Family Parties and the Idea That Bled Through
APX1 did not come to event promotion through a business plan. He came through family. Growing up around parties where music rocked dance floors for everyone from kids to grandparents — that experience of music as a unifying force, as something that could bring together a room of people with nothing in common except the bass — stayed with him. When he started throwing events it was with the same mentality: throw a family party and make people dance.
The specific gap he identified was the day party. Underground music — DnB, dubstep, everything in that world — had always been a night thing. The culture ran on late nights and dark rooms. APX1 saw what was missing: nobody had done the day party for this scene. People dancing in sunlight. Drinks in hand. Seeing each other’s faces. Their favorite DJs playing while the afternoon light came through. That was I Love LA.
Day parties have always been going on — but never for drum and bass, never for our scene. I wanted to bring that to the forefront. People love to see sunlight and see people dancing.
Three Years, 65 DJs, 17 MCs
I Love LA launched about three years before this interview — APX1 and his partner DJ Curious together on the idea from the start. By August 2010 it had grown into the biggest local DnB and dubstep day party in Southern California by any measure: 65 DJs, 17 MCs, venues APX1 never thought would be possible for this music to play in.
The model was built on love before money. DJs played for free. The whole thing ran on the shared belief that showing up for the culture mattered more than the fee. Three years of that built something real — an event with genuine community behind it, a roster that grew because people wanted to be part of it, and a reputation that was opening doors that used to be closed to underground bass music in Los Angeles.
So many DJs come and play for free to show people that it’s all about the love. Getting together for this day thing — that’s what I Love LA is about.
What Was Coming Next
At the time of filming APX1 was planning the next edition of I Love LA with ambition fully unlocked. A big reggae headliner. Conversations about Z-Trip. Flavor Flav in the mix. The goal was to bring in names from outside the strict DnB world — artists whose audiences would walk in not knowing the culture and leave converted. Cross-pollination as growth strategy. The same instinct that built the event from a single idea into a Southern California institution was pointed squarely at the next level.
Shout outs at the close went to his two core partners: Steel Lion Sound and DJ Curious. And to every single person who had paid, played, or slayed I Love LA. That taxonomy — the audience, the artists, the people who showed out and showed up — is the whole ecosystem of an independent event built on community. WOMP TV was there to document it.