On a cold Wednesday night out on the off-skirts of Downtown Los Angeles, the Cashmere Agency group and Adidas put together a showcase of West Coast talent for tastemakers and fans called “Respect the West.” Hosted by the beautiful Rikki Martinez of Power 106 FM, Respect the West brought out some of L.A.’s top rising Hip-Hop talent and spotlighted the new Mutombo sneaker by Adidas.
As the warehouse filled with arriving guests, DJ Mustard (one of the hottest producers in the game right now) kicked the night off with his popular self-produced jams and threw in some of his favorite classic club jams for good measure to get the party started right. Inglewood native Skeme (who’s Ingleworld album drops on December 17) was the first artist to hit the stage and after a few dope cuts, blasted the spot with his DJ Mustard produced club anthem “T.O.” Ty Dolla $ign (who we just featured) was next and encountered some microphone trouble which limited his first song. After a mic trade, Ty was good to go for his next few songs and finished things off with his popular radio banger, “Paranoid.” At this point, two drunk females right next to me began to scream and fight with each other over God knows what. Just as blows were about to get thrown and I began telling myself that I’m too old for this sh*t, we were informed that a special guest was in the house and ready to take the stage. Houston’s Riff Raff came out to a great surprise even though this was a West Coast showcase. After one song, Riff Raff then gave way to the highly anticipated Nipsey Hussle, fresh off the release of his $100 Crenshaw mixtape. Nipsey’s number one fan must have been right behind me because this dude was eagerly shouting in my ear for a performance of “Hussle in the House” and eventually got his wish as Nipsey capped things off with the Kriss Kross sampled jam. YG, set to release his Young Jeezy executive produced album on March 18, finished the showcase off led by a performance of “Toot It and Boot It” with Ty Dolla $ign and his current DJ Mustard radio hit, “My N*ggas.” All in all, it was a fun night of entertainment by young West Coast stars in the making ready to make their impact on the World. I myself am looking forward to Skeme’s album next week. Whether or not you respect the West, these young artists and plenty of others are making a great case for it. Check out our exclusive coverage of the night below!
