It's a smoggy afternoon in Long Beach. World Famous V.I.P. Records sits tucked in a strip mall off Pacific Coast Highway, its façade marked with sun-bleached outlines of album posters. The store's iconic record-shaped sign still stands tall, though it could use a paint job. Speakers in the doorway, meanwhile, blare '90s R&B.
1014 E. Pacific Coast Highway
Long Beach, CA 90806
Category: Retail
Region: Out of Town
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The shop is open, but it's empty, which is par for the course lately. That's why after 33 years in business, owner Kelvin Anderson was scheduled to close V.I.P.'s doors for good this past weekend.
Taking calls behind the register on his Bluetooth, the 57-year-old Anderson wears a polo shirt, frameless glasses and a neatly trimmed goatee. He hardly looks ready to retire, yet there's resignation in his voice. "I waited way too long to try to reinvent us," he says.
V.I.P. Records hasn't turned a profit since 2003 — the year iTunes launched — and began accruing debt about five years later. Anderson says he and his son, Kelvin Jr., with whom he runs the store, can no longer afford to pay their rent and utility bills.
V.I.P. has undergone several downsizings in the past decade. The store's original entrance on PCH now leads into a vacant storefront next door, and the wall that divides the two spaces is crowded with sunglasses, hats, jewelry, incense burners — anything to help counter dismal CD sales.
Record stores have been shuttering all over the country, but the fall of V.I.P. is particularly dispiriting. After all, "World Famous" isn't an affectation; V.I.P. is iconic in the annals of West Coast gangsta rap. It housed the studio where Snoop Dogg, Warren G and Nate Dogg — then a trio known as 213 — recorded the demo that led to their big breaks. The rooftop sign has been the backdrop for videos including Snoop's "Who Am I (What's My Name)" and Jermaine Dupri's "Welcome to Atlanta" remix.
Taking a seat on the in-store performance stage — which has been graced over the years by artists such as Nate Dogg and LL Cool J — Anderson discusses the establishment's 1990s heyday, during which it hosted standing-room-only record signings and concerts.
The store also has played a key role in breaking urban artists, even those who never stepped through its doors. It once served as a tastemaker for the neighborhood and even for Los Angeles as a whole.
At one point, the V.I.P. name was attached to a dozen outposts in Southern California. The chain's original location in South Central was founded by Anderson's older brother Cletus in the late 1960s; it specialized in gospel, Motown and R&B.
After graduating from high school in Brandon, Miss., in 1972, a teenage Anderson followed Cletus to Los Angeles and got into the business. Together they opened V.I.P.'s Long Beach location — their 12th — in 1978; Anderson bought it shortly thereafter.
"Some kids go to college, but I got my degree in the music industry working at V.I.P.," he says.
In the '70s and '80s V.I.P. distributed albums and housed two labels, Magic Disc Records and Saturn Records, the latter of which put out Ice-T's 1982 debut single, "The Coldest Rap."
By the next decade, V.I.P. was an urban-music powerhouse. Eugene Luckett, a former retail marketing and distribution executive for Polygram, BMG and Capitol, has worked with Anderson for 15 years and describes him as instrumental to the success of artists he handled, including Warren G, Notorious B.I.G., TLC and Whitney Houston.
"In the '90s all the labels wanted the next West Coast gangsta rapper," Luckett says. "Kelvin was a portal for executives who didn't know anything about those artists."
Label reps like him relied on Anderson to tell them who was hot and how to market new albums to urban communities like Long Beach. After all, Anderson always seemed to understand what those audiences wanted to hear.
"He could get 1,000 people to show up to an in-store with minimal advertising," Luckett says. "That truly speaks to his bond with the community."
By the early '90s, West Coast hip-hop was taking over, and the kids visiting the store wanted in. Anderson enlisted the help of L.A. producer Sir Jinx to build an in-store recording studio, in part to bolster what he calls V.I.P.'s role as a "safe haven" for young people in the community.
Fresh off the success of Ice Cube's first two solo records, Jinx brought Anderson to his cousin Dr. Dre's house and showed him an SP1200 drum machine. "That was all you needed to make a hip-hop record in those days," Anderson recalls.
With Jinx's help, he soon transformed the store's back storage room into a veritable musical playground for the local kids.
Snoop and 213 recorded a demo there — "[V.I.P.] gave us life," Snoop recently told Current TV — and Anderson was struck by their sound. "They were something totally unique," he says. "You had Snoop's smooth delivery, which you could enjoy even without music to back it up, and you had [Nate Dogg], who was incorporating hooks right into the raps. That was brand new."
Articles like this make me realize my own record store, which is also next door to a recording studio, both of which will soon close due to the State taking the place for a highway expansion, perhaps too will stir some memories of all whom have passed by/through. Long live Underground Records, and Long live VIP Records!
Damn, sometimes progress feels like our worst enemy. I worked with Kelvin and V.I.P. Long Beach for some 15 years in my days in the music business.I have rollled through there with many artists like LL Cool J. That guy from day one was a mentor to me and a good friend as well. I wish nothing but the best for Kelvin tho I suspect he will do well in whatever he does. But no matter where we go from here they cannot erase the memories of what V.I.P Music has meant to the music business, and to hip-hop.
One of the Greatest Blk Retailers in AmericaMy Friend Kelvin ,Good Luck with your Future endeavers.Too bad that the careers You Launch did not realize that it was your Shoulders that They Stood On to get where they are todayOne Day The True Story Will be Told about the Importance of Blk Retail Was to Black Music,ALL Gendres ::But To Rap & Hip HopWe were their Life Line ...Period.
Through those years, the World Famous VIP Records inspired me back in 1993 because I always wanted to know what they were doing in that little studio and now I know. Not a feeling like it, getting behind a studio mic reaching for that perfection. Nothing may not be in the building BUT memories will forever be.
ASIANS CAN ACTUALLY READ MINDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!they can hear and see what your visually thinkingthis is the complete truth
The reason a lot of Asians have completely expressionless faces, only associate with Asians and don't associate with non Asians that much, and are very unfriendly in general is to avoid accidentally revealing that they can read minds. If all over a billion Asians where to show facial expressions all the time just as much as non Asians, associate with non Asians much more, and be much more friendly and talkative, then a lot of them might accidentally reveal that they can read minds by accidentally showing a facial expression or dirty look when someone thinks, or visually pictures something in their mind they don't like, find astonishing, or funny etc because those people might see that and and really wonder what that was that just happened there and see the connection, if they all associated with non Asians a lot more then there would be a lot more people around for them to accidentally show facial expressions when those people think things they don't like etc, so they only associate with Asians so there won't be anyone around for them to see that and have any accidents happen in the first place.
Think about it, it's not normal how a lot of them act, it's not normal human behavior! and the entire way they act is all to hid their mind reading abilities, it makes perfect sense to do all of that to hide that they can read minds, because all of that is the perfect way to do it!Every single Asian alive is hiding their mind reading abilities, they will always deny that they can read minds, they will lie about having mind reading abilities forever!!!Because they value hiding their mind reading abilities more then their own lives! That's why nobody knows about it!
Try thinking, best yet visually picturing in your mind something absolutely crazy as you possibly can when you are around Asians, and try looking for Asians who give people particular looks, especially dirty looks for what appears to be for completely no reason, that is them giving people looks when they hear and visually see someone thinking something they don't like, find astonishing, or funny etc.It still happens spite a large percentage of Asians having completely expressionless faces all the time, it would just happen a lot more if none of them had completely expressionless faces all the time, it's still not uncommon!
I know this sounds crazy, impossible and completely unbelievable, BUT IT ISN'T CRAZY WHEN ITS TRUE
The reason you think this truly is crazy, impossible, and unbelievable is because our society as propagandized us into believing that nothing extra ordinary is real, and that it is impossible that people can read minds, and that it is crazy to think that it's true that people can read minds, all just to cover up that Asians can read minds! who says that can't exist? the people who have mind reading abilities who are trying to cover it up!
You have to spread the message!!!!!!!The world has to know about this!!!!!!!
So sad seeing record stores close, especially stores like this that are more than just "stores".
I hope he does get to create the museum. I'm sure he has lots of great stories to share with music fans.
I am a 26-years-old servicewoman (working in Air Force), mature and charming but still single. I am seeking one who can give me real love, so I joined in the online service ---Kissinguniform.c0m---. It's a 10-year-old club for uniformed personnel finding their intimate lovers. Well, being in military service does not mean to be lonely; you can meet the Mr. or Miss Right there.p.s. The admirers of those uniformed person are also warmly welcome, there are lots of servicemen and women.
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