Success means different things to different people. For rapper and producer Thurz, seeing his name on a marquee didn’t quite resonate. He longed for something more meaningful and rooted in the community that helped him develop a fan base and find his voice.
“Moving in the music space you always get pulled to perform in Hollywood,” Thurz says. “But none of those venues are owned by people of color.”
Recognizing that fact prompted the rhymer to create Party In My Living Room, a grassroots effort to bring production value to the classic neighborhood function and foster a space where he could perform for people in the community he grew up in. Hailing from Inglewood, California, Thurz credits the house party culture of the Los Angeles suburb with changing his ideas on what a live space could (or should) be,
“Being a local here, house parties are really part of the culture,” he says. “Every weekend there was a party at one of my auntie’s and uncle’s houses, letting me know that people can have a good time in spaces that they live in. With Party In My Living Room, I wanted to bring production value into nontraditional spaces, the intention behind that was to give a place for people to come that we can really be ourselves, and celebrate the music that we love.”
In the five-plus years that Party In My Living Room has been around, Thurz has taken it from a self-produced, self-funded experiment to a full-blown events business. He’s hosted parties in different cities across the country, from Inglewood to Atlanta to Miami.
“I think that Party In My Living Room represents that if you have an idea and you take action and you’re willing to take risks to do it yourself, then there will be a community around to come help you,” Thurz says.
Watch the video above to learn more about Thurz’s journey, how he continues to blur the lines between the neighborhood function and music venue, and how Party In My Living Room has gone from just a dream to an important space for like-minded creators. Be sure to keep an eye out for additional episodes from our Salud to Summer series, created in partnership with Modelo.
