Updates:

• We are honored to be one of Popsense.com’s  “Best Blog’s of 2008“
• We are a part of LiveAGL.com’s “Unique Urban Blogs“
• Official Media Sponsor of the 2009 U.C.L.A. Jazz Reggae Festival.

East of L.A. Lifestyle Group is a marketing & entertainment collective founded in Riverside, CA and operating out of Pomona, CA. The website was primarily created to support & promote our special events throughout Southern California, but has turned into a medium in which we can share our obsessions with music and urban culture with the rest of the world.

What’s your specialty?
We like to focus on music and urban culture with emphasis on Inland Empire, CA & Southern California as a whole. Like everyone else, we have interests from around the globe, and will gladly share anything that excites us.

What’s your taste in music?
We like to look at the world of music through the lens of hip hop. Which means you’ll see a lot of hip hop we like on here, and much like hip hop and its use of such a wide diversity of sound, we’d also like to share music that isn’t “Hip Hop” but you may be able to relate to as a fan or lover of it. We just try our best to recommend good music and independent Dance, Rock & Hip Hop is our forte.

Why the name, “East of L.A.”?

East of L.A. alludes to the strength of Los Angeles and what you can find just beyond it.

There are two meanings here, the first the most obvious. East of L.A. refers to the geographic region which is the Inland Empire, C.A. & Coachella Valley, basically anything between L.A. and Phoenix, A.Z. This is where many of us were born, raised, educated & continue to work. We always make an effort of being the best ambassadors of the urban culture from this region while keeping a global perspective. This is a community of 4.5 million people (Roughly similar to the Seattle Metropolitan Area), and wherever there is that many people there are plenty of innovative & creative people within the bunch. Southern California is a sprawled out metropolitan region, as opposed to just one city.

Secondly, “disorient” literally means, “turned away from the East.” This Orientalist theory drew many parallels to our daily lives. Growing up independent hip hop fans we thrived in a culture beyond the mainstream, living in an exurb we were often felt overshadowed by Los Angeles, and L.A. has fittingly become the pop-cultural epicenter of the globe. East of L.A. alludes to the strength of Los Angeles and what you can  find just beyond it.

How do I get something posted on the blog? / How do I get on one of your parties/shows?
Simple, email eastofla.blog [-at-] gmail.com , don’t attach any mp3’s rather upload via sendspace.com or mediafire.com and send the URL.

East of L.A. Staff:

About:

Gopi Sangha founded the U.C. Riverside chapter of the non-profit organization, Hip Hop Congress, in which he organized with fellow students, community events and concerts on campus and in the local Riverside community. In the span of a few short years he was organizing amongst both regional and national leadership, and currently serves as an adviser to the Southern California college chapters of the organization.

As an event coordinator at U.C. Riverside, Gopi pioneered and developed the HEAT Music Festival at U.C. Riverside, an event which has gone on to become a premier annual tradition on campus. In it’s second year of production, the HEAT Music Festival attracted more than 10,500 concert goers enjoying music across three stages with performances by 311, Mos Def, Moby, Girl Talk, The Clipse, Circa Survive, L.A. Riots & many others. 

East of L.A. Lifestyle Group, as founded by Gopi, is designed to promote and market unique events and artists across Southern California.

Staff:

Salim Mhunzi, and contributors Andrew Chun, Soham Patel, & Hamza. << Updating this page to feature more info about them soon!