Red Bull Sound Select: 30 Days in LA

words and photos by nick rufo aka @killthecity

The city of Los Angeles was gifted yet another affordable and enjoyable concert-going experience to close out 2016.

Red Bull Sound Select Presents: 30 Days in LA made its return this past November. They provided concertgoers with their usual low-cost (usually $15 but sometimes free) shows of basically all genres, as well as treating many fans to free food, free parking and giveaways that include clothing, headphones, and other merchandise.

Red Bull Sound Select is a program that emphasizes the support of upcoming and trending artists and the 30 Days in LA lineup integrates many of these artists with established acts adding up to over 80+ performances, not to mention the array of special guests that aren’t listed.

I was provided with media access to five of these 30 shows, but I can honestly say it felt like I was at 15 of them because of how full of talent they all were. I attended the very first show featuring Sampha, the Fake Shore Drive hosted-show featuring Jeremih & friends, Isaiah Rashad, Pusha-T and the YG show.

November 1st

Sampha kicked off the very first night of the 30. Openers serpentwithfeet and Kelsey Lu serenaded the crowd before Sampha hit the stage. serpentwithfeet stood on a dark and ominous stage which complimented the mood of his music excellently. He switched off from singing while playing piano, to standing under a single spotlight and letting his powerful vocals erupt the Downtown Palace Theatre. Kelsey Lu mixed her mastery cello playing with her beautiful vocal melodies.

Sampha hit the stage and immediately starting killing his set. Playing the keys and singing some of his most recognizable work like “Happens” and “Too Much” along with “Timmy’s Prayer” and his latest hit single “Blood On Me” from his debut album Process coming in early 2017. His incredible performance had fans grooving the whole night, not missing a note or beat the entire time, especially during his two-song encore.

November 11th

This Friday night show was located at the Mayan nightclub in the heart of downtown LA but it was a Chicago hosted party. The famous hip-hop blog based on the Chicago music scene Fake Shore Drive hosted this night and they surely did not disappoint. The openers for this show were Warhol.ss and Joey Purp. Warhol.ss set the night off by putting all of his energy into performing his songs and trying to get the crowd as hype as he was.

Savemoney member Joey Purp hit the stage next, performing a handful of songs from his most recently released mixtape iiiDrops. He skipped around his discography, playing his upbeat, exciting songs that had the crowd dancing and quickly switching the mood to his more conscious and socially aware tracks.

After Joey Purp’s set, there was a rumbling between the media personnel that we had a surprise set coming up as opposed to staying on schedule and having Jeremih perform next. After a few minutes, Chief Keef hit the stage to the crowd’s surprise.

This was an unexpected but ideal special guest for a Fake Shore Drive hosted-concert. Sosa is such an important part of Chicago’s rap scene and the crowd really made him feel like the infamous street legend that he is. Of course, he played his street classics “Love Sosa” and “I Don’t Like” to the crowd’s pleasure.

Chief Keef’s set was short and sweet, but he wasn’t the last surprise that we would be seeing on this memorable night.

Jeremih literally performed every single one of his hit songs, which is almost too many to fit into a time-efficient setlist. About three songs into his set, he brought out the beloved Los Angeles rapper The Game to perform “All Eyez” together.

The Game rapped his verses and afterward showed love to his hometown crowd, and he was immediately finished. It was an unexpected special guest and a very fitting one at the same time. Bringing out an LA native at a Chicago-based show is something that was really meant to happen and everyone was glad that it came to fruition.

That was hardly Jeremih’s last surprise. After Game got off stage and Jeremih continued to dish out hit song after hit song, he alluded to the presidential election that had been just days prior. As soon as he brought up the election I knew exactly what was coming next. I rushed from backstage to the photo pit to capture and enjoy a performance from one of LA’s most relevant rappers, YG.

He came out with so much energy, I could tell he was rapping “Fuck Donald Trump!” straight from his soul. He and Jeremih then performed their infinitely popular song “Don’t Tell ‘Em” and just like that, Day 11 was over. It was an incredible experience to see so much energy and such a powerhouse of a lineup performing under one roof.

November 14th

Day 14 belonged entirely to Isaiah Rashad. This was my favorite concert during these 30 days and possibly of my entire life. Isaiah Rashad is such a tactically perfect performer and my favorite rapper so not even the lack of a photo pit at the Echoplex could ruin my experience here.

Isaiah spent the entire night hyped up and hyping up the crowd. He performed what seemed like his entire discography, playing a majority of the cuts off both Cilvia Demo and his 2016 release The Sun’s Tirade. It was a pretty small venue but there was nothing short of die-hard fans filling the room to max capacity. Every time Zaywop counted on the crowd to finish a bar, the crowd would be louder than the speakers playing Isaiah’s vocals.

November 16th

Day 16 of 30 was made up of two upcoming rappers and finished off by a heavyweight in the rap game. Tunji Ige, a Philadelphia-born 21-year-oldd is already starting to make some noise online with mixtapes The Love Project and Prince of July but it was his main release Missed Calls that has really got him trending and was also the source of most of his setlist.

Next up we had Boogie, the Compton-based rapper who had absolutely no regard for the microphone as he constantly played one fire song after another. He has a knack for combining gritty street music with electrifying party music.

Lastly, Pusha T was the headliner to close this night out. He played all of his notable tracks from his two albums My Name is My Name and King Push - Darkest Before Dawn: The Prelude. After playing songs like “M.P.A.” and “Numbers on the Board” he brought the crowd of the Belasco Theater back to his earlier endeavors, performing Clipse classics. After the brief look into his earlier years, King Push began dishing out GOOD Music collab tracks such as “Mercy,” “New God Flow,” “I Don’t Like (Remix)” and “Runaway.” He finished up the night debuting new tracks from his upcoming release King Push.

November 29th

This is the second to last day of the 30 Days in LA and it’s the last concert I was lucky enough to cover. This was YG’s show and it was the 3rd time in 3 weeks that I saw YG perform live, the other times being on Day 11 that you just read about and at Camp Flog Gnaw. That’s not the point though, the point is that this man shows up to basically every LA show, he’s everywhere. That’s actually not the point either, but I was more than happy to see him perform yet again because he is just that captivating of an artist.

YG opened up the show with “Who Shot Me?” while very appropriately being hauled out by paramedics as he lies on a stretcher. He continued to perform his best cuts from his albums My Krazy Life and Still Brazy. YG put on a fantastic show and he had the entire venue singing along the entire night. But YG is not your normal artist and he won’t put on your normal hip-hop concert. He ended the night by bring over 5 fans on stage and revealing a Donald Trump piñata and letting each fan take turns wailing on it. I have never seen anything like it during a concert before and that’s just one of the reasons why YG is such a big hit with this generation.

Red Bull Sound Select is a terrific development program for getting upcoming and possibly local artists more exposure. Every artist I saw perform was thankful towards Red Bull for the opportunities given to them and for the love they display with these concerts.