Within the early Nineties, Kelvin Anderson Sr. constructed a makeshift recording studio behind his Lengthy Seashore file retailer, a vinyl-filled paradise referred to as the World Well-known VIP Data on the nook of Pacific Coast Freeway and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. He wished to offer youth a artistic outlet within the gang ridden neighborhood.
Phrase rapidly unfold across the metropolis, and aspiring artists began sprinkling in. People like Snoop Dogg, Warren G and Nate Dogg — who had been a part of a trio dubbed 213, the Lengthy Seashore space code on the time — famously minimize their first demo there.
The late Christopher George Latore Wallace, higher recognized by his stage title The Infamous B.I.G., is pictured with fellow artist Craig Mack and VIP Data proprietor Kelvin Anderson in entrance of the shop.
(Courtesy of VIP Data)
”Belief me, there have been many children in there,” says Anderson, who’s now 70 and generally known as “Pops” in the neighborhood. “Some were learning how to sing, dance, to be a producer and, in Ricky Harris’ case, how to be a comedian. There was a lot going on. Jamie Foxx used to hang out there. DJ Quik learned how to produce music there. It was a place to come and explore the possibility of being an entertainer.”
These are among the many many years of tales that stem from the family-owned file retailer that has been a mecca for G-funk music and has helped increase the careers of a few of rap’s largest stars. As we speak, Anderson, who’s labored within the music trade for greater than 50 years, is hoping to protect the historical past of VIP Data by changing it right into a museum and academic middle.
“This brand is so loved and recognized around the world, so we need this museum,” Anderson mentioned throughout a Tuesday unveiling occasion, co-hosted by the nonprofit Inventive Class Collective. “The story needs to be told and the importance of Black music in general, and the role that it has played.”
Ashanti Dykes performs the guitar at VIP Data.
(William Liang / For The Occasions)
Anderson provides, “When it comes to rap and hip-hop, VIP Records was the first to sell rap music on the West Coast, period.”
Anderson’s older brother, Cletus, opened the primary VIP Data in 1967, and his siblings helped open 13 extra places all through L.A. County. Anderson, who’s one in every of 10 youngsters, adopted his household’s custom of transferring from their Mississippi hometown to L.A. after he graduated highschool, to assist run the shops. In 1978, Cletus opened the World Well-known VIP Data in Lengthy Seashore, and Anderson took it over a number of months later. (Cletus died in 2024 at age 82.)
In 2017, the town of Lengthy Seashore made VIP Data’ iconic signal a historic landmark. Mayor Rex Richardson says that the town additionally put forth a “significant amount of money” to refurbish the signal and that he hopes to position it onto public property close to the shop so guests can go to and expertise it. He says he needs to show it “into an actual monetary opportunity” to assist Anderson’s imaginative and prescient for the museum. He and the Anderson household are within the strategy of understanding an settlement.
Members of the Anderson household. There have been as soon as 14 VIP Data places all through L.A. County however in the present day, solely the Lengthy Seashore retailer stays.
(William Liang / For The Occasions)
“A museum, in order to do it right, it will need some sustainable resources, so let’s take this rich cultural capital we have and begin to put it on display,” says Richardson, including that the restoration venture is a component of a bigger plan generally known as Elevate 28 to beautify and spotlight historic landmarks in Lengthy Seashore in time for the 2028 Summer season Olympics, which Los Angeles is internet hosting. He additionally needs to open a legends stroll to showcase well-known Lengthy Seashore natives.
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Because of the ever-evolving music trade that has shifted to streaming, the Anderson household closed all however its Lengthy Seashore retailer, which is a number of steps away from its authentic location. Historic artifacts fill the partitions of the file retailer, together with plaques and awards from varied file labels and pictures of artists like Rick James, the Jacksons and Donna Summer season who visited the store. Close to the entrance of the shop is a duplicate of the store’s landmark signal that Snoop Dogg famously featured in his music video for “Who Am I (What’s My Name)?” from his 1993 debut album, “Doggystyle.” Subsequent to a counter, there’s a framed picture taken by longtime photographer, Duke Givens, of his childhood buddy, Snoop Dogg, on show.
“The reason why [VIP Records] has staying power is because of love,” says Givens, a Lengthy Seashore native who grew up frequenting the shop and described it as a 3rd area for locals. “It’s an institution. It’s more than just a location. You know how we have church, we have school, we have sports … we have VIP.”
Photographer Duke Givens poses for a portrait with a picture he took in 1994.
(William Liang / For The Occasions)
The thought to open a museum got here to Anderson a number of years in the past when a father walked into the shop along with his two sons. As they thumbed by means of the vinyl data, one of many preteens mentioned, “Dad, what’s that?” Anderson remembers.
“There were a lot of people at the store that day, and everyone seemed to be tuned in,” Anderson says. “It was funny. I said, ‘Man, we need to tell the story. We need to tell the story of the record business.’”
Throughout Tuesday’s occasion, Snoop Dogg referred to as in and shared his assist for the museum, marking a full-circle second.
“I just want to thank you for giving us an opportunity to actually showcase our talent back when rap wasn’t so popular and it wasn’t so easy to do,” he mentioned to Anderson. “All of y’all up there at the VIP gave us hope. Y’all gave us opportunity to actually make our dream come true and give us a platform to hear our voice for the first time on a cassette, to hear what we sounded like, to see what we meant to people.”
Travis A. Scott, a Lengthy Seashore native and rapper who goes by H.O.B.O (an acronym for Coronary heart of a Courageous One), went to VIP Data for the primary time a number of years in the past after listening to that Anderson was permitting artists to file music within the studio. He recorded his debut album, “City by tha Sea,” there and was signed beneath At Final VIP Leisure, VIP Data’ label.
“VIP Records is a safe haven,” he says. “It protected me. It protected my mind from venturing fully into the gang violence and into the drug trade and all the other things that were negative in my community. This where I was able to come to be able to take my negative frustration out in a creative and productive way. That allowed me to free myself from the burdens of others calamities, to be able to be myself instead of what the community and the environment wanted me to be.”
The file retailer, which stays a spot to seek out trendy and basic albums, typically hosts occasions for the group.
(William Liang / For The Occasions)
Anderson says he envisions great-grandparents bringing their great-grandkids to the area to be taught concerning the evolution of the music trade and most significantly, VIP Data’ influence on it.
“We need that support,” says Anderson, including that individuals could make donations through their basis web site. “We need everybody to get behind this movement. It would be something that people would enjoy throughout the rest of their life.”
As Tenisha Anderson, chief working officer for VIP Data, flipped by means of pictures of her father, Kelvin, in his early days on the retailer, she mentioned that it’s a “no-brainer” for VIP Data to have a museum.
“There are so many things that are actually dying off, and I don’t want to be political, but they are even taking books away,” says Tenisha, who can be the founding father of the VIP Household Basis and runs a number of younger grownup packages together with Magnificence, Brains and Beats, a workshop that highlights the music trade from a feminine perspective. “The thing is, you can’t take the music away. The music is always going to tell the story. The music is always going to build you up emotionally. The music is always going to be empowering because it comes from the soul.”
