Leimert Park (LA)
Story, bloodline and 9 names
The other Los Angeles. The Good Life Café health-food store ran an open mic with one rule — no cursing — which forced a generation to get better at rapping. When it ended, Project Blowed picked it up in Leimert Park and has run for thirty years. Almost nothing here charted; almost everything here influenced someone who did.
- 1973The Bronx
- 1984South Central (LA)
- 1989Leimert Park (LA)
TransferThe Bronx·Long Island
A deliberate reaction to what South Central had become commercially. The Good Life's no-cursing rule forced technique, and the Native Tongues' jazz-rap gave the crowd permission to want something else.
Next stopsMinneapolis, Oxnard
Aceyalone, Myka 9, P.E.A.C.E., Self Jupiter — jazz phrasing years ahead of everyone.
Two dudes, dusty loops, sixteen years of records nobody asked permission for.
The club night that turned beat-making into a live scene: FlyLo, Thundercat, Nosaj.