OMCA Friday Nights
Oakland Museum of California
1000 Oak Street, Oakland
October 10, 2025
It was a beautiful day in the Town. It had been warm, but the temperature was coming down.
As we crossed Oak street where 10th street gets closed off to vehicles, the smell of delicious food greeted us.
I wanted to explore the food truck options, but fortunately, we ran into the homie Dimitrius, who immediately asked us if we had wristbands. Apparently, we needed to go get wristbands right away.
At the weekly Friday Nights at OMCA event, there isn’t usually such a protocol, but that was the case for this particular night. LaRussell was performing this week, and this vegan girl dad from Vallejo is kind of a big deal, so I could see the logic.
At a brisk pace, we made our way through the museum’s concrete mid-century modern campus, past multiple security teams to a patio overlooking the central inner courtyard where the concert would take place.
After waiting in a sizable but quick-moving line, we got our wristbands, and were in like Flynn.
Opened at the height of the civil rights movement, at a time when iconic imagery was being photographed in front of the Alameda County Courthouse across the street, the Oakland Museum of California was founded as a “People’s Museum.”
Perfectly in line with that, OMCA Friday Nights are free, family-friendly events that feature live entertainment, a separate DJ dance party, food trucks, and a bar. These events are not usually as crowded as they were on this particular October evening, and if I’m being honest, they’re not usually as melanated either.
After graduating from continuation school, LaRussell Thomas parlayed a Grand Canyon University degree into a well-paying job in the aeronautics industry. However, his dream was to be a rapper, and he made that happen on the independent grind.
LaRussell released his first album in 2018, and seven years later, performed during the 2025 NBA All-Star Weekend. More recently, he celebrated his birthday with a sold out $1,000-a-ticket backyard show. On top of all that, he was the first person to smeeze on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert.
LaRussell, the Yee Section, the CO-LLAB Choir, and DJ KenZo were a spiritual experience at OMCA Friday Nights in October.
At OMCA Friday Nights, you should come early to get a good spot if you want to sit on the grass. We weren’t planning on sitting at all though, and pulled up on an unoccupied section of retaining wall to the left of the stage.
Long gone were any thoughts about checking out the culinary scene.
45 minutes before showtime, DJ KenZo was entertaining the growing crowd with old school classics, and the excitement was palpable.
With the OMCA garden approaching max capacity, LaRussell took the stage, backed up by KenZo, the Yee Section, and the CO-LLAB Choir. Headscratchingly, the band doesn’t have a drummer, but they were hyphy AF anyway.
LaRussell rocked lines and beats from classic bangers by Bay Area legends like Mac Dre, E-40, Too Short, Keak Da Sneak, and Mistah Fab. He performed several of his own original songs too, but this was the polar opposite of a canned performance. Improvisation seemed to be the status quo.
Omnipresent throughout the set were mashups where the beats didn’t match the lyrics, like when the Yee Section played Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” while LaRussell rapped the lyrics to Am I Musty?, then jumped into the crowd and got everyone chanting “Live from the 510!”, followed by “They Not Like Russ! They Not Like Russ!” When the crowd joined in, he started rapping “Thizzle Dance” and he made his way back to the stage. The band seamlessly switched over to the Mac Dre classic as well.
Musically, this was the Bay Area version of adult contemporary hip hop. Experientially, it was a carnival: part revival, part wedding reception, and part karaoke night.
Throughout the show, LaRussell pulled people (mostly children) out of the audience to come up on stage and dance or spit on the mic.
This show had the vibe of a family reunion, and that’s totally because LaRussell is so relatable and a lot of people are rooting for him to succeed. A warm smile was perpetually plastered on his face, and at times, he looked like he himself was in awe of the moment.
Put simply, this evening was about joy in its purest form.
At the end of the set, over a flute solo, LaRussell addressed the perceived security concerns presented by his appearance at a free event, but countered, “There’s never gonna be an issue when we outside cuz we come here for love.”
“And I just want to really show some love to the Oakland Museum for even allowing this,” he added. “This is real hip hop in a museum.”
Then he performed “GT Coupe.”
With the iconic Alameda County Courthouse as the backdrop, the whole moment felt historic.
Shouting out the museum event staff after the performance, he said, “None of this happens if we don’t have people who are courageous enough, and bold enough and creative enough to say, ‘we want to do something different.’ So can we get a huge round of applause?”
The multi-generational crowd cheered enthusiastically.
