P-Lo stands beneath a basketball hoop on a rooftop outside courtroom that overlooks downtown San Francisco, surrounded by the Bay Space Avengers — Saweetie, Larry June, Kamaiyah, G-Eazy, thuy, LaRussell and YMTK, all native MCs gathered to shoot the video for his or her new monitor “Participant’s Vacation ’25.” The tune is a part of an upcoming mission spearheaded by P-Lo and Golden State Leisure (GSE), the document label and content material division of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, which is planning to launch the album in partnership with EMPIRE to have a good time the native music scene forward of NBA All-Star Weekend in San Francisco in mid-February. The vibe on-set is breezy and free; the gathering of expertise, each on the tune and hanging out right here at this time, makes the afternoon really feel just like the modern-day, Bay model of the Nice Day in Harlem celebrating the Fifties New York jazz scene.
“Simply having all of the creatives and artists within the Bay there for that and simply with the ability to be current in that second and actually put that factor collectively to characterize the Bay appropriately [was special],” P-Lo says. “There’s been a lot damaging speak about San Francisco and Oakland [Calif.] and the way harmful it’s, and all these unhealthy issues about our area and our space, and we needed to only present the unity and our resilience to all of that.”
All instructed, the album — known as For the Soil — will characteristic over a dozen Bay Space artists, together with icons like E-40 and Too $hort. It’s the most recent mission from GSE, which shaped in 2022 with EMPIRE as its distribution accomplice and has launched music by Okay-pop act BamBam and Oakland artist MAYZIN.
EMPIRE founder and CEO Ghazi and his firm “have world attain however have maintained deep roots in and real love for the Bay,” says David Kelly, chief enterprise officer for GSE and chief authorized officer for the Warriors. “When Golden State Leisure needed to do one thing particular in reference to NBA All-Star 2025 coming to the San Francisco Bay Space, it was solely proper that we linked up with P-Lo and launch it by way of EMPIRE. The mission is a celebration of Bay Space music and tradition and a testomony to the wealthy music scene that EMPIRE has helped create in and for the Bay.”
It’s additionally a part of a collection of initiatives that EMPIRE is spearheading forward of All-Star Week, together with a number of events within the space and a collaboration with NBA 2K for a limited-edition vinyl package deal that includes EMPIRE artists, on which “Participant’s Vacation ’25” can be featured.
“Rising up a Warriors fan and going to the video games all my life,” P-Lo says, “simply to have the ability to work with an organization that basically is like one of many higher franchises in all of sports activities, to have the ability to do one thing like this with them, is a dream come true.”
This story seems within the Feb. 8, 2025, problem of Billboard.
