The LA beat scene produced a handful of people who could have gone pop and chose to stay strange instead, and the ones who did are now quietly the most respected producers in the city. Hearing one of them play at home on the first night of a year is a different event from a tour stop. The crowd is local in a way that changes the atmosphere: people who have followed this since the early mixtapes, in a room where the artist does not have to explain anything. The records sit between hip-hop and house without committing to either, built on drums that swing rather than march. A first-of-January show also attracts a specific kind of person, which is to say the ones who were not finished. Go if you want the year to start with something that feels like the city rather than a resolution.
The LA beat scene produced a handful of people who could have gone pop and chose to stay strange instead, and the ones who did are now quietly the most respected producers in the city. Hearing one of them play at home on the first night of a year is a different event from a tour stop. The crowd is local in a way that changes the atmosphere: people who have followed this since the early mixtapes, in a room where the artist does not have to explain anything. The records sit between hip-hop and house without committing to either, built on drums that swing rather than march. A first-of-January show also attracts a specific kind of person, which is to say the ones who were not finished. Go if you want the year to start with something that feels like the city rather than a resolution.
The LA beat scene produced a handful of people who could have gone pop and chose to stay strange instead, and the ones who did are now quietly the most respected producers in the city. Hearing one of them play at home on the first night of a year is a different event from a tour stop. The crowd is local in a way that changes the atmosphere: people who have followed this since the early mixtapes, in a room where the artist does not have to explain anything. The records sit between hip-hop and house without committing to either, built on drums that swing rather than march. A first-of-January show also attracts a specific kind of person, which is to say the ones who were not finished. Go if you want the year to start with something that feels like the city rather than a resolution.