The first time Kendrick Lamar performed two shows in one night. The birthplace of Tyler The Creator‘s Camp Flog Gnaw festival. Nipsey Hussle‘s first sold-out show. What do these three historic moments have in common?
The answer is The Novo.
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Nestled in the heart of downtown Los Angeles, the 2,400-capacity venue falls under the umbrella of Goldenvoice, the powerhouse California promoter behind Coachella and Stagecoach.
Formerly known as Club Nokia, the hotspot opened its doors in November 2008 with a show headlined by Beck. Since then, The Novo has evolved into a cultural staple in Hip Hop and R&B.
However, it wasn’t always a cornerstone of these vibrant music scenes, as Rhea Roberts-Johnson, VP of Operations at Goldenvoice and one of the first black employees and executives to work for GoldenVoice, tells HipHopDX.
“Goldenvoice, in its early days, was a punk rock promoter. We primarily booked punk rock and alternative bands. There were definitely some Public Enemy, N.W.A and Salt-N-Pepa bookings in the 80’s, but GV made its name by being the prominent alternative promoter in Southern California,” she says.
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Asked when Goldenvoice began incorporating more rap and R&B into its bookings, she explains: “The bookings have always been progressive. Our team is full of music fans. When we opened as Club Nokia, one of our first acts was Usher. The talent buyer at the time who opened this room, was really into Hip Hop and R&B.”
Every talent buyer that has come through this room has really been tapped into the Hip Hop and R&B scene, especially in this city. Everybody has played this room — from SZA to Drake
“I look at this venue, as it pertains to Hip Hop, as a must-play room in L.A.”
This love for the culture runs in Roberts-Johnson’s family, too. Her husband Marcus “Don Dada” Johnson just so happens to be the very first Black talent buyer for The Novo/GoldenVoice and is especially passionate about discovering emerging talent.
“I’ve always been super passionate about finding artists early in their careers,” he tells DX. “I enjoy booking them in small rooms and even at the nightclub level, then watching them and helping them grow their careers.”
“There’s so much talent in L.A. Being able to play a part in helping them grow and develop in their careers is important to me. Having the ability to offer them The Novo as a performance platform once they’ve reached that level, is extremely rewarding.”
“I can go down a list of artists who I worked with before they even were signed. YG, before he even signed to Def Jam, was performing at my clubs. Ty Dolla $ign and more.”
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Recently, while attending two shows at The Novo, I posed a question to Marcus and Rhea: do they find the vibe more uplifting when a local L.A. native performs here?
“Oh yeah!, I just feel the excitement around local artists in L.A.,” Rhea says. “We’ve always loved and supported our homegrown talent. That’s just the L.A. culture in general.”
“When a local artist plays, it almost feels like a family reunion. You see so many people you know at these shows because everybody in the L.A. hip-hop scene is connected in one way or another. Everybody knows each other.”
“There are certain events that happen where there is this excitement because you’re seeing one of your own do their thing at this level, like downtown L.A., L.A. LIVE. And then it’s also a family reunion because everybody you know is coming to support since Kendrick has now given us the term ‘pop out.'”
Marcus Johnson
They tell no lies. I shadowed Marcus at The Novo during Kodak Black‘s show on June 27, where he brought out Lil Durk, received a marriage proposal on stage from a fan and danced to Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us.” The crowd was hyped and the show was sold-out, but it didn’t compare to the 310Babii concert two days later.
An L.A. native, 310Babii drew an insane crowd and brought out special guests like Blxst, Luh Tyler, Lola Brooke and Lakeyah. Even though not all of these artists are from L.A., it certainly felt like the crowd was!
Marcus Johnson is no stranger to historic moments at The Novo, and one in particular that stands out is the show considered by some to be Verzuz before Verzuz. That was RJMrLA vs. 03 Greedo.
“The Novo is like a rite of passage to a certain extent for L.A. artists,” Johnson explains. “Managers hit me up all the time like, ‘I feel like my artist is ready to play The Novo because I feel like they’re ready to get that moment.’
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“I remember RJMrLA and 03 Greedo before Verzuz. It was kind of billed as 03 Greedo versus RJ. It was hyped up. Everybody thought so because they’re from different neighborhoods in L.A. Everybody thought it was going to be a mess! You know, fights and everything.
“But it ended up being one of the most historic moments at The Novo. Because you had these two developing artists from L.A. They both were kind of considered the next thing out of L.A. And here they are on the same stage from different neighborhoods, different parts of the city. It ended up being one of the most memorable moments in this venue.”
Goldenvoice
You have to be a native of L.A. to understand that bridging two communities together on one stage with zero problems is nothing short of amazing.
Kendrick Lamar did just this on Juneteenth with his legendary “Pop Out” show at The Forum in Inglewood, where he united different L.A. gangs — some of them rivals — while essentially cementing his widely perceived victory over Drake in their high-profile feud.
Rhea Roberts-Johnson was not only heavily involved in that event, but played a role in booking Kendrick’s very first show many years back.
“I used to work at 102.3 KJLH and I was getting my hair done one day, and my stylist had a friend in there who was also getting her hair done. At the time, people knew I was on the radio so they would hand me mixtapes all the time,” she explains.
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“This girl came to me like, ‘Can you listen to my friend’s mixtape?’ And it was Jay Rock’s tape. Then she was like, ‘And here’s another one, too. His name is Kendrick.'”
“At the time, Jay Rock was the one that they were really pushing. So I listened to it and I was like, ‘Okay, this is dope.’ And then I popped in Kendrick and I was like, ‘Well, he got it!'”
“I remember sending his mixtape to a bunch of people I knew in radio. I was like, ‘Listen to this. Do you know him?’ And everybody was like, ‘Nah,'” she continues.
“So I’m like, I need to get an interview with him because he’s the one.’ He was just so different. The confidence, the lyrics — everything was there. So I requested an interview with KJLH and [the station] denied it. They didn’t believe.
“I was on a show called The Saturday Night Mixdown, which was Hip Hop focused, but everybody knows KJLH for being an R&B station and playing gospel on Sundays. But I told Marcus, who was booking clubs at the time. I was like, ‘I need to get an interview with him.'”
“We had a night at the Conga Room. We found out JAY-Z was in town that Friday doing his Blueprint 3 tour at the Staples Center, and we were like, ‘We’ll just call it the Blueprint 3 afterparty.’ It was right across the street from the Staples Center, but we didn’t have the money to book JAY-Z or whoever else was on the lineup.
“So we started looking for local artists to book. Rhea had just discovered this guy, Kendrick Lamar. We started making some calls, got in touch with Dave Free [Kendrick’s longtime manager] and we ended up booking Kendrick Lamar for our performer for the night.”
He continues: “This was his first ever show. His first performance ever. And I didn’t even know that until years after it happened. I was speaking on a music panel in Boston and I ran into Punch, one of the executives at Top Dawg [Entertainment].
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“I was like, ‘Dude, you remember that thing we did at the Conga Room with Kendrick?’ He’s like, ‘Yeah, man. That was his first show ever.'”
Recalling the crowd’s reaction to a virtually unknown Kendrick, Marcus says: “There were a lot of his friends there, like even his friends still to this day. There weren’t a ton of people because it was early. It wasn’t super packed yet. ScHoolboy Q was the hype man. He had a bald head. MixedByAli was his DJ and then Rhea interviews him.”
It was through this modest performance that the couple developed a relationship with Kendrick and his camp, paving the way for them to reunite three years later at another L.A. venue, Club Nokia.
“That was the first time that I did two shows in one night because the demand was there for Kendrick,” Rhea says of the October 17, 2012 show, just days before the release of good kid, m.A.A.d city.
“When tickets went on sale, they sold out like this [snaps her fingers]. So we did a second show that same night. That was the first time that we did that, and it worked. That was when I said, ‘Oh, this can work.’
“That was another one of those shows that always stands out to me. I knew about him early on, but seeing how quickly he developed and seeing his stage presence, there was a complete transformation from when he performed at the Conga Room.”
The Novo has played host to so many amazing talents, from L.A. artists like The Game, Roddy Ricch, DJ Quik, Vince Staples, Doja Cat and Earl Sweatshirt to non-local legends such as D’Angelo, Gucci Mane, Erykah Badu, Lil Uzi Vert, Pusha T and the late DMX.
Like Kendrick, fellow hometown hero Nipsey Hussle also put on a memorable show at Club Nokia in 2012 during his ascent to stardom.
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“When Nip got booked here, I was handling the ticketing for this venue. I remember we put the show up online to sell, but [his brother] Blacc Sam, the businessman that he is, was like, ‘We want to sell tickets from the [Marathon Clothing] store,'” Rhea recalls.
“He came up to my office and picked up a hundred tickets. Normally, that would be it for an artist in consignment sales. About four hours later he called me and was like, ‘I need more.’ And I’m like, ‘Huh?’ He came and picked up another hundred. And he literally sold the show out.”
Rhea was particularly impressed by Nipsey and his team’s business acumen and operational efficiency.
“By this time in my career, I had dealt with a lot of artists and a lot of teams, and I remember just thinking how on point they were,” she says. “I’m like, ‘This team is so tight and so organized and so about their money.’ I was impressed. I was in awe.
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“You see so many artists who don’t understand the business side of what they do, and to see a team that was so tapped in and so involved, not just with what’s going on on stage but behind the scenes.”
When artists play The Novo, it’s like a rite of passage, a way to announce to the world that they’ve officially arrived. Its significance in the city is so pivotal that one artist even launched their own festival here — an annual event that is still going strong more than 10 years later.
“One of the moments that I always think about because we still work with this artist is the first year that we did Tyler, The Creator’s Odd Future Carnival, what’s now known as Camp Flog Gnaw,” Rhea says. “It was in 2012. The carnival was across the street in the parking lot, while the concert itself was inside The Novo.
“Everybody from Odd Future, it’s funny seeing them now. We just saw Taco [Travis Bennett] at [Kendrick’s] Pop Out show. I remember all of those guys being so young, running around and being so excited. And then seeing them still to this day having that same level of enthusiasm, but seeing how much that event has grown and it’s still so relevant and continues to grow.”
“Tyler almost created the blueprint for festivals that are curated by artists because nobody was really doing that,” she adds. “So to have that idea and that level of enthusiasm and just being so involved in the process, that’s admirable.”
Among the countless artists who have graced the stage inside The Novo is the musical genius who has inspired many of the above names: Prince.
“One of the shows that really stands out to me here was Prince,” Rhea says fondly. “It was 2009. Prince had an idea to do Club Nokia, the Nokia Theater (what’s now the Peacock Theater) and then the Conga Room. He wanted to do all three venues in one night.
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“So we started at the Nokia Theater, he played over there, moved to the Conga Room, played there, and ended here at Club Nokia.”
Club Nokia’s rebranding to The Novo happened in 2016, emphasizing a shift towards a more urban music and rap scene, which had already started to take shape under its previous name. This transformation was guided by talent buyers who were deeply connected to Hip Hop and R&B. Since then, The Novo has become a pivotal venue for Hip Hop in Los Angeles.
Additionally, the venue has played a significant role in supporting the local community and its emerging artists. The Novo has given many up-and-coming talents a platform to showcase their music, positioning it as a key player in the West Coast music scene.
The Novo is personally one of my favorite venues to attend. The welcoming spirit from general manager Kyle Robinson, booking assistant Taji Hardwick and Marcus Johnson trickles down to the whole staff. When you step into this venue, it always feels like home.
