For L.O.V.E. Culture, Playing Jacksonville PorchFest Is Like Coming Home

Local hip-hop group will perform blocks from where they first met.

For its ninth year, Jacksonville PorchFest is November 4 in the Northwest quadrant of historic Springfield. Homes here date back to the 1900s, and their sprawling front porches will come to life with music as 20 bands and artists from around the southeast turn them into stages.

One of those acts is L.O.V.E. Culture, a Jacksonville-based hip-hop collective with five members: Easyin2D, Ché Forreign, Flash the Samurai, Rob Mari and Spiritxiii. Here, Ché shares how the group first met in the heart of PorchFest’s footprint: at the Shoppes of North Pearl, home to local Black-owned businesses like Auntie Peaches, Icecapade Frozen Treats, 1 Foxy Lady Cafe & Catering, and Simply Ke'Say Boutique.

PorchFest is a unique event, and is probably pretty different from playing a typical venue. What are you most excited about, and does anything about it make you nervous?

We're super excited to play PorchFest because we got our start over there on Pearl. It’s pretty special to be able to play this. We've never played PorchFest before, and this is on our personal artist checklist to play, because everybody knows how awesome of an event it is.

It isn't like regular venues, but I feel like there's something intimate about that. Just the connection between the people and the music is right there and I've always adored the intimacy of that. We love how PorchFest brings the community together and shows pride in the city and the beautiful streets of historic Springfield. And we love to represent hip-hop the best way we know how. There’s a lot of amazing musical talent playing this year and we’re happy to be amongst them representing our genre.

I also have to shout out The Glass Factory for sponsoring us. We would not be able to do this without them, and we love them so much.

If someone is seeing you for the first time at PorchFest, what do you want them to know about L.O.V.E. Culture?

I would want them to know that hip-hop is alive and well. Hip-hop is bold, it's beautiful, it's insightful, it's deep, it's raw, it's exciting, and that's exactly how we perform it. Love is an acronym in our name: League Of Vibrant Energies. So we really take that into consideration when we perform. We're high energy, just a really fun group to watch and listen and get into. We just want you to really get ready to have a good time.

Your first full-length album, 1827 N. Pearl, came out in 2021. That’s the address of what is now The Cookbook. Can you explain what that address means to you?

At the time, The Cookbook was a spot called the Birdhouse. It was a music venue. Weighed Sailor – he’s a videographer here in Jacksonville – he used to do showcases there.

This one in particular was called No Filter, and he asked me, Rob Mari, Spirit, Flash, Easy, all of us were n the same bill, but we didn’t know each other at the time. That’s what makes it special, we got to see each other in our elements and in our talent before even really meeting.

After that we were like, "Wow, you're amazing. You're amazing, you're amazing." It's kind of like that Spider-Man meme when everybody's pointing at each other. I started working on music with Easy at the time and recording with Spirit.

Eventually, Rob Mari was like, "Hey, I'm working on an album, I'd love all of y'all to feature on it." He invited all of us to come write on the album, and then his album turned into our project. We decided to name that album 1827 N. Pearl to pay homage to that divine event that took place.

Addresses hold a lot of memories – your home, where you spend time at, where you grow up at, or any type of core event that happens at a specific place. For me personally, I felt like walking into that space changed my life because I met people who are now uncles to my kids. I met my future partner there, my whole music life changed the moment I walked through those doors and met those guys.

Jacksonville PorchFest is Saturday, November 4 from 12 to 8 pm This event is family-friendly, dog-friendly, and free. For more information about VIP tickets, parking, and more, visit jacksonvilleporchfest.org.

Love L.O.V.E. Culture? You can book by emailing mngmnt@weareloveculture.com.

Author

Katie McPherson

Local Expert Guest