By Paul Thompson
You want people to show up to your events, to feel welcome — which is why it’s strange that the most exciting new concert series in Los Angeles has decided to be so outwardly confrontational. Don’t Come To LA, which takes place at the Resident DTLA in the city’s Arts District once every month, is shining a light on the city’s historic, but rapidly evolving rap scene. The name comes from a YG song that scoffs at out-of-town rappers who come and try to exert their influence over the city, but it has implications beyond music. More than ever before, Angelenos are being forced to deal with the economic and cultural consequences of gentrification and displacement. Don’t Come To LA puts locals front and center and makes the regional nature of the music unmistakable.
LA has a storied history of weekly and monthly hip-hop nights. The open mics at the Good Life Cafe and the legendary Project Blowed, with the likes of Bananas, helped shape the sound of rap not only in Los Angeles, but eventually around the entire country. More recently, Low End Theory, which until August was held every Wednesday night in Lincoln Heights, was ground zero for the beat music that so often intersected with the city’s rap scene over the past decade.
In the last couple of years, a new rap renaissance has begun in LA, with vivid avant-garde artists, beloved pop acts, and those merging the long tradition of LA gangster rap with exciting new technical approaches — sounds that are synthesized from across the South and Midwest and flows that have been invented out of thin air. Don’t Come to LA has become its focal point, staging area, and platform for transmission to the world at large. Jeff Weiss, a prominent writer born and raised in the city and one of Don’t Come To LA’s co-founders, says that the series began “by accident, by necessity, and as a matter of warning.” Last summer, Weiss partnered with Rosecrans Vic, a radio host, blog founder, and general fixture of the city’s new rap scene, to throw a one-off show in Echo Park. It included many of LA’s most promising young talents, including Frosty Da Snowmann, Desto Dubb, members of the Stinc Team, and the recently-incarcerated 03 Greedo. Weiss saw that LA rap “was clearly entering a new Golden Age,” but there was a problem. “Unless you wanted to travel to poorly promoted shows at bottle service club, it was difficult to see the new guard perform live, much less on such a star-studded bill,” he says.
That’s where Resident came into play. Vic and Weiss have hosted Don’t Come To LA at the modern, minimalist venue on South Hewitt St. on the final Thursday of every month. The first edition in April boasted a wildly diverse lineup of burgeoning stars: the neo-G-Funk of G Perico, the internet-native provocations of JPEGMAFIA, and twins Cam & China, veterans of the city’s jerkin’ movement who have adapted their sound to the current era. Cypress Moreno, the DJ who is quickly becoming one of the most in-demand in LA, serves as resident DJ. “It allows me to play music you wouldn’t normally hear on the radio — it’s made for the people and represents LA culture.”
Since that first April show, the likes of AD, Shoreline Mafia, 1TakeJay, Jay Worthy, Warm Brew, and Blueface have graced the Resident’s stage. In addition to the scheduled performers, each month has been marked by full sets from surprise guests like Rucci and other notable rappers dropping by to play a song or two while their friends have the stage — Freddie Gibbs showed up unannounced at the most recent edition. This provides some of the only chances for fans to catch those stars on the rise in such an intimate environment. Nocando, the battle rapper turned genre synthesist who was a veteran of the Project Blowed stage and a founding member of Low End Theory, played Don’t Come To LA in June. “From what I’ve experienced, Los Angeles gangster rap that wasn’t affiliated with the remnants of NWA has never had a physical hub until this,” he says. “Don’t Come To LA is a space for everyone from hipsters to the hood to co-mingle in what feels like a genuine exchange, without fetishism or attempts at appropriation.”
Where previous weekly and monthly series were home to distinct and often highly-influential stylistic movements, Don’t Come To LA aims to bring all of the current rap scene’s competing and coexisting factions together under one roof. “The name may scare some away,” says Vic, but maybe that’s part of the point. “But we aren’t anti-transplants,” he goes on. “We’re pro-locals.” To experience the best of what the city has to offer in one of the world’s most popular art forms, you need to go directly to the source.
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Heading to Don’t Come to LA and want to experience more local flavor? Postmate from these nearby spots: Blaze Pizza, Shake Shack, Wake & Late, and Trejo’s Tacos.
