Get your sunglasses out for this one, folks. Even if you’re posted up in the back corner of the lawn at Ascend Amphitheater, where Anderson .Paak plays Friday, it’ll be hard to escape the blinding light of the rapper, singer and producer’s pearly-white smile. The 33-year-old .Paak has plenty to smile about — not least of which that he’s making his Nashville headlining debut with this sold-out show. It opens his Best Teef in the Game Tour in support of Ventura, his bestselling record yet, which he’s said is the final entry in the four-album “beach series” that’s unfolded as his career has taken off.
Released in mid-April, Ventura is a collection of tracks that leans heavily toward ’70s soul, R&B and disco, and resembles the breezy beauty of its namesake coastal town. There are features galore, from André 3000 on “Come Home” to Smokey Robinson on “Make It Better,” and the record’s lush production and longing melodies make it a pleasure-filled ride, solidifying .Paak’s status as a sensual groove king.
Ventura placates fans and critics who didn’t take to its predecessor Oxnard, .Paak’s 2018 long-player named after the suburb where he was born, about 60 miles northwest of Los Angeles. While Oxnard tracks like the politically engaged “6 Summers” show off skillful, thoughtful lyricism — and made listeners chuckle with lines like “Trump’s got a love child / And I hope that bitch is buckwild” — it’s much closer to a conventional hip-hop record than .Paak’s 2016 breakout Malibu. Some felt Oxnard strayed too far from the hybrid of crooning and rapping they’d come to love, and called it a misstep.
Not that it mattered much. Oxnard still sold well, and .Paak won a Grammy for Best Rap Performance this year for the non-album single “Bubblin,” a tense banger laced with hair-raising strings and horns. On “Bubblin,” .Paak muses about how a new luxurious lifestyle of cleaning out safes and running around in Gucci slides doesn’t really solve personal problems or societal issues — things he writes about from experience.
West Coast hip-hop is full of rags-to-riches transformations, and .Paak’s life is one such tale. Across his four-record series, he documents his ascent from nameless L.A. rap-scene hopeful to internationally acclaimed musical polymath. In 1986, he was born Brandon Paak Anderson; his mother worked on a strawberry farm, and his father was a mechanic. As a youngster, he drummed at Baptist church services and recorded his own music in his bedroom, developing his spirited and genre-bending style.
During his 20s, Anderson put in tons of work but didn’t seem to get anywhere. Recording and performing under the name Breezy Lovejoy, he joined the gig economy and did pay-to-play shows on the Sunset Strip. While struggling to gain recognition for his music, he worked on a marijuana farm in Santa Barbara to support his wife and young child. In 2011, he unexpectedly lost that job, which left him homeless. But Shafiq Husayn of the established L.A. alt-rap group Sa-Ra took in Anderson and his family, mentored the young artist and connected him with a group of musicians who would help him relaunch himself as Anderson .Paak.
.Paak’s 2014 debut Venice kicks off with the track “Milk N’ Honey,” a decidedly Hollywood tale in which a rich sugar mama seduces a penniless young man with the promise of drugs and a Porsche — only to abandon him and frame him for her own felonies. The charms and consequences of the hedonistic mythology of L.A. show up in .Paak’s funny, self-aware storytelling in moments like this across Venice.
His anxious rhythms and laid-back, cocky flow established him as a standard-bearer for L.A. rap traditions, and that caught the attention of Dr. Dre, the king of West Coast hip-hop. Dre enlisted .Paak for six songs on his monolithic 2015 record Compton, furthering .Paak’s profile as a rising rap star. Eventually, Dre signed .Paak to his label Aftermath, and .Paak achieved international critical and commercial success with Malibu, his next record and hands down his most impressive yet. Fan favorites like “Come Down” and “Heart Don’t Stand a Chance” proved a revelation — melding his glittering soul singer chops with confessional rap verses, all backed by his exceptional live band, The Free Nationals.
On “The Season / Carry Me,” my personal favorite track off Malibu, .Paak laments: “When I crack the cookie all it said was, ‘Keep dreaming.’ ” Like scores of other entertainers who have scrapped for dimes, .Paak once faced a future that was anything but certain. But with the right friends, multiple undeniable talents and an unstoppable work ethic, he’s beat the odds to become a widely respected and in-demand talent — with his infectious smile intact.
