Roadium Drive-In
Social Relation:
Roadium Drive-In theater opened to the public on May 1949, serving the surrounding South Bay area residents--Torrrance, Lawndale, Hawthorne, Gardena, Carson, Compton, and others--until the mid-1980s. Due to the 20th century booms of housing (suburban tracts, condominiums, and apartments) and corporate development (malls, strip-malls, and big-box businesses) throughout Southern Los Angeles during the 1970s-1990s, more than five South Bay area drive-in theaters were demolished. Roadium Drive-In was the last theater to close down yet by the summer of 1985, it converted into one of the largest open-air swap-meets in the West.
Today, Roadium Drive-In theater and it's movie screen stand as a reminiscent testament to the movie magic of yester-years. With the drive-in theater atmosphere gone, and a swap meet in its place. The 15 acre location has become an open-air bazaar filled with knock-off brand name Hiphop clothing, cheap toys, secondhand tools, vintage vinyl records, tapes, VHS, and CDs. The Roadium Drive-In is open 7 days a week all year round, and in 2013 the open-air market had 2 million shoppers enter thru their gates.
HipHop Outcome:
Beginning in late 1985, at the age of 22, Eric "Eazy-E" Wright would frequently visit Roadium Drive-In theater and Steve Yano's record booth to buy the latest vinyl records. Also, around the same time Dr. Dre and DJ Yella would hangout, cut records, and search through record crates at Yano's swap meet booth. Both Dr. Dre and DJ Yella were already local legends in the Hiphop community because of their affiliation with the World Class Wreckin' Cru. On the flip side, Eric "Eazy-E" Wright had amassed a small fortune from drug dealing and was looking for legitimate opportunity to invest his money; answer create a record label.
Eventually, Eazy E would become persistent and press Yano to introduce him to the World Class Wreckin' Cru's Dr. Dre. In time, the two would join forces and create a record label and form a rap group that would overrun the record business and turn "gangsta rap" into a household name. The partnership took full form in Hiphop culture's most iconic rap group Niggaz With Attitude (N.W.A.), which in 1988 released HipHop culture's most influential album to date "Straight Outta Compton."
Hey, and it is what it is/He wanted to shine at the swap meet/Till tha white boys got him in that hot seat...Dr. Dre on 3 Kings (God Forgives, I Don't LP)