"The Cool & Confident World of Gina Views" (excerpt from Issue 8: "The Next Gen") by Andrew Maso
Between 2014-2020, Gina rapidly added to her media resume (“those years were my proof of concept”). She created her own YouTube series, Hoefessions, and established herself as the go-to curator for lit LA rap cyphers.
UNDRGRND Magazine | Sept 10th, 2023
As new artists emerge within the Los Angeles music scene, so do the media personalities who report on them. One of the most prominent faces in new-age LA hip-hop journalism is Gina Views, who began interviewing rappers in 2014.
“We’re in this era of entreprenurship,” Gina said. “Why don’t I just start my own shit?’ I had a whole bunch of friends who were rapping—Rucci was one. Reached out to him, ‘Can I interview you? Can you rap on a cypher?’ And it took off from there.”
Between 2014-2020, Gina rapidly added to her media resume (“those years were my proof of concept”). She created her own YouTube series, Hoefessions, and established herself as the go-to curator for lit LA rap cyphers.
Shortly into the pandemic. She received a phone call from fellow LA rap journalist, Rosecrans Vic, inviting her to join him and Gabe C. as the inaugural cast of MAD LAtely—a LA centric podcast on the acclaimed No Jumper network.
“Vic started Rosecrans Ave, and I started G.xpo at the same time,” Gina says. “For a while [in the mid-2010s], we were the only people giving artists a platform. That’s my dog, that’s my brother, I love him.”
Although MAD LAtely met an early demise, Gina stayed with the company until leaving in early 2023. During her time there, she ran the No Jumper social media accounts (the Instagram alone has over three million followers), co-hosted a Monday show, and became a fan-favorite to a national audience meeting Gina for the first time.
“It gave me a lot of visibility,” Gina says of her time at No Jumper. “It definitely had the negative shit, but I learned a lot of things filming and social media-wise that I’m applying to my own brand. And I definitely learned what I didn’t want, and what I do want [going forward].”
Photos by Brian Ticas, Inmar Bonilla, Noah Cudal, and AJ Lopez.
