Strolling down Compton Avenue and Century Boulevard, you are feeling a motion that’s arduous to put. An enormous tree is on the intersection, its roots gnarled and twisting. A gaggle of teenagers strolls by, excitedly recapping some non-public story. Two pals catch up within the car parking zone close to the tree. When artist Rush Davis arrives, wearing black, the alchemical signal for Mercury shaved into the again of his head, he too appears to be moved by the cadences of this intersection, changing into one other ingredient of its bustling vitality.
Davis — a singer, producer, DJ and artistic director whose type traverses home, techno, R&B and extra — grew up on Compton, within the second home on the block, proper subsequent to a laundromat. He has been down these streets many occasions. It’s an surroundings awash in recollections. He factors to a church on the opposite facet of Compton Avenue. “I used to be baptized there.” Born in Louisiana, Davis moved to Watts when he was 7, dwelling together with his prolonged household, together with his grandmother. Davis, who’s Black and Mexican, credit his household’s large style in music as an early affect on his personal type.
“Compton and Century is my coronary heart,” says Davis, who wears a Professional Membership T-shirt, Dickies pants and Vans footwear.
(Henry R. Jones II / For The Occasions)
“Really feel the stress, embrace the lesson / Be assured, be assured,” Davis sings on one music from “Transmission,” his 2021 collaborative album with producer Kingdom. These strains appear to infuse the whole lot he does, whether or not it’s serving as a artistic director for artists like serpentwithfeet or producing his personal tech-drenched R&B reveries. All through his initiatives, Davis brings a way of play and danger that honors the experimental spirit of the L.A. queer communities that formed him. For Davis, creativity feeds off this willingness to be open and weak with others. His want to attach is felt in his crystalline voice on songs like “Love Is Blood,” which bends and snaps his lyrics towards new horizons of sound and emotion. His music pushes us towards different worlds, ones that embrace what Davis calls “the nuances of issues.”
Allison Noelle Conner: Why is the intersection of Compton and Century significant to you?
Rush Davis: Compton and Century is my coronary heart. Many generations of my household grew up right here at 9917 Compton Ave. My grandmother labored at this laundromat [next door]. This was the one consistency I had rising up. My dad and mom moved round quite a bit, after which at 15, I acquired kicked out for being homosexual. So I’ve lived throughout Southern California. However this was the one place that was residence. This was the one anchor I may preserve coming again to.
ANC: How did this location form your curiosity in artwork and music?
RD: I come from a extremely huge household. My great-great-grandmother had 20 children. At any given time, there have been wherever from 10 to fifteen children in the home. I’ve been obsessive about perspective since I used to be a child, so music was the largest perception to individuals’s minds and feelings and what they have been going by. I may inform by the sure music individuals would play what was happening with them. And that’s actually the place it began. As a result of all people in my household is into music, we linked over music and there was at all times music enjoying. Whether or not it was my grandmother, enjoying [things like] Paquita La Del Barrio and the Isley Brothers, or my mother, who was actually into hip-hop. It was all these completely different colours to color with. It was at all times round.
ANC: You have been additionally uncovered to completely different music at Mustache Mondays. Might you speak about why these events have been a turning level for you?
RD: Mustache was the primary place I went to the place the true “different” was celebrated and platformed.
Earlier than I discovered Mustache, I used to be going to golf equipment in West Hollywood. These have been predominantly white areas that celebrated the white kind in loads of methods. And I didn’t see myself wherever. Then, once I did see myself — say, as an example, after they had a Black night time on a Sunday — once I could be in that area, I used to be like, I nonetheless don’t actually slot in right here. As a result of the way in which I grew up, I’m into home, I’m into tech, I’m into gangsta rap, I’m into all of that.
For Davis, creativity feeds off a willingness to be open and weak with others.
(Henry R. Jones II / For The Occasions)
After I noticed the people who have been getting platformed [at Mustache] I used to be like, “Oh, whoa, that is residence.” It was the primary time I ever felt that method in nightlife. I used to stroll out of this home, go straight down that method, make a left on 103rd Road, take the practice, and go all the way in which to downtown L.A., hop off over there, stroll down 4th to La Cita [on Hill Street]. This was my path.
ANC: Mustache stopped in 2018. Do you continue to really feel that point is influencing what you do now?
RD: Completely. You’re what you eat. I consider that fully. By way of my DJ type, and the kind of music I produce, I used to be positively fostered by listening to resident DJs like Josh Peace, Whole Freedom, Kingdom, Asmara and Daniel from [the duo] Nguzunguzu. After I would hear a loopy ass mix of a Mariah Carey report over some loopy tribal-like, industrial tech kind s—, I used to be like, “OK, whoa. That is the music I wish to hear.” As a result of it’s borrowing from in all places. But it surely’s fractal and kaleidoscoped into all these completely different vibrations that basically communicate to me. I attempt to carry that on once I play.
Most locations I’m going to will be very style particular. They both wish to hear hip-hop or tech or home. Or they wish to hear R&B. However for me, it’s like, “Nah, you’re gonna get what I really feel, proper? And we’re gonna go on that journey collectively. And hopefully [you’ll] depart somewhat bit extra uncovered.”
ANC: You’re a part of the Home of Xtravaganza. How did ballroom tradition open up your sense of who you might be as an artist?
RD: In brief, language. It gave me language. I didn’t have an understanding of who I used to be as a result of there weren’t clear examples within the public or media. It wasn’t till I went to a ballroom and I noticed the class “Realness With a Twist,” I noticed thug-looking n— come out, you realize, get their 10s for ‘realness,’ then come again out voguing. I used to be similar to, “Oh, s—. That’s me.” You recognize, that was the primary time I ever noticed that.
ANC: How previous have been you?
RD: I used to be 16. I first began going to the Enviornment [club] in Hollywood. That was once I first acquired uncovered to ballroom. Round that point, I met some individuals from the [House of Prodigy, an international ballroom house founded in 2002 and based in Philadelphia], and so they introduced me buying with them, to prepare for a ball. And one among them was a intercourse siren and one other one was drag. That is the primary time I used to be ever out in public with homosexual individuals. We have been in Santee Alley downtown. My homie Sammy was making an attempt on thongs. And I used to be like, “Oh, my God. I’m simply totally out on the planet, in daylight.”
ANC: What’s your relationship to ballroom now?
RD: I finished strolling balls once I was like 24, 25. I began specializing in music closely as a result of I noticed that in our home alone, there have been so many artists. And I noticed the most effective factor I may convey to the home was the whole lot that I’m. And what I’m greater than something, exterior of the ballroom, is music. I make music. I attempt to give my sisters and my brothers from the scene actually good music.
ANC: You launched two albums with Kingdom final yr. Did Compton and Century play a component within the artistic course of in any respect?
RD: Me and Kingdom’s relationship goes again to Mustache. In 2019, he despatched me a pack of beats. And one of many beats he despatched was for “Love as Blood,” [a single from the 2021 album, “Transmission”]. I used to be strolling from the liquor retailer, and I simply began bawling as a result of I used to be considering that that is my buddy and my buddy made this beat, and that is actually one of many craziest issues I’ve ever heard.
To the touch on how [Compton and Century] weaves into all this, what this place gave me was an openness to achieve out and a boldness to let individuals know the place my coronary heart is and the place I stand. And from that boldness, I used to be capable of inform my buddy, “Hey, look, I do know we’ve been working collectively for years, however I believe we should always do a collaboration undertaking as a result of these previous few tracks you despatched over, it’s feeling like a factor.”
This place is character growth like no different. This place gave me antennas. This place gave me a sharpness and a nimbleness. It taught me methods to transfer by the world, to ask for the issues I would like and declare the issues I do know are mine.
“[T]his place gave me … an openness to achieve out and a boldness to let individuals know the place my coronary heart is and the place I stand,” says Davis of Compton and Century.
(Henry R. Jones II / For The Occasions)
ANC: You’ve additionally labored with musicians and artists Daybreak Richard, serpentwithfeet, Shaun Ross, amongst others. Might you describe your method to collaboration?
RD: The collaborative course of is the way you convey worlds collectively. It’s the way you flip one room into many rooms, you realize, it’s the way you flip an condo right into a mansion. That’s the factor about collaboration. It’s a bridge for me.
Additionally, I believe the crux of my profession has been collaboration. And I name it a crux, a cross, as a result of it has revealed me. I don’t suppose I might have been in any of the locations that I’ve been with out having artists champion me and permit me to step in and assist them steer their imaginative and prescient or give them perception or language for what they have been making an attempt to do. And that goes for a lot of completely different types of collaboration, not simply on the music facet but additionally on the artistic course facet, on the directing facet. All these issues are features of collaboration for me.
ANC: What does your neighborhood imply to you?
RD: It’s interdependence. For me, probably the most highly effective place to be in is within the area of mutual want. I would like you and also you want me, and that’s a great feeling. It’s an incredible feeling to know if I would like [something], I do know who to name. And to know that there’s not this sense of a side-eye or something, however that we’re each feeding one another. That’s actually what our neighborhood thrives off of. Just like the Mustache household. There are such a lot of powerhouses, when it comes to views and tastes and attain and assets, that after we come collectively, something is feasible.
ANC: What are you wanting ahead to?
RD: I’m truly engaged on my first [solo] album; I’ve been engaged on it for some time. Earlier than I put that out, there’s going to be a slew of singles with a bunch of various artists that I like to create with.
After which the largest factor is, I wish to unfold vitality world wide. An important focus for me proper now’s getting out into the world and DJing and performing in entrance of as many individuals as potential. I simply want individuals to really feel it.
Allison Noelle Conner is an arts and tradition author primarily based in Los Angeles. Her writing has appeared in Artsy, Carla, East of Borneo, Hyperallergic, KCET Artbound and elsewhere. Presently, she is the editorial fellow at X-tra Modern Artwork Journal.
