BUILDING A MUSIC CAREER IN “SIN CITY”

With a range of unique sounds and styles, Las Vegas artists are putting on for their city as they pursue individual stability in the developing local music scene.

UNDRGRND Magazine | August 27, 2021 | By Sean Golonka

Throughout the Las Vegas Valley, more than two million residents and thousands of visitors labor through 115 degree heat, spending millions of dollars each day in one of the world’s most active entertainment hubs. It’s certainly easy to be trapped by the glitz and glam of the Las Vegas Strip. The Bellagio fountains. The towering Stratosphere. The Luxor Sky Beam. Iconic Caesar’s Palace.

But the city’s relentless hospitality industry blinds what lies behind this mainstream flashy front — a burgeoning local art and culture scene. 

Las Vegas is a city of hustlers, and the artists in Issue 4: “Sin City” understand that better all too well. They spend their time proving themselves and elevating the city’s unique music community, all while hustling day in and day out to stay afloat in the fast-paced and expensive landscape.

LEROYCHOPS embodies this spirit fully. On an uncomfortably hot — yes, uncomfortable even for Las Vegas — June night in his North Las Vegas backyard, he tells UNDRGRND about growing up on the north side of the city. He says he first learned about the local rap scene when he was attending Cheyenne High School. From his older brother and his friends, he learned about the culture of hip-hop that stretches beyond rapping, like graffiti art and skating videos.

His North Las Vegas background blends with his 90s and West Coast rap influences in the music he produces today, and his sound has been a staple of the local rap scene for years. But others who grew up in Las Vegas have had completely different experiences on their paths to creating music. LEROYCHOPS recognizes those differences in the variety of musicians across “The 702.”

“Our sound is an auditory version of what our city really is — it’s just diverse” he says. “That’s how I kinda look at it, especially from all the Vegas artists I've heard.”

Nidia Martinez, who was born in Washington but raised in Vegas, grew up surrounded by music. Her mother was a singer and her father pursued a music career in Los Angeles while Martinez was young. The 23-year-old singer/songwriter sang in school choirs and even attended the Las Vegas Academy of the Arts, a premiere magnet high school that requires an audition to be accepted into the program. Today, she sings RnB and soul music and plays the guitar.

“In high school, I started taking [music] a little bit more seriously,” Martinez says. “I was signed to this, like, fake record label that we created. It was pretty cool, they like had me record my best songs. They did photoshoots, and they got me gigs, like I performed at the Foundation Room at the House of Blues Las Vegas.”

Las Vegas Profit, who attended Clark High School near the famous Las Vegas Strip, had some limited experience freestyling at parties and even less in an actual studio. But less than a year ago, he put pen to paper, set up a studio in his home and began putting in the work it takes to become a successful artist. He is known for making songs inspired by a myriad of rappers, including Ice Cube, King Lil G, Wiz Khalifa and Lil Baby.

Profit says that while the underground scene is hectic and high-speed, the Salinas, California born rapper has been surprised by the support Vegas musicians show each other.

“It’s more collaborative,” says Profit, 21. “I thought it was gonna be a competition at first. But then I started stepping out here, you know, like I'm doing features with people. And like some people are reaching out to me, I'm reaching out to them, and everything goes cool.”

Vegas’s music community is also shaped by those who moved there as adults. New residents flock to Southern Nevada for the city life, sunshine, school, the cost of living and financial stability. As more people from around the world come to Vegas with microphones, instruments and beats ready to show off, the city’s sound is further widened. 

Kareema Walters (a.k.a “Kareema”), 26, moved to the Las Vegas Valley from Long Island, New York in August 2020. She sings an old-school style of RnB that isn’t often found in the Southwestern city. But her outside East Coast style is what helped her find her role in “Sin City’s” underground community.

“It's just so open, like everybody's so open minded and just carefree,” she tells UNDRGRND. “And I love that shit because I don't get that shit back home.”

Vegas isn’t a city full of trappers or drill artists or boom bap rappers. It isn’t Atlanta or Chicago or New York, and is certainly cut from a different cloth than UNDRGRND’s home of “The 805.” And as with every scene across the world, the artists in Vegas must figure out how to not only survive, but to stand out amongst the rest.

Itzel Rodriguez (a.k.a. “Zelly Vibes”) worked as an assistant manager in a retail store before losing her job in 2017. In order to make money, she relied on her voice, going to the Strip and Fremont Street to sing for tips.

From there, Rodriguez only continued to grind as an artist. She performs and saves money for flashy music videos and even has her own online fashion shop. She notes that she is not alone in being an up-and-coming artist currently making a living in the valley.

“There're so many amazing, talented artists, and I don't mean just artists who perform music,” she says. “We have amazing photographers, videographers. We have rock bands, RnB and turn-up artists, and amazing lyrical rappers. We have stylists and designers. It's Vegas. It's like a little melting pot of different spices and flavors.”

One musician who balances the line between lyrical and turn-up rap is Michael Smith (a.k.a. “1K”). Smith bounced between Vegas and Southern California throughout his life, but settled in Vegas a few years ago to find structure for him and his son. 

Since then, he has been completely in tune with the city. He’s worked at the Luxor and the brand new Resorts World as a sports book manager, while also building out a career as a rapper with his own way of doing things.

When he committed himself to pursue music as a financially stable career, Smith says he set himself a goal of putting in 10,000 hours to perfect his craft. With that goal in mind, he’s spent day after day in the studio from midnight to 4am. But his grind outside of music also remains the same.

“I go to work every single day and work eight hours for somebody that's paying me a check to pay my bills,” the 29-year-old says. “Then from that, you’re supposed to find a way to pay yourself. I need to pay myself in time, you know? Like, I need to honestly put time into the things that I want in my life.”

Like Smith, the rest of the Issue 4 “Sin City” cast are underground artists operating independently. They have to find ways to support themselves everyday, all without a label backing their efforts and releases. Martinez works two jobs and recently got her real estate license. Profit is a supervisor at a restaurant. Walters works in health care. 

Rodriguez says that finesssing ways to make money is an essential part of the city’s culture.

“If you're not getting money in Vegas, that's crazy,” she says. “Like, I proved it. Anyone can do what I did. There're people now that can go dress up in a costume and go to the strip and make fucking money. You can learn a skill. You can go on Craigslist, work at conventions, work at casinos. It won't be your ideal job, but I feel like there's always something.”

Some, like Rodriguez and Smith, are focused on creating more music and showing off their versatility. Walters says she is focused on asserting herself as an artist, through performing more and releasing more solid music. Profit says he sees his music career as a different type of hustle to build a good life for not only himself, but his daughter too. Martinez says she has dreams of starting a publishing company and building a platform to showcase other Las Vegas talent — she even put on her first event in October 2020. And LEROYCHOPS is out to prove not only his own skills, but also the versatility of the city he grew up in and has ingrained in his DNA. As he said through our Issue 4 photoshoot day in June 2021, “we the mutha’ fuckin’ greatest.”

And these six artists are on their way to proving just that.