Manak \u2014 a new hire into KCRW\u2019s DJ ranks as well \u2014 will celebrate his label\u2019s 30th anniversary with a three-day festival in Highland Park<\/a> on Oct. 16-18. He spoke about staying vital as hip-hop waxed and waned commercially, how his office\u2019s bar revamped local nightlife, and whether technology has changed the value of good taste.<\/p>\n Thirty years is a hell of a run for Stones Throw. Could you have imagined still doing this now when you founded the label?<\/p>\n When I was in high school, I had a term paper talking about having this record label. I saw it again years later, going through storage, so I must have manifested it. But we weren\u2019t thinking about making hip-hop beats and rapping 30 years later.<\/p>\n I remember as a kid watching the Motown 25-year anniversary on TV. I was probably 12 at the time, and I was buying contemporary Motown records, Rick James and DeBarge. But I wasn\u2019t interested in seeing all the stuff from the \u201960s then. I was like, \u201cThat\u2019s my parents\u2019 music.\u201d So it is weird to think that this label has lasted longer than Motown had at that anniversary.<\/p>\n The fest has both young and classic Stones Throw acts. How does the festival define where the label is now while nodding to its history?<\/p>\n We started with the artists [Automatic and Los Retros and Sudan Archives] that were putting records out now. But then as I started looking at it, I did want to have Rasco and Planet Asia, because those are the first rappers that I worked with on the label. Architect and Wildchild too. Some of them haven\u2019t played shows in a long time.<\/p>\n People say they hear a \u201cStones Throw sound,\u201d but I can\u2019t explain what it is. If you go back to Quasimoto\u2019s \u201cThe Unseen\u201d for example, that was one of the first albums on Stones Throw, but those are songs that he just recorded at his house. I liked the intimacy and the rawness of it. There is stuff that\u2019s more pretty now too, but I definitely see a through line and the label evolving as my personal taste evolves a little too.<\/p>\n You got into hip-hop when it was a subculture, and now, with some exceptions<\/a>, it\u2019s back on the commercial margins. Does it feel more like that early era again?<\/p>\n I think so. When I wanted to do this as a living, I didn\u2019t care about the top 40 or the Grammys. It wasn\u2019t our goal to be in the Rock Hall. I remember back then, older people were saying sampling is not real music, rappers are not musicians. But DJ Premier, Pete Rock, Bomb Squad, they all made really interesting music that I wanted to hear more than anything.<\/p>\n And yet you did win your first Grammy last year for the NxWorries record with Anderson .Paak.<\/p>\n I\u2019m flattered. It\u2019s something that I can explain to my parents who still don\u2019t understand what I\u2019m doing 30 years later. Anderson .Paak spearheaded that, but since he\u2019s won so many Grammys before, I didn\u2019t even think he would care. But when it happened, he was so excited. I think, for him, it felt better to be able to do it with an indie label because it must be the talent and not politics.<\/p>\n Chris Manak at Gold Line Bar, his popular spot that\u2019s part of the bar-hop scene in Highland Park.<\/p>\n (Robert Gauthier \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n The Stones Throw documentary showed how you\u2019ve influenced some of the biggest acts in hip-hop \u2014 Ye, Tyler, the Creator and so on. Do you have any residual hunger for a huge hit record?<\/p>\n I tried not to do that. This sounds kind of self-sabotaging, but we met with Odd Future when they first were buzzing in L.A. They hadn\u2019t done any shows yet and they were interested in Stones Throw. I was interested in them, but I didn\u2019t really pursue it, and they ended up doing their own label. The rest was history.<\/p>\n Even with Anderson .Paak, I heard his more contemporary stuff that I wasn\u2019t really interested in, but I saw that he was gonna be a big deal. I didn\u2019t try to be involved with all that. It was like, go where you want. I felt like I would be holding him back in a way, or it wasn\u2019t the Stones Throw sound.<\/p>\n One of the guys from R\u00fcf\u00fcs Du Sol<\/a> came to the office last week; we have a mutual friend. I wasn\u2019t aware of how big they were, and I saw that they did five shows in a row at the Forum. Like damn, how does someone get that big? Yet he was asking about my history, he was interested in early 2000s hip-hop and the trajectory of Stones Throw.<\/p>\n The label\u2019s tenure coincides with the collapse of the record business and the rise of streaming<\/a> and the resurgence of vinyl<\/a>. Is it easier or harder to make a living on records now?<\/p>\n I never really did well with five-year plans or any of that. It was always what record am I going to put out next, and everything else has always kind of figured itself out. I\u2019m like the cat that lands on its feet.<\/p>\n Almost every release that we have to this day has a vinyl version. But when streaming became the main part of our business, it was a difficult time. A lot of it now is AI music \u2014 just look at the statistics of how many songs are being released now compared to even like 10 years ago. It\u2019s astronomically more. With a business model of streaming where you\u2019re getting a piece of the pie, there\u2019s just so much more in that pie now.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a hard place to be right now as far as touring too. The fans are all over the place \u2014 it\u2019s harder to get someone in small rooms, and you have to start off that way. There\u2019s less of those kinds of venues now. It\u2019s going to be an interesting time to see how that shakes itself out.<\/p>\n Touring is so expensive and grinding<\/a> for all but the biggest artists these days.<\/p>\n It\u2019s so hard to do 250 shows in 365 days. I\u2019ve never even done a monthlong tour in my life, maybe once with Cut Chemist in like 1997. It\u2019s good for me that I could put on my hat for putting out other people\u2019s music and then go back and DJ and curate music that way too.<\/p>\n You just got a new job in the rotation at KCRW. You arrived at a complicated time<\/a> there, how has it been?<\/p>\n It\u2019s just once a month, so it\u2019s kind of a specialty show and I can do whatever I want. I\u2019ve been using it to play a lot of unknown records. The other DJs on there play so much stuff that I don\u2019t know, and it\u2019s crazy how much new music is out there, and so much of it is good, and I don\u2019t know how to discover it. So much of it is algorithmic. I don\u2019t see as many curators these days, but I love seeing the DJs here, at Gold Line.<\/p>\n Gold Line set a precedent for L.A. bars that are meant for close listening to records on a great hi-fi. You opened Palomino<\/a> here recently too. How have these bars changed the way people go out in L.A. to hear music?<\/p>\n We\u2019d used this space for private parties. I had one where we put crates floor to ceiling and had people DJ with my records, and I had a really good time seeing how other people used them. I found out that in Japan, they have these listening bars, and I wanted to do that here. Someone said it\u2019s gonna be all middle-aged white men in here, but good music brings people from all walks of life together. Our oldest DJ is in his 70s.<\/p>\n How is L.A. feeling as a music town these days? People are fighting to stay afloat, and whenever I see the film industry get new tax credits<\/a>, I wonder why music doesn\u2019t advocate for that too. <\/p>\n I loved the music scene in L.A. and that\u2019s what I moved here for more than anything, not for the industry. Certain small venues that nurture the scene, like Lodge Room and Zebulon, are the curators. But even having the DJs at this bar, it helps them pay their bills. A lot of the up-and-coming artists that I deal with, they don\u2019t have a 9 to 5, they DJ three nights a week at different places.<\/p>\n I see people that I think are so talented, and they\u2019re not able to really make money at their music yet. I have people who\u2019ve been doing it for five, 10 years and are still forced to work on cars. I think about like some of the artists I work with that get government grants in Austria and Canada and the Netherlands. I wish there was more of that in the U.S. in general. When I sign artists, my goal is always to help them get to the point where their day gig is the music.<\/p>\n ![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789381930_340_.jpeg\")
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