Content area
Full text
Downstairs at the Regent Theater on Friday night, just days after 20-year-old Brooklyn rapper Pop Smoke was killed by gunmen in the Hollywood Hills, hundreds of young fans moshed and circle-pitted while Atlanta hip-hop artist Thouxanbanfauni performed. With face tattoos, punk-inspired productions and anime visuals behind him, he fit right in with the wave of young rap acts pushing the genre into volatile, thrilling new directions.
Upstairs, however, Victor Lorenzana wondered who might be the next MC to die.
"Pop Smoke was the same age as me and he was shot just because he was getting money," the 20-year-old said. Lorenzana, who lives in South Gate, is an aspiring hip-hop manager, and he admitted that the wave of deaths that has hit the genre in the last two years -- Pop Smoke, Nipsey Hussle, Mac Miller, Juice Wrld, XXXTentacion, Lil Peep, all stars cut down in their ascent or prime -- has started to weigh on him and the scene he loves.
"It does make me think," he said. "I don't wanna end up like that."
Hip-hop has long been stalked by the same issues of violence, drug abuse and mental health that affect young people of color everywhere in America. But if you're a fan today, and your social media feeds are flooded with memorials to young rappers every few months, it's hard not to feel weary and depressed by it all. Over the weekend, at the Regent show and along the streetwear nexus of Fairfax Avenue, young rap fans were both mourning those deaths and slowly getting numb to them.
"It's depressing to say that it's not surprising anymore, but it's not," said 16-year-old Sophia Mena, who lives in L.A. and came out to see Thouxanbanfauni. "We're desensitized to it....