There is a particular sound to the R&B and hip-hop music coming out of Los Angeles right now, an approach stylistically distinctive from the current rhythms emanating from New York, Atlanta or Chicago. Despite predictions that the Internet would render moot such differences, a regionalism that in the past birthed and defined subgenres including cool jazz, surf rock, hard-core punk and gangsta rap is forging a new music that’s uniquely of this town.
Those wondering whether it’s still possible for a distinct sound to blossom in a region, far enough away from the tyranny of commercial strains, to create a surprising new time stamp, can look not only to Los Angeles but also to this weekend’s BET Festival at L.A. Live.
The festival couldn’t land at a better time. The roster for Saturday night’s Staples Center show includes the two most promising male voices to come out of Southern California in a few years: San Pedro-born Miguel and Compton-raised Kendrick Lamar, both of whom released excellent and commercially successful albums in 2012.
They’ll perform alongside rising Compton rapper Schoolboy Q (who, along with Lamar, Jay Rock and Ab-Soul, comprise the Black Hippy collective) and headliner Snoop Dogg, purveyor of the so-called G-funk sound. That particular vibe came to define the early ’90s work of Dr. Dre and N.W.A, Death Row Records and the artist formerly known as Snoop Doggy Dogg, born in South L.A. a quarter century ago. (North Carolina-raised J. Cole is also on the bill.)
The festival couldn’t land at a better time. The roster for Saturday night’s Staples Center show includes the two most promising male voices to come out of Southern California in a few years: San Pedro-born Miguel and Compton-raised Kendrick Lamar, both of whom released excellent and commercially successful albums in 2012.
They’ll perform alongside rising Compton rapper Schoolboy Q (who, along with Lamar, Jay Rock and Ab-Soul, comprise the Black Hippy collective) and headliner Snoop Dogg, purveyor of the so-called G-funk sound. That particular vibe came to define the early ’90s work of Dr. Dre and N.W.A, Death Row Records and the artist formerly known as Snoop Doggy Dogg, born in South L.A. a quarter century ago. (North Carolina-raised J. Cole is also on the bill.)