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MUSIC

Nipsey Hussle Was Our L.A.

When push came to shove for Nipsey Hussle, he decided to fight. He bought back his block one store at a time, showing black and brown people the key to keeping our city in our hands. It started with The Marathon Store, but it was so much more than that. When I saw the video of the 33-year-old artist, community activist, father, and  mogul lying bloodied and dying in front of his own place of business, I felt a part of our city dying along with it....
ESSAYSMUSIC

African Diaspora Through Music and Dance

Bloco Obini, an all female drum ensemble brings music and dance from the African diaspora to audiences across Los Angeles. In addition to performing, founder of the group, Kahlil Cummings and Ensemble member Rachel Hernandez also teach drum and dance class that fuses together West African, Afro-Brazilian, and Afro-Cuban styles to a diverse group of Angelenos. “When we bring the workshops together,” Hernandez said. “We bring the Afro-Cuban, Afro-Brazilian [styles] to show the differences and also to show the similarities of how things relate and how they were just separated within the diaspora by boats and which way they went....
DANCEMUSIC

Welcome to the fan club: The digital superfans changing entertainment

Jamjamj had no idea her YouTube channel would amass nearly 250,000 subscribers in just five months. The 17-year-old American, who wishes to remain anonymous, started her channel back in May 2018 out of a desire to create videos honoring her favorite K-pop boy band, BTS. Her first edited video was a tutorial for a mobile BTS game—and it hit 100,000 views in just four weeks. “I’ve been editing videos for a long time. I started when I was like 10,” she said. But it wasn’t until recently that her mother allowed her to start actually publishing her videos online. The teenage BTS superfan is part of a larger generation of digital fans who are playing an active role in shaping fandom and entertainment. While a pre-internet world had teenage fans taping fold-out magazine posters of boy band members on their walls, Jamjamj and her cohort actually create original content on platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and Tumblr for each other to consume. Their content not only attracts new fans but also helps them better understand an idol, TV show, or storyline....
CULTUREMUSIC

Troye Sivan: Authentic Artistry in the Age of Social Media

It’s five minutes past 6:30pm on a rainy Monday evening when the news is delivered: Troye Sivan’s golf cart has died en route. There are audible gasps and a collective murmur from the jam-packed auditorium teeming with USC students, some of whom have been waiting well over an hour just to be in the same room as the social media icon turned pop-star. Restless excitement permeates the air, and now, a buzz of heightened anticipation for Sivan’s arrival. The student next to me anxiously taps his phone on his knee, screen already fixed on camera mode. Another behind me whispers giddily to his friends, “Can you even imagine, like, being on campus right now and Troye Sivan just casually walks past you?”...
ESSAYSMUSIC

Tribalism in the U.S.A.

My young adulthood consisted of punk shows and community college. I never had a friend that was in a fraternity or sorority. Greek life was a life I only saw played out in Hollywood. Now I see it in real time, a few blocks away from me on USC’s Frat Row. Not really knowing what I was getting myself into, one day I took a stroll down The Row with my audio recorder and decided to talk to some of my fellow Trojans....
CULTUREMUSICPODCASTS

A Night With Tommy Genesis

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38 minutes after we arrive at No Vacancy on a Thursday night, we're allowed to enter the venue. The bouncer warns us not to take photos until we're in the bar, and we proceed upstairs, filing into a small bedroom where a lone blonde reclines on a twin bed. She launches into a practiced monologue about the unearthly realm we'll be entering as she pulls a lever; the bed slides away from the wall on a hidden track to reveal a staircase beneath. I briefly wonder if the only reason we'd been forced to wait so long before entering is for the setting and resetting of this gimmick, charming but probably overwrought for a sold-out album release party....
MUSIC