The Good Life

Hip-hop originated as a culture to entertain its citizens. From DJ Kool Herc’s dance halls to the block parties, hip-hop has a purpose of performance. The underground scene is no different with its participators and emerging emcees putting on shows to display their talent.

On the corner of Los Angeles’ Crenshaw and Exposition stood an artist’s oasis. In the midst of the violent gang wars starting from 1989, The Good Life Café was an outlet for any aspiring poet, writer, or emcee to get up during the weekly open-mic night and show off their skills.

With gangster rap as the majority, The Good Life Café introduced an abnormal rule of thumb; there was to be no cursing allowed. This was introduced to in effort to create an uplifting environment and to obligate the emcee’s of finding new avenues for clever lyrics.

The rules were simple; each artist has 5 minutes to perform their song over a pre-recorded beat. With the Good Life acting as the epicenter for talent, fun, and the hip-hop culture, crowds were rolling in thick. Soon only the most talented artist’s were trying to fill the stage with the unprepared being booed off the stage, fierce lyrics saturated with creativity (mainly attributed to the non-cursing rule) was the determining factor for the artist’s. Competition at The Good Life as so thick and tough that even the best artist’s couldn’t win the crowd over. Fat Joe, a successful hip-hop artist, rapped at The Good Life and was booed off the stage by the crowd!

“I wanted to create a place where kids could be supportive of each other – a place where they could respect themselves and their culture.” – B. Hall (cofounder)

That’s exactly what the people of L.A. did and they ran with it farther than anyone could have expected. Countless artist’s scoring record deals and producing their own music came from The Good Life. Artists like Jurassic 5, Sin, Freestyle Fellowship, Chillan Villain Empire, Skee-Lo, Abstract Rude, Pharcyde, Volume 10, and bigger artists came to take the stage like Snoop Dog.

In this interview the founder of Sin, Medusa, a female hip-hop artist who emerged from The Good Life Café takes us back to the funk of the 70’s and hip-hop’s birth, to The Good Life Café and how that environment was for hip-hop as a culture and being a female emcee. She recalls battling artists such as Popping Taco and the original Eminem. Medusa is looked upon as the Godmother of West coast Hip-hop with her ranging skills as an emcee and a popper.

Interview Part 1

Interview Part 2

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Project Blowed

The Good Life grew so much that the people and the owners started to see that with all the artist’s equipment, talent, and following, they had enough to create their own record label. That is when Project Blowed started. Using that equipment and talent from artist’s mentioned above and many more including 2mex, Pterradacto, and Pigeon John Project Blowed produced its own compilation albums.

The Good Life, Project Blowed, and Blowedians (the label given to all members of Project Blowed) come together with a common purpose; the desire to bring hip-hop to its community, produce shows, cd’s, artwork, songs, writings all congruent with the purposes of hip-hop’s origins. Project Blowed continues to thrive as an indie record label continuing itself and its artist’s in the underground ranks. The artist’s popularity have grown so far that it begins to rival the mainstream artist’s as fierce competitors; and with community, talent, creative lyrical twists, dancing, crews, dj’ing, scratching, all of which the Blowedians strongly emphasize in order to succeed, the underground can remain consistent with its values to the old skool hip-hop and flourish without sacrificing what the mainstream artists so blatantly have.