The People’s Top Five Rappers 22nd Annual Coachella Valley Music Festival

One of the most anticipated music festivals took place this past weekend and was everything you’d expect and more. Coachella weekend one happened April 14-16 and weekend two on April 21-23 with headline performers being Bad Bunny, Blackpink, and Frank Ocean. Other standout performers include Kali Uchis, Becky G, Rosalia, Labrinth, Gorillaz and Metro Boomin.

Both weekends were filled with great music, incredible outfits and lots of controversy. Headlining the opening night of Coachella, sparked controversy after a tweet saying “Goodnight Benito could do as it was but Harry could never to el apagón,” was displayed during his set. It appeared as though Bad Bunny was throwing shade at Harry Styles despite being spotted at one of Harry Styles multiple shows in Los Angeles. However things were clarified during weekend two where he displayed another tweet that read, “Sorry Harry. It was a mistake from my team. We love you. <3” a special segment dedicated to regional Mexican music and she even brought out new breakout stars Peso Pluma, Marca MP, and Fuerza Regida’s frontman Jesus Ortiz Paz. Her weekend two set included a tribute to the Mexican-American icon Selena Quintanilla. Coachella headliners Blackpink opted for the same set both weekends. This left a few fans disappointed as many were hoping for surprise appearances from Cardi B or Selena Gomez. Both artists are featured in songs from Blackpink’s 2020 album “The Album.”

The rap genre has been the most popular genre for decades now as the sound and flow continues to change. Rap from the 90’s sounds completely different than what it sounds today. Although, a lot of the sound is sampled from old rap music and other older music from a completely different genre. For example, In his recent album “Her Loss” Drake sampled AZ’s Mo Money, Mo Murder(Homicide) in Drake’s Middle of the Summer song. AZ sampled that song by The O’Jays song “Cry Together.”

The following question was asked to Rio Hondo Students, Who is in their top five for rap music? “Right now I’d say Yeat, Ken Carson, Destroy Lonely, Drake, and Lil Uzi,” Jacob Chavez, RHC student, named his top five rap artists. More students on campus were asked who was in their top 5 for them.

“Drake, Lil Baby, Lil Uzi, Travis Scott, Gunna number five,” Raymond Flores shared his top five.

“J Cole, Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Lil Wayne, and 21 Savage,” Angie Hernandez, RHC student, shared her top five, adding completely different rap artists in the list.

“Playboi Carti, Lucki, Destroy Lonely, Homixide Gang, and Lancey Foux,” Diego, another RHC student, shared his top five with more underground rappers in his list.

Most people’s list today currently will most likely have underground rappers than the current mainstream rappers in their lists. The reason why is because artists like Drake, 21 Savage and Lil Wayne, Kendrick Lamar are artists who are already established with a lot of music being released and awards to their name.

The underground sound of music is at an all time high of great up and coming artists are in a boom with many great songs being released. Playboi

Carti’s record label Opium has artists signed that were mentioned in this list and are having a rapid rise into the music industry. Rappers like Destroy Lonely and Ken Carson who were named on the lists of RHC students, are rap artists who are blowing up in the underground scene with a huge fan base from them. Their current album releases were huge hits with Destroy Lonely’s “NO STYLIST” and Ken Carson’s “X” being a huge success for them. Also from the same Label Homixide Gang is also next up in the up and coming new rap artists with a mean sound.

Lucki is another rapper in the underground scene who is having a huge rise in popularity with another huge fan base behind him. Lucki has music that has been out now that is a must listen but he is now getting a lot of recognition by more people in the music industry.

If the list goes by what RHC students answered the list is 1. Destroy Lonely 2. Drake 3. Lil Uzi 4. Travis Scott 5. Kendrick Lamar. Yes this list can be controversial to many people but that is what the people said. Let us know who are your top five rappers.

This year’s Coachella lineup was a big step for Latinos. The Puerto Rican sensation, Bad Bunny, became the first solo Latino headliner. Kali Uchis had one of the most anticipated sets and Becky G paid tribute to her Mexican heritage during both her weekend 1 and 2 sets. Her weekend one set included

Rio Hondo Celebrates

Earth Day

Manuel Smith @mannysmithmedia

This past Tuesday april 18th Rio Hondo Associated students hosted a earth day event at the lower quad it was from 10am - 2pm they had free pots to paint and plant your own flowers and decorate custom bags. They also had some subway sandwiches and some drinks they had horchata you name it. This was the 1st event like this after the pandemic and what a great way to start.

Students of all majors were there to celebrate earth day in their unique ways some of them painted their pots with awesome colors and others decorated there free bags with design and outstanding drawings some with flowers and peace signs. I spoke to RHC student Victor Guerrero on how he spends earth day caring about the air pollution and recycles every chance he gets. Guerrero also told me that he loves earth day. All and all the event was a huge success people stayed a little more after 2pm the people were kind of caught of guard in a good way with people having fun and meeting new people thats an event like this is for everyone comes together as a unit and enjoy times like these and cherish them the most. Weather its earth day or just a random day out of the year cherish the earth we walk on and try to make it better.

However the largest headline coming from this year’s Coachella surrounds headliner Frank Ocean. Following the passing of his brother in 2020, the Coachella performance was his first since 2017. Fans waited in the desert heat for hours in anticipation of his set. Unfortunately many fans were left quite disappointed. The show began an hour late, many of his biggest hits were left out, and vocal tracks were used for other songs. After sustaining an injury, a custom ice-skating rink was dismantled hours before the show. After the chaos of Ocean’s weekend one set, he pulled out from Coachella and canceled his weekend two set. Fortunately, Blink-182 was able to step in as a replacement and closed out Coachella weekend two.