Jeff Weiss

Before becoming a global anthem, the NBA’s theme, and the sampled loop of one of N.W.A.’s biggest hits, no one believed in “Express Yourself.” In hindsight, it seems baffling that anyone could be unswayed by the delirious soul supplied by the horns of the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band or......

Unless you’re the scion of an oil-rich sultan, your 18th birthday probably wasn’t as memorable as Anaiah Lei’s. Last month, the drummer of The Bots celebrated adulthood at his album-release party at the Bootleg in Silver Lake. He shared the stage with members of Redd Kross, Fishbone, Fidlar and Odd......

KJazz is L.A.’s greatest life hack. Forget sushi gems stashed in strip malls, secret parking spots or meditation gurus: Few things reduce municipal stress levels more than KKJZ (88.1 FM), beaming 24 hours from the campus of Cal State Long Beach. In a city with interminable commutes and Darwinian drivers,......

Cozz emerged from anonymity with dreams of getting rich and a pair of loaded dice. The warning shot was his first video, “Dreams,” set on the nocturnal streets of South Central, surrounded by pit bulls, liquor stores and police helicopters. In 200 seconds, the 20-year-old catapulted into the elite ranks......

Suicide City steeled Namebrand. Your GPS knows it as the east side of Long Beach, but computerized directions can’t fathom the clan warfare that has raged there since long before Snoop Dogg introduced the world to the LBC. “Gangbanging is like suicide or Russian roulette — once you’ve made that......

Before conquering Coachella, HARD and Lollapalooza, touring with The Weeknd and supplying runway anthems for Kanye West’s preferred haute couture brands, dance music DJ/producer Anna Lunoe toiled as a frustrated boutique clerk in Sydney. Raised in a musical household, the Australian native started out making cassette mixes to impress her......

The Acid came together after a peyote ceremony. Adam Freeland, one-third of the electronic soul transcendentalists, had just arrived in L.A. from a pilgrimage to the Bay Area, where he’d ingested sacred cactus under the ritualistic guidance of Native American elders. Suffice it to say, the Brighton, U.K., DJ/producer was......

Several hours after they crossed the Arizona border, the nauseating flash of lights and sirens forced their rented car to the roadside. The Pillsbury-faced cop commanded the driver to step outside the vehicle. The charge: exceeding the speed limit by three miles an hour. “I repeatedly apologized and told him......