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In his 53 years behind the counter at VIP Records, Kelvin Anderson has watched the natural progression of West Coast music — in style and format — change over the decades.
It’s a rich history he has wanted, for years, to showcase in a museum. And where better than in Long Beach, at his shop, which played a pivotal role in hip-hop’s entrance into American art and culture?
On Tuesday, Anderson and his family pitched his vision to civic leaders, artists and friends to purchase the lot where his record store sits and convert it into a museum with food and live entertainment.
Anderson, 70, wants the museum to be a “full circle” facility with a recording studio, printing space, restaurant and area for live music, preferably by up-and-coming acts.
The event, organized by the nonprofit Creative Class Collective, is part of a yearslong effort to convert the space, and it comes as the World Famous VIP Records sign is set to be restored across the street as a historical landmark.
“Trust me, we are planning on making some big strides this year and getting this museum project done,” Anderson said. “So, the key is this location. We want to buy this shopping center. We want to start right here.”
Following some repairs, the sign — which has been in storage since 2018 — will sit on the southwest corner of Pacific Coast Highway and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, across the street from the original storefront location.
Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson said Tuesday the city has “negotiated an agreement that should be coming to council pretty soon” to finalize the plan.
But the museum, despite petitions from residents and support from local leaders, hasn’t yielded the same momentum as the sign, as Anderson continues to look for funding.
“I can raise money for you, but I can’t raise money for me,” Anderson said. “I’m just not good at fundraising and stuff.”
Off the success of the refurbished sign, Anderson said he’s making another push to make the museum a reality.
In concept, he said, it would document Long Beach’s outsized role in shaping the music world.
From a makeshift recording studio in the back of Anderson’s shop, Warren G, Snoop Dogg and the late Nate Dogg — the trio then dubbed as 213, the Long Beach area code at the time — recorded their first four-song demo at VIP. Anderson shopped it to numerous rap labels, all of whom passed.
After he signed his first label deal, Snoop Dogg recorded part of his “Who Am I? (What’s My Name)” video on the store’s roof.
Outside VIP Records, Anderson pointed to Captain Rapp’s 1981 “The Gigolo Rapp” with Disco Daddy as the first rap album ever recorded, also in Long Beach.
Plenty of others followed as West Coast gangster rappers scorched the rap world previously dominated by New York artists.
“Back when, you know, rap wasn’t so popular, wasn’t so easy to do,” Snoop Dogg said in a video call Tuesday. “Y’all up here at VIP gave us hope, y’all gave us an opportunity to actually make a dream come true, give us a platform to hear our voice for the first time on a cassette, to hear what we sounded like and what we meant to people. So, thank you for giving us an option, giving us an avenue and opening up your record store to us and our dreams.”
The museum would also explore the history of music and how it’s been made — and enjoyed — over the years.
It would include the rise of the once-cheap E-mu Systems’ SP 1200 drum machine, which reached iconic status in hip-hop by enabling rappers to program beats and record lyrics cheaply and easily. It would canonize the fads, from shouldered boom boxes to the iPod Classic.
“Because I have kids coming in now and I say, ‘Hey, you know what this is?’ and they like, ‘Is that a Game Boy?’ I’m like, ‘No, that’s an eight-track,’” Anderson said.
Lastly, the museum would include Anderson’s own story: It would document his start in 1972, when he flew to Los Angeles two days after graduating from high school in Brandon, Miss. He went to work in his older brother Cletus’ record store at 108th and Main Street in Los Angeles that afternoon. Seven years later, he purchased his brother’s Long Beach store for $70,000.
His siblings eventually opened stores in Inglewood, Pasadena, Compton and Crenshaw, among other locations.
But as sales declined, branches closed. It eventually led Anderson’s storefront to move from the 3,300-square-foot store on Pacific Coast Highway to a space half the size nearby.
Nowadays, about 60% of his customers are people traveling to Long Beach. “This is a tourist-driven store,” Anderson said. “People fly here now, and they leave the airport and come here and they are like, ‘I haven’t even checked into my hotel yet. I just had to come here.’”
Without knowing for certain, Anderson said it would cost around $10 million to purchase the surrounding lot at his storefront. If that isn’t possible, he said he’d consider moving to a location Downtown or in Bixby Knolls.
“I think there’s enough love out there for VIP Records to make this happen,” Anderson said. “If I can get the right couple of people to get behind me and if not write me a check, just help promote it.”
In his call Tuesday, Snoop Dogg told Anderson and the audience he offered his support to the museum but agreed to remain flexible on the location.
“I think it should be there; that’s the birthplace of it all, but, like I say, if they don’t want to act right, we’ll find somewhere we can put it,” he said.
Mayor Richardson added that the city supports Anderson’s idea to build a museum but for now remains focused on the refurbishment and restoration of the storefront sign.
“This is a part of a number of landmark projects that we want to get up in the next few years in advance of the Olympics,” Richardson said. “Even if Kelvin is able to put together the museum, which I love that concept, we think this could fit very well into the (city’s) entertainment strategy, which has been sort of looking at how we tie our history and our roots into our future.”
You can donate to the cause here.