Snapback is a West Coast DJ crew that’s known for their popular series of classic hip-hop and R&B parties. The events, which have been going down since 2012, take place in North Hollywood, Long Beach, and Las Vegas. Check out Snapback’s exclusive playlist and interview for our Crew Spotlight series below.
Who’s in your crew, and where are they located?
We currently have 14 members scattered across the West Coast. The members based in Los Angeles include Stubbs The Chief Rocka, Icy Ice, Remark, Boogie, Ever Ed-E, Trek Life, Jay-P, Paris Paul, Gene Hov, Toquon Tha MC, and Orion. The members based in Las Vegas are BStang, Chimz, and Dblplay.
When and why was your crew formed?
The Snapback crew was formed in late 2012 during the commercial boom of EDM. The founder, Stubbs The Chief Rocka, was in the bar, club, and mobile circuit like many of the DJs in the LA area and was not a fan of this type of music at the time. He missed the old-school hip-hop house party vibe: the feeling of walking into a friend’s house where you would hear music from A Tribe Called Quest, Digable Planets, and Jodeci. You know, the classics. So he set out to create just that. It was never supposed to form into what it is today. It just grew organically. He started to bring in friends such as BStang and Ever Ed-E to DJ for drink tickets and essentially use [the event] as a musical oasis to play the golden era hip-hop and classic R&B that they loved.
Following this, the name started to gain steam as it grew from venue to venue and grew with each new crew member. Pivotal points in the crew’s history were the formation of each location along with its establishing crew members. BStang, Ever Ed-E, and Paris Paul held down the Snapback North Hollywood location. The addition of Icy Ice, Remark, Orion, Trek Life, and Toquon Tha MC to hold down the Snapback Long Beach location would be another game-changing moment as the Long Beach location became the flagship for many of the higher-profile parties. And then there are the members making waves out in Las Vegas, where BStang, Chimz, and Dblplay are keeping the Snapback brand active in Sin City. As for the additional crew members, Jay-P played a critical role in bringing Snapback to Downtown Los Angeles, and Gene Hov helped the crew establish themselves as a force to be reckoned with in the online streaming space during the 2020 lockdown.
How would you describe your crew’s sound?
Whether it’s at a club or online, Snapback is all about that old-school house party vibe. We love the classic hip-hop and R&B party favorites. But we also like to throw in deep cuts such as breaks and samples that pay homage to where much of this music we all know and love came from. Each audience we perform for will have different tastes that we will need to adapt to. But generally speaking, we are looking for that feeling of nostalgia personified through ’90s hip-hop and R&B and then fine-tuning based on the crowd.
How did you pick the tracks for the playlist?
This playlist embodies the jams we feel would best suit the tastes of our audience for that summertime backyard party. The thing about this old-school hip-hop category of music is that a lot of the hits are already established. But the magic happens when our crew members come across an old-school gem that you actually haven’t heard in a while that transports you back to your childhood at the party. That’s what we’re going for.
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