In a sense, Los Angeles-based jazz saxophonist Kamasi Washington had it all. At just 19, he began touring with Snoop Dogg, which led to gigs backing up greats like the “Queen of Funk” Chaka Khan and jazz fusion bassist Stanley Clarke. More recently, his resume landed him a credit on Kendrick Lamar’s latest LP, To Pimp a Butterfly.

As a virtuoso, he could have easily carved out a career of steady work as a session player and hired gun on the road. But Washington and his friends, a loose collection of musicians known as the West Coast Get Down, knew they didn’t want to settle for in-demand support gigs, as their fathers had. They wanted the world to hear what they had to say.

And so Washington came out swinging. His debut full-length is a sprawling, no-holds-barred, three-disc opus, fittingly titled The Epic. With it, Washington has announced himself as one of the most talented and visionary figures on the burgeoning Los Angeles jazz scene.

This weekend, local audiences will have two opportunities to see Washington. He is scheduled to open San Jose Jazz Summer Fest’s Kaiser Permanente Main Stage at noon on Sunday with his band, The Next Step. Sunday night, he’ll close the California Theatre Stage with the West Coast Get Down collective.

To understand The Epic, it’s important to grasp Kamasi Washington’s musical past. As a teen in South Central Los Angeles, he formed the Young Jazz Giants with pianist Cameron Graves, drummer Ronald Bruner and Ronald’s brother, Stephen—better known as the Kendrick Lamar collaborator and producer, Thundercat—on bass.

“We were really focused,” Washington says, reflecting on that period. “We knew what we wanted to do in life. We were playing all day long, all night, going to jam sessions, sneaking into concerts, driving all over the city.”

Washington and his crew formed a “creative core” and found support in the greater L.A. area. The trick was pushing their ideas beyond the region.

The decades-long struggle among L.A.’s jazz community to step out from under the shadow of the New York scene may help explain the powerful tension that exists on Washington’s nearly three-hour outing, with its domineering, maximalist approach.

The album features hard-driving solos and a double rhythm section, composed of two drummers, two bassists and two keyboard players. String orchestra and choir arrangements float in and out of the mix, adding musical density to the already massive sound.

Ten seconds into the opening track, “Change of the Guard,” Kamasi and company live up to the album’s lofty title, unleashing a wall of sound that pushes the record to its limit. Eight minutes in, Washington’s tenor sax screams while pianos stab out sharp chords; the supporting strings slather on a layer of unruly tension that doesn’t let up over the track’s 12-minutes.

“Re Run Home,” the 14-minute opus that opens Epic’s third disc, simmers with urgency from start to finish, firmly grounded by the dual drum work of Ronald Bruner Jr. and Tony Austin. Ryan Porter and Igmar Thomas trade trombone and trumpet licks until their solos weave into one another, creating a musical synergy at once competitive and supportive. This open interplay is a hallmark of the album, and a testament not only to Washington but the world-class talent surrounding him on this project.

The Epic wasn’t created in a vacuum. It’s the latest work in a continuation of the sound Washington and his friends have collectively been creating for years—all with the steadfast support of Brainfeeder boss Steven Ellison, better known as Flying Lotus. The L.A.-based producer and leading voice in L.A.’s wide-open, forward-thinking, jazz-inflected music scene gave Washington the space and support to create whatever he wanted. For this, Washington is grateful.

“So often, the music has to struggle with the business,” Washington says. “It’s really cool when the business is just down and cool to let you do what you want to do.”

As Washington tells it, his father’s development was halted by the “pitfall of not believing in yourself enough to push your own music.” Washington doesn’t suffer from the same self-doubt about his musical ability. The way he sees it, the only real challenge is the clock. Washington is racing to get all his creativity out while he still can.

“In the end, time will run out,” Washington says. “There’s a time limit to how long you’ll have this gift at the highest level that you have it.” And so he will continue to play—as if his life depends on it.

Kamasi Washington plays San Jose Jazz Summer Fest on Aug. 9 at 12pm on the Kaiser Main Stage and at 7pm at the California Theatre Stage.

The San Jose chapter of nation-wide weekly party Motown on Mondays announced its special guests for tonight’s edition of the event, and the names are two of the largest yet to rock the downtown staple—DJ Z-Trip and Skratch Bastid. In a performance that will feature two sets of turntables, the two performers will drop a surprise collaborative set inside the Continental.

Paolo Bello, founder of the MOM San Jose founder and better known as DJ Cutso, admits that the performance came together as “a total off-the-cuff, last minute thing” when reached by phone during soundcheck. He added that he’s excited about presenting the two distinguished names under the Motown on Mondays banner, which in just a year has risen to become one of downtown San Jose’s premiere dance parties.

“I can honestly say for a lot of us in the MOM SJ players, [Z-Trip] has been a huge influence,” Bello says..

Though he’s been active as a DJ since 1989, the Phoenix based Z-Trip (real name Zach Sciacca) rose to prominence in 2001 with the release of Uneasy Listening, Vol. 1, a collaborative album with DJ P that became a seminal work in the art of blending, likely better known as mash-ups. In addition to his own work, he’s currently the DJ for hip-hop legend LL Cool J.

“Zach represents a large part of what the real DJ movement is about right now,” notes Tommy Aguilar, a member of the MOM SJ Players who spins under the moniker Chatos1013. He adds that tonight’s set will largely be improvised and that both Z-Trip and Skratch Bastid match the “party rocking” style that’s a hallmark of the San Jose DJ scene.

Skratch Bastid (real name Paul Murphy) is a Canadian DJ and three-time winner of the Skribble Jam DJ competition (2003, 2004, 2007). In 2008, he was nominated for Producer of the Year at the Juno Awards, Canada’s equivalent of the Grammys, for his work on Canadian Rapper Buck 65’s album Situation. He was the first Canadian DJ ever nominated in the category.

Motown on Mondays kicks off tonight at 8 pm inside the Continental, located on First Street in downtown San Jose’s SoFA District.

It’s fair to say that Lyrics Born (a.k.a. Tsutomu “Tom” Shimura) felt the cultural void when he left Berkeley for UC Davis in the early 1990s.

A hip-hop head stranded in a rural college town, he made the most of his time by going on late night walks through campus with nothing but his portable radio/CD player to accompany him. Tracks by Main Source, Brand Nubian and A Tribe Called Quest were his soundtrack. Then one night, he stumbled upon a like-minded soul.

“I hear this guy on (the UC Davis station KDVS) in the middle of the night once a week playing real hip-hop,” Shimura recalls. “He was too advanced for the area.”

The program’s host was Jeff Chang. Then going by DJ Zen, Chang has gone on to work for the likes of Vibe, Spin and Mother Jones, and has written three acclaimed books on the history and culture of hip-hop. Shimura was eventually invited to the station after he kept winning Chang’s radio contests.

What began as a few hip-hop fanboys nerding out over breaks in a sleepy college town, eventually became the celebrated record label and collective, Solesides—which put out albums by Blackalicious and DJ Shadow. It’s now known as Quannum Projects.

“I went to college in Davis, Shimura says. “But that’s really where I got my education—in that radio station, going through those stacks.”

In the years since, Shimura has emerged as a solo artist in his own right, with releases ranging from funk to boogie and boom-bap. It’s that diversity that’s allowed him to sustain a career over 20 years in the making.

Next up is Real People, out this week. A funky, organic release that openly pays respects to the influence New Orleans and its musicians have had on Shimura’s life. The album features collaborations with a who’s who of contemporary Crescent City talent, including the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Trombone Shorty and Dumpstapunk’s Ivan Neville. Galactic make an appearance on both sides of the boards; band members Robert Mercurio and Ben Ellmen produced the album.

Taking an immersive approach to the recording process, Shimura rented a cottage in New Orleans and removed all distractions.

“From 10am to 3pm, I would go [to a coffee shop] and drink a gallon of café au lait, then take a lunch break and eat pho about a block away. At about 3, I would go to the studio,” he recalls. “From there we’d just record. No phones. No car. I don’t even know if I brought my laptop.”

As teasers like “$ir Racha” and the album’s title track reveal, there’s an undeniable energy to his latest collection. The musicianship of his supporting cast is superb, but it’s always clear Shimura is the one setting the musical tone.

Asked about the inspiration behind the record, Shimura points again to the role KDVS played in shaping his musical tastes. It was in those archives that he tracked down songs by NOLA groups like the Meters, who were liberally sampled by his favorite rap artists at the time.

Though the album arrives in stores on May 5, Shimura admits he’s already well into his next project, a collaborative release entitled Rapp Nite with his tour and San Jose native, DJ Cutso—a member of local DJ crew the Bangerz.

Cutso says the two officially met in 2009 at Voodoo during Left Coast Live weekend, though their creative collaboration began in earnest when the Bangerz produced closer “Gorgeous Spirits” on Latyrx’s 2013 album The Second Album.

Shaping up as a more future-forward record than People, Shimura says Rapp Nite has been “so different and outside of what a Lyrics Born album might be, but it’s specific to what we do, which is great.”

“The influences are very apparent, but it’s also a modern take on what we came up on and what we learned,” adds Cutso. “It’s a mish mash of everything.”

Shimura will celebrate Real People with a handful of Bay Area shows, including a headline show May 15 at the Independent, before heading out for festival dates in Michigan and Washington this summer.

While life on the road can be unforgiving, he notes that’s the price he pays for following his dream.

“It’s grueling. You get a lot of time away from home and family,” he says.  “It’s not an easy life at all, but I love it. I really think I’m doing what I was put on this Earth to do.”

Being a small business owner in a big city isn’t easy. Just ask Monisha Murray, owner of the San Jose-based Black & Brown clothing boutique; she knows. “It takes a lot out of you,” Murray says, recalling Black & Brown’s early days—when the store was located on West San Carlos Street. Back then, Murray says, she used to “eat ramen every day and have a coffee and try to survive on that.”

But after sticking it out for five and a half years, Murray was able to move Black & Brown to its current location—a much larger storefront on the Alameda, just down the street from the new Whole Foods.

“That’s always been the motto—taking risks and leaps,” the San Jose native says. And now, 10 years since opening shop, Murray is pleased to say that “it’s all worked out.”

To celebrate, Black & Brown will be throwing a fashion show curated by Murray and her team inside the recently opened SoFA venue, The Ritz, this Saturday. DJ Cutso of the Bangerz and Basura, resident DJ for the popular Thursday-night dance party, Atomic, will provide the evening’s soundtrack.

Though Black & Brown used to host fashion shows every fall and spring, they haven’t hosted an event like this for three years. Taking inspiration from the late ’70s and early ’80s arts scene in New York City, the evening’s theme is “Downtown 500”—a term used to describe the influential group of artists and makers living in NYC during that era.

“At that time, there was no clique-ish scene. It was just a scene,” Murray says, mentioning party footage from the era that captures art icons, like Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat, rubbing shoulders with rapper Fab 5 Freddy and Madonna. “Our point with this show is depicting that time and how street style has become so relevant in the world.”

All items featured in the show will be available online the night of the show, for those who spot a particular piece they can’t live without.

Back in 2005, when she founded Black & Brown, Murray hoped to create a San Jose staple. Now, with 10 years behind her, she feels she’s accomplished that. And while she doesn’t see the styles she and her team curate in-store flooding the streets of San Jose just yet, she knows she’s created a place for fans of fashion to feel inspired.

“Wherever they’re hiding out or hanging out, I know they exist and they’re here and supporting us,” she says. “That gives me hope.”

Downtown 500: Black & Brown’s 10th Anniversary Fashion Show will be held at The Ritz, May 2 at 8pm. More info.

Sometimes things just click. And sometimes it takes a while. “I wrote a song back in 2000,” Bronx-born singer and songwriter Vic Ruggiero says. “I’m telling you—I was on stage last year and it was the first time I ever understood one of the lyrics I wrote.”

Such a breakthrough explains Ruggiero’s focus on getting lost in the moment while performing. If he hadn’t remained open to where the song was leading him, he says, he may never have discovered what that line—written 15 years ago—was all about.

Performing solo sets only by request nowadays, there’s no telling what Ruggiero may discover during his performance next Tuesday at Cafe Stritch. As a special treat, he’s bringing along musical buddies Jessie Wagner and Kepi Ghoulie. Wagner is the frontman for L.A. reggae veterans the Aggrolites, while Kepi Ghoulie formerly played bass for the Groovie Ghoulies.

“This tour is the first of its kind for me. I got to combine two or three of my favorite people to play with,” Ruggiero says. “It’s a really unique experiment for me. I hope people see it as one of those great combinations.”

Ruggiero arrives in the Bay Area once he concludes his Midwest tour with the New York City ska group the Slackers—his main gig and a project he’s been a part of for close to 25 years. Unique to this tour, Ruggiero will feature songs from his upcoming record, Reggae Workers of the World, which he worked on with Wagner.

Compared to his ska- and reggae-based output with the Slackers, Ruggiero’s solo output falls more in line with roots Americana, punk and blues, even revealing hints of that doo wop and boogie woogie he internalized as a child. The music is beautifully centered around his voice, which is clear, yet rough around the edges.

Ruggiero recalls listening to a lot of music in his house growing up, laughing when he mentions that most listening happened while his dad was out of the house. He heard a lot of boogie woogie and doo wop in those early years, and lovingly remembers being inspired by his mother, a former member of a doo wop girl group, harmonizing with her friends on weekends when he was younger.

Their musical ability inspired the young Ruggiero, whose interest in Frankie Ford’s “Sea Cruise” and Fats Domino made him want to play piano in a group that sounded like Little Richard. Later, his passion turned toward a love for reggae and ska.

Though he didn’t see the connection immediately, he always felt like he recognized that ska beat from somewhere. He eventually drew the connection back to boogie woogie and doo wop.

“It snuck in there,” he says of the connection, once he realized how his early love bled into a new musical passion. “It was like a long lost friend.”

His latest album, This, released last October, re-imagines a number of his former tracks and gives them a proper studio treatment.

The project came about when a good friend offered to record Vic in a studio on the West Coast. Ruggiero didn’t initially take him up on the offer, but when an upcoming tour was cancelled, something told him his new-found free time was the magic moment to bring the two together.

But instead of Ruggiero taking charge, he gave control over to his friend—who had chosen all the songs he wanted to hear Vic record.

“It was a new experience for me,” he says of the process. “I’m used to calling those kinds of shots, so it was nice to have somebody do it for me, because it gives you the ability to just be the artist you want to be.”

While he wasn’t opposed to trying things differently, he also says he doesn’t believe in recording dozens of takes to find the perfect moment.

“To me, music is something that you can do in a hundred different ways,” he says. “I’m not married to one performance. I don’t think the performance you get on one record is the beginning and the end of the song. I’m gonna play that song 100 times.”

Still, Ruggiero recognizes when he’s not doing a song justice. Sometimes, he may cut a song short and tell the audience to remind him to revisit it later in the set. Such moments provide him with a chance to discover or re-discover work—sometimes even his own. You never know what you’ll find when you’re living in the moment.

Vic Ruggiero plays Cafe Stritch on April 28 at 9pm. More info.

Prince Sole may have already hit radio waves with two songs from his latest mixtape, but he hasn’t gone national yet. Just don’t tell that to a very young fan of his.

“It’s funny—every time my girl’s daughter hears a Drake record on the radio, she thinks it’s me,” Sole jokes while working inside a home studio tucked deep in the East San Jose foothills, worlds away from distractions.

The studio rat will transition from the booth to the stage this Friday at Art Boutiki, where he’s set to co-headline a show with Fresno singer The Kid Ryan, his creative partner on their recently released Call Waiting mixtape. It’s been a long time coming.

Whether it was his sister playing pop, his parents spinning Earth, Wind and Fire, or the Jodeci CD his cousin gifted him, music has surrounded Sole from a very early age.

Born and raised in San Jose, Sole—née Nick Martinez—attended St. Lawrence Academy on an athletic scholarship. He began making beats when a friend on his traveling basketball team gave him a copy of the production program Fruity Loops. It wasn’t long before Sole was hooked on making beats.

A few years later, while he was studying at De Anza, one of his tracks started generating buzz on MySpace, and Slip-N-Slide Records—best known for signing Miami rapper Trick Daddy—came calling with a single deal. The extensive contract language scared Sole, so he decided to attend Musicians Institute in L.A. to ensure he understood it all in the future.

After returning from L.A., he connected with production partner Difi. Once the duo brought Cisco Cortez into the fold, Dreem Teem was born. Sole says he handles much of the arranging, while Difi and Cortez produce the raw beats.

Friends outside of the studio, Sole says his musical partners have helped him maintain focus as he has continued his slog through the notoriously challenging music industry. “I probably would’ve given up on music a long time ago if it wasn’t for these guys,” he says. “Without them, none of this would be where we’re at.”

The group has started to make serious headway recently. Two songs from Call Waiting, “Picture Me Rollin” and “Lately,” have been getting national radio play—on the likes of 106.1 KMEL and L.A.’s Power 106, as well as other stations in California, Arizona and Texas. Plus, members of the Dreem Teem have both individually and collectively produced projects by singers Molia and Callé, and rapper City Shawn. Cisco Cortez handled the lion’s share of production on Call Waiting. It’s fair to say that the group is helping define San Jose’s R&B and hip-hop sound at the moment.

The 15-song Call Waiting fits well with much of what’s currently on radio—especially album opener “Picture Me Rollin,” complete with bouncy synths and a sing-along ready hook. Calling the sound “very ’90s and upbeat,” he says the Call Waiting “just came together organically. This was the easiest project for me to do. It felt the most natural.”

Sharing the credit, Sole says Cisco Cortez “had a great ear for how me and Ryan sound well together.” Having previously worked with the two on Sole single “She Ain’t Fucking with Me,” he’d have beats chosen for them as soon as they entered the studio.

Though his new project just dropped, Sole has already begun work on the next. Nothing’s solidified yet—he’s waiting for feedback from Call Waiting before cementing anything.

He may not be on the top 40 airwaves yet, but Sole and Dreem Teem know they’re on the right track. Periodically, they get feedback from DJs praising them for their consistent sound quality. They’ve also been getting calls from people like the East Palo Alto-based Hoodstarz, who they once thought were unattainable.

“When people who you used to look up to want to work with you, it makes you feel like you’re doing something right,” he says. “If they see it, then you know something good is going on.”

Friday’s performance at Art Boutiki will also include performances from Molia and Craig White.

Prince Sole and The Kid Ryan are performing at SLG Art Boutiki on March 27. More info. 

Delivering a vulnerable vocal performance that humanizes the song’s complicated perspective, Molia sings “Does it matter that she told me everything? Does it matter that you purchased her a ring? All that matters is you.”

She echoes the mantra once more, searching for self-acceptance: “all that matters is you.”

“Does It Matter,” the most recent single from her eponymous EP, has racked up 175,000 plays since its release on SoundCloud two months ago. And Molia, born Brittney Molia Schwenke, is humbled by the positive response.

“It feels like it’s a hit song now,” Molia says, seated inside San Jose’s Red Wall Studios, where the locally bred singer crafted the eight-song set and hosted a listening party this past weekend. “It’s really inspiring. I’m hoping that this project can do the same.” She’ll know soon enough. Her release officially dropped digitally yesterday. You can pick it up on iTunes.

The EP falls in line with R&B’s current it-sound, a wave indebted to ’90s and early 2000s acts and a serious love of heavy bass. They call it “RnBass.”

These sonics fit Molia’s personal tastes well. She cites Bob Marley and Lauryn Hill as key influences—which she discovered while growing up part of a vibrant Polynesian community on San Jose’s south side. It was there that she was exposed to reggae, hip-hop and soul from an early age.

American Idol fans may recognize her voice from a few duets she released in 2013 with season 11 favorite, DeAndre Brackensick. The two met at Oak Grove High School—he would bring his ukulele to school and the two would jam on the steps. The fun partnership led to two retail singles, including an incredibly soulful performance from both on “Fuss and Fight,” an original released in 2013.

All About That RnBass: Molia.

After an introduction through Oakland vocalist Rayven Justice, who worked out of the same studio, Molia met producer Cisco Cortez—one third of production trio Dreem Teem. It proved a potent combination.

“I wasn’t expecting the whole project to be just Cisco, but I’m really glad,” she says, explaining that everything turned out fine with just a single producer. “There’s something different about [every beat]. That’s what I’ve always wanted.”

“She makes it look so easy,” Cortez says, chiming in from an adjacent couch in the studio. “I’d never heard someone sing like that from my area. That made me want to push that much harder to break her out of here. I just want to see somebody from my city win.”

It’s been almost two decades since he and his Living Legends crew helped usher in a new era of DIY in hip-hop, and Scarub is still doing things his own way. In fact, he’s doing everything his own way.

After releasing his first solo effort in eight years, Want for Nothing, in November, Scarub is preparing a major tour in support of the album—and he’s doing it all by himself. That means scheduling dates with promoters, booking hotel rooms and plotting his route across the country, which will drop him in San Jose this week, when he headlines the Friday the 13th Monster Jam at Back Bar SoFa.

And while the additional work might be a hassle sometimes, Scarub, a.k.a. Armon Collins, says the freedom he gets in exchange makes it all worthwhile. Being his own tour manager and booking agent ensures that he can visit the special places and people he has come to know and connect with since he began performing back in 1998.

“It’s not like I have to fight for a seat or time table with whoever else is on the tour who wants to do other things,” he says, referring to the complicated logistics of attempting to keep the entire crew of rappers in line and on time. “I get to move at my own pace.”

Doing things on his own terms has helped get Scarub to a place where he is more at peace than he ever has been—a state of mind that is reflected in the title of his new record.

“It’s a play on words, on both sections—light and dark,” he says. “Hustling until you achieve it, or caring less about it and freeing yourself of those desires or obsessions. I’ve always worked with mottos. At my age, I’m at a point where I want to want for nothing. I want to be comfortable in my skin, and no one else can do that for me.”

Being comfortable and working at his own pace also means that the emcee won’t be worrying about pushing out new music at the speed of the Internet. He plans to stick to emphasizing quality over quantity. He particularly notes the output of De La Soul as a point of inspiration. “They put quality time into it, and that’s what I’ve done,” he says.

Scarub says he wants his fans to take their time with his music—to notice album through-lines and reprised motifs that will reveal themselves upon repeated listens. That attention to detail may explain why Scarub is still able to tour while plenty of his contemporaries are long gone.

“I think you need to give people more time to listen to music instead of giving them more and more and more music,” he adds. “At the end of the day, I think if someone has five potato chips versus a whole bag of potato chips, they’re gonna savor those five potato chips.”

Released this past November, Want for Nothing is Scarub’s seventh solo release, his latest since 2011’s The California EP. The album builds on a number of sounds, from the bluesy guitar lick on “My Moment” to the head-bobbing bounce crafted from a shuffling drum beat that accents the spare, contemplative keys of “Go.”

For the latest exposure to what he’s still capable of lyrically, check out his video for “Get Out!” where dancers respond to the beat as well as Scarub’s elastic flow, which shifts from elongated syllables to rapid-fire cadence. Once the double-time hi-hats appear, injecting a new-found energy to the beat, Scarub unleashes a lyrical barrage. Thankfully, lyrics appear on-screen to help the viewer keep up. It’s a great example of the studied nature to his cadence and the effortlessness to how he switches his delivery from one line to the next.

Asked about the crew that helped launch his career—along with the careers of Murs, Grouch and Eligh—he both confirms and downplays much of what has been said about Living Legends of late.

It’s true that both Murs and Grouch no longer associate with the Los Angeles and Oakland hip-hop collective, and yes, what’s left of the group hasn’t been nearly as active as it was at its peak, but that’s just life, Scarub says.

“We’re no longer in our teens or our 20s,” he says. “We’re in our 30s, man—so people have mortgages. People have bigger responsibilities.”

And while cracks seemed to appear within the Living Legends camp after the departures of Murs and Grouch, Scarub is quick to insist that “the energy’s still good” among all of the group’s members. He doesn’t rule out more Living Legends releases in the future.

“There is no hate.”

Scarub plays Back Bar SoFa on March 13 as a part of the Friday the 13th Monster Jam, which will also feature supporting performances from Cannabidroids, Pariah and TOAST. More info.

“It’s 2015. We gotta stay away from the negative shit,” the San Jose-based emcee and producer Cola says on a recent evening, as he plays with the bottle cap of the soda he is drinking.

The emerging rapper is referring to the recent Chris Brown shooting at local South Side club Fiesta, but he could just as easily be discussing his own philosophy as an artist. He says he’s dealt with too much negativity in his past; now his focus is solely on empowerment, positivity and self-love.

Just listen to “Reflections,” a highlight from the mixtape he dropped in October, No Such Thing. The release has been his most successful to date, earning nods from local heavyweights and placements on both Snoop Dogg’s GGN web show and the Dogfather’s chart Underground Heat. He plans to release two new music videos in the coming months.

A San Jose native, Cola grew up as Anthony Mastrocola on the city’s west side and attended Archbishop Mitty High School on a baseball scholarship. While he moved around a lot growing up—he jokes he’s become real efficient with packing—he never changed schools. He says he would often challenge his teachers and goof off in class, but managed to dodge any serious consequences thanks to his general likeability.

His stage name doesn’t come from an unhealthy love for carbonated drinks. It’s actually a contraction of his last name and was first used by his high school football coach. Since then, he says, “I’m literally Cola to everybody.”

50 Cent, Eminem and the Neptunes were the first names in his CD collection, but when his cousin introduced him to rock in middle school, his focus shifted to Nirvana, Sublime and Slayer. Kurt Cobain and Jimi Hendrix remain lasting influences. Nirvana’s iconic smiley face is tattooed on his forearm.

His rock influence is still present in his work. The music video for “Mosh Pit” follows Cola as he is kidnapped by bikini-clad, masked women. The raucous song carries forth atop a high-energy beat, which samples Green Day’s infamous guitar riff from “Brain Stew.” Such nostalgic flips are a through-line on No Such Thing, which also features samples from Dirty Vegas’ hit “Days Go By,” Weezer’s “Say It Ain’t So” and Sister Nancy’s dancehall classic “Bam Bam.”

After his deep excursion into rock, Cola veered back to hip-hop his freshman year in high school when he was introduced to Hieroglyphics and Living Legends. As much as he enjoyed 50 Cent, he gravitated to these underground legends because he found them more relatable. The Bay Area’s hyphy movement, best known for its late poster boy Mac Dre, also had a large impact.

While his musical focus was initially on rapping and recording as much as possible, Cola admits that his approach is now more refined. “I’m trying to perfect my songwriting,” he says, and nowhere is he more proud of his renewed process than on album cut “Tomorrow,” featuring Rey Resurreccion.

In his first verse, he weighs the pros and cons of settling down, compared with following a hard life to an untimely demise like a number of notable rock stars. After Rey’s verse, Cola’s visions of future success collide with his current stagnation and frustration, leading him to struggle with the notion that “supposedly I’m where I’m supposed to be.”

“It was my breakthrough as far as writing a conceptual song with a bridge and variations. My first verse was the realest, most natural one I’ve ever written,” he adds.

Local heavy hitter Dirtbag Dan recently stepped in as a mentor after hearing No Such Thing while on tour. Such support can still feel a bit surreal for the 24-year-old. He now has his own studio but had to move clothes out of his friend’s closet to record his verses in the not-so-distant past.

“It’s amazing because a year ago, we were standing around in parking lots outside of [Silicon Valley] De-Bug because we had nowhere to go. We couldn’t go to anyone’s house because everyone’s situation was fucked up. There was a lot of waiting around,” he says.

The positivity in his recent output stems from contemporaries like Bay Area hip-hop collective HBK Gang (home to Iamsu! and Sage the Gemini). He’s also indebted to Lil B the Based God, whose positive “based” philosophy has found mainstream recognition, most notably in Kendrick Lamar’s Grammy-nominated hit “i.”

Cola’s rampant optimism is a recent transition for someone who admits he once suffered from depression and self-consciousness. At its worst, those feelings led to thoughts and attempts of suicide.

Back then, he recalls earnestly wishing he could’ve been born as one of his better-liked classmates. These days, however, he is clearly much more comfortable in his own skin. It’s a feeling he wants to help others discover.

“As soon as you can stop worrying about failure, and as soon as you can erase the fears of not being good enough,” he says, “then you’re free to do anything.

It’s 10am on a Saturday morning inside the recently opened RockBar Theater. While the mood is light, it’s clear that this crowd is not composed of morning people. As Barbara Wahli, better known as promoter and manager Barb Rocks, admits at the start of the meeting, she’s running on only five hours of sleep after a long night in San Francisco. However, she assures her attendees that the coffee is on its way. This is the second meeting for the brand-new San Jose chapter of Balanced Breakfast, a group that looks to connect and empower music industry professionals to create a more vibrant music scene.

Wahli, who’s been involved in promo and band management for eight years  co-hosts the meeting every Saturday with Robert Austin of Nemesis Media. The second meeting has attracted roughly 30 attendees—same as the first—and the room is full.

San Francisco blogger Stefan Aronsen and engineer Andy Freeman founded Balanced Breakfast with the aim of “boosting the Bay Area music industry … one breakfast at a time.” The concept has proven highly successful, with chapters sprouting in Oakland, Portland and Boston.

Roughly three years ago, she created a monthly music industry networking event with the Pounders, who she manages. After a successful first meeting, they folded after four months. More recently, she attended meetings for Make a Scene San Jose, a venture helmed by promoter Eric Fanali to activate the local all-ages scene. Those efforts stalled as well.

“It just didn’t really connect the right way with people,” Wahli says of both ventures. She was drawn to the the structure of Balanced Breakfast, which she feels is more organized than those previous endeavors.

The Balanced Breakfast crew in front of RockBar Theater.

Wahli is encouraged with the start thus far, adding that the feedback she’s received has been “overwhelmingly positive.” At this meeting, the group discussed topics for future meetings, which included social media, graphics and front-of-house sound.

Asked about her hopes for the group, Wahli mentions building a touring network with other Balanced Breakfast chapters. With added venue support locally, she believes these efforts can work to build a community spirit that will breed a better live music culture along the lines of a Seattle, Austin or Chicago.

“Why can’t it happen here?” she asks. “I think if we all work together to build that, in a few years it’ll happen. But it takes effort, so a group like this is a catalyst to make that happen.”

Balanced Breakfast is held every Saturday from 10am-noon at RockBar Theater.