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Trying to keep up with the constant, rapid evolution of hip-hop is akin to trying to catch a stray cat that’s wandered into an empty football stadium: Just when you think you’ve got it cornered, it darts across the field. Your best bet is to conserve your energy and follow the path of someone who is consistently one step ahead, like Jonas Angelet, the Portland producer who makes Pete Rock-style psych-jazz beats under the name Luvjonez.
For the past eight years, Angelet has served as something of a musical meteorologist with A Beat Happening, his monthly gathering of producers and DJs. Since their first event back in 2017, he and creative partner Free Tillman have maintained an uncanny knack for knowing which way the cultural wind is blowing. They scour Instagram and YouTube and hit up other hip-hop-centric showcases like Thirsty City and The Thesis, their radar attuned to original voices, particularly those from underrepresented communities.
“It was all very intentional from the beginning,” Angelet says, sitting at Speedboat Coffee recently. “We were intentional about having women, young folks, femme-identified folks, and a mixture of Black and brown folks. Always intentional about how we curate the shows to bring all these people together.”
In that respect, Angelet continues to build the kind of inclusive network that drew him to hip-hop as a kid growing up in Kentucky. At that time and in that area of the country, the scenes were disparate and took some digging to find. But when Angelet did uncover them, he found them welcoming to all outsiders as long as they brought some enthusiasm and creativity to the fold.
He kept that philosophy close to heart as he worked as a DJ for Wisconsin hip-hop duo Break Bread and then bounced to Washington, D.C., and New York City, releasing beat tapes online every step of his journey. He eventually landed here in Portland in 2014 after taking a job at Squarespace (he now serves as community programs manager for Portland Center Stage), and started regularly attending Thirsty City, a monthly event showcasing hip-hop at The Goodfoot.
“It had just started,” Angelet remembers, “and they were kind of like electronic, indie, underground, hip-hoppish-type stuff. I met NorthernDraw, who runs that, and I told him about what I do. I wasn’t pushy about it because I was new to the city. But he put me on my first Portland show, and after that I kept building with him, supporting other artists and meeting people through those shows.”
His association with Thirsty City also inspired him to want to put on his own shows, which led to the first A Beat Happening event, which took place at Future Shock Records in the summer of 2017. As Angelet remembers it, around 40 people packed into the humble record shop to hear short sets by then-17-year-old producer Deadbrainz, the cosmic beats of Lisa Vazquez, and a DJ set by a young Los Angeleno known as Skippy.
Since then, A Beat Happening has been shuffled around town a bit, eventually landing at its current home at L’Atelier Yaffe, a cafe and art space on Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard co-owned by former Timbers player George Fochive. Even with those occasional moves, the showcase has put down some strong roots within the local hip-hop community and beyond. This past October, Angelet was invited down to Mexico City to perform (“It sounds funny to say, but I have fans down there,” he says) and used the opportunity to set up A Beat Happening night featuring local talent. And, at the end of this month, he takes ABH to Chicago for a pop-up event.
“That one is kind of the biggest long shot,” Angelet says. “I don’t know any of the artists personally or the venue. But this model is built to take to other space, and I know that it works. I can help build a network for other producers who want to travel.”
Before that, there’s the matter of the proper eighth anniversary celebration to attend to. Rather than cycle back through some of the artists who may have gotten their start at A Beat Happening, Angelet stayed true to the formula, with a lineup made up of fresh local talent. On tap this time is the fantastic EDM DJ Emoji Heap, ambient agitator Daishin Eki, and Alex Chadwick, a former MC who took a decade or so off from music but is coming back strong as a beat maker.
“I like introducing new folks to everybody in the room,” Angelet says. “I’m trying to mix this up to be a bunch of different styles and a bunch of different age ranges and creative processes. It’s about sharing your work. If you are confident enough to come and play, you can have 25 minutes onstage to do whatever you want.”
SEE IT: A Beat Happening eighth anniversary show at L’Atelier Yaffe, 111 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., atelieryaffe.com. 4 pm Sunday, Feb. 23. Free.