3/16/02 Required Audio One-year Anniversary & Launch Party @ Grand Avenue Nightclub, Los Angeles, Calif.
OFF THE HEEEZEEE Fasheeezee! One year later and 1,300 party-people strong! With the help of The Events Company this event was a carnival! For those who missed it, here's the rundown of the night's happenings.
We had one of the top import crews, Team Hybrid, exhibiting its cars outside the club showing why it is unfadable. We had some of the top clothing companies for our first Required Audio fashion show. (Extra-special thanks to Twentyfive, L-R-G, Triple Five Soul, DC Shoes, Staple, Ezkiel, Echo Clothing, Element, Freshjive, ENYCE, Alphanumeric, 4CE Footwear, Elwood/Aesthetics and Circa Footwear.)
We had tons of free giveaways-among other stuff, the Required Audio CD and limited-edition Required Audio/Mixwell T-shirts. I especially liked the mini-radios and mini-microphone promos for the PS2 game, Frequency, from Sony. With games such as Kinetica, Frequency and Twisted Metal Black, the VIP Playstation 2 was worked all night. The non-VIPs got to watch some game previews on one of the screens downstairs-I think I'm addicted to Parrappa the Rappa.
Talk about a VIP section! Thanks to Chad Reed of Red Bull(tm), our VIP's had wings for the evening with complementary Red Bull and vodka drinks. We had the VIP section packed with tipsy models. Along with Jasmin Fox Li, Tela Nguyen and Cathy Shim, we enjoyed the presence of Import Tuner cover models Mia Guzman, Natasha Yi, Sharon Soto, Christine Mendoza and Cherie Roberts.
To end the evening Goodvibe music artist Spontaneous and his "vibe" band rocked the crowd with back-and-forth crowd chants. It was a great night indeed. Thanks to importculture.com, Online Showoff, asiangroove, 935draggers.com and AsianScene.com for their promotional support.
We know those of you who are outside of Southern Calif can't make it out to our parties...so how 'bout we take the party to your city? We're thinking maybe San Diego and the Bay Area for our next couple parties, but where do we go after that? New Jersey? Chi-town? ATL? H-Town? Van City/Sea-town? E-mail me and let me know how we can do this. In the meantime, go online and download your favorite pictures today-there's tons more. Last note: Don't forget to support the sponsors who support our scene!
Imaginarium/L'roneousBay Area hip-hop veteran L'roneous re-releases his '98 debut and shows how far ahead he was at the time. Being closely related to other underground hip hop saviors such as Project Blowed, Anticon and Living Legends explains why his lyricism and musical style seems to lean less from "rap artist" and more toward "hip-hop poet." His topics that revolve around socio-economics, racism and black-consciousness have been heard before, but its popularity hasn't seen the light since the early '90s. His revival of Imaginarium may not be the catalyst, but it certainly beats an enlightening and positive path in the right direction. Check out cuts "Imaginarium," "The R.A.I.N.S." (Reasons Arguably Igniting Nigger Separation), and "A Place Called This." You can't be disappointed.