ACL Fest Artist Spotlight: AG Club

Young East Bay Area rap collective AG Club – with the "AG" aptly standing for "avant-garde" – defies the styles that often typify artists from their region by blending influences from across the country. Debut full-length Halfway off the Porch, released in January 2020, balances tinges of melancholic pondering over pensive acoustic guitars ("Snæks") with bouncy instrumentals more characteristic of the South ("Memphis"). Their current lineup primarily consists of Baby Boy handling lead vocals and in-house graphic design for the group, Jody Fontaine handling rapping and writing, and Manny of 777Media directing visuals for the group. "Columbia," off of April tape Fuck Your Expectations Pt. 1, perhaps best exudes the group's ability to weave together witty songs with eye-catching visuals. The song's opening horn rattles listeners into consuming lines such as, "You can never catch me ni**a, the speed real/ Michael Jackson Pepsi sippin', I'm hotheaded/ Wish a ni**a would test me, promise he won't heal." Things get wackier in the track's accompanying visual where a brief need to urinate while road-tripping leads to an alien discovery, which then allows AG Club to perform their best Men in Black impersonation.