibility of being dead or going to prison anytime soon. Now it’s time to focus,” Pecks says scrunching his eyebrows to size up slabs of wood before him. Josh Spetzman aka Pecks is standing in an Anaheim alley splashing his first strokes of paint on the rectangular piece of scrap […]
Rapper Day Grinds Hard So His Music Can Shine
On a Saturday in OC’s legendary Chain Reaction parking lot, 20 year-old Daylin Patton aka Day stands outside of his manager’s car shuffling between taking swigs of New Amsterdam and fulfilling last minute ticket requests for his first $10 show. “You wanna eat it when I eat?” he snarks at a member of his entourage […]
Was Joy Villa’s Grammy Trump Dress A Symptom of Her Alleged OC Roots?
As they are every year, last Sunday’s Grammys were full of surprises, letdowns, and simple WTF moments. Such moments spanned from James Hetfield’s mic malfunction to the blunder bringing you here today; Joy Villa’s arrival on the red carpet. In a move that was tawdry on levels expected of Hemet or Menifee residents, the 25 […]