In the early 1990s, Kelvin Anderson Sr. built a makeshift recording studio in the back of his Long Beach record store, a vinyl-filled paradise called the World Famous VIP Records on the corner of Pacific Coast Highway and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. He wanted to give youth a creative outlet in the gang ridden neighborhood.

Word quickly spread around the city, and aspiring artists started sprinkling in. Folks like Snoop Dogg, Warren G and Nate Dogg — who were part of a trio dubbed 213, the Long Beach area code at the time — famously cut their first demo there.

”Trust me, there were many kids in there,” says Anderson, who’s now 70 and known as “Pops” in the community. “Some were learning how to sing, dance, to be a producer and, in Ricky Harris’ case, how to be a comedian. There was a lot going on. Jamie Foxx used to hang out there. DJ Quik learned how to produce music there. It was a place to come and explore the possibility of being an entertainer.”

These are among the decades of stories that stem from the family-owned record store that has been a mecca for G-funk music and has helped boost the careers of some of rap’s biggest stars. Today, Anderson, who’s worked in the music industry for more than 50 years, is hoping to preserve the history of VIP Records by converting it into a museum and educational center.

“This brand is so loved and recognized around the world, so we need this museum,” Anderson said during a Tuesday unveiling event, co-hosted by the nonprofit Creative Class Collective. “The story needs to be told and the importance of Black music in general, and the role that it has played.”

Ashanti Dykes plays the guitar at VIP Records.

(William Liang / For The Times)

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Anderson adds, “When it comes to rap and hip-hop, VIP Records was the first to sell rap music on the West Coast, period.”

Anderson’s older brother, Cletus, opened the first VIP Records in 1967, and his siblings helped open 13 more locations throughout L.A. County. Anderson, who is one of 10 children, followed his family’s tradition of moving from their Mississippi hometown to L.A. after he graduated high school, to help run the stores. In 1978, Cletus opened the World Famous VIP Records in Long Beach, and Anderson took it over a few months later. (Cletus died in 2024 at age 82.)

In 2017, the city of Long Beach made VIP Records’ iconic sign a historic landmark. Mayor Rex Richardson says that the city also put forth a “significant amount of money” to refurbish the sign and that he hopes to place it onto public property near the store so visitors can visit and experience it. He says he wants to turn it “into an actual monetary opportunity” to support Anderson’s vision for the museum. He and the Anderson family are in the process of working out an agreement.

Members of the Anderson family. There were once 14 VIP Records locations throughout L.A. County but today, only the Long Beach store remains.

(William Liang / For The Times)

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“A museum, in order to do it right, it will need some sustainable resources, so let’s take this rich cultural capital we have and begin to put it on display,” says Richardson, adding that the restoration project is part of a larger plan known as Elevate 28 to beautify and highlight historic landmarks in Long Beach in time for the 2028 Summer Olympics, which Los Angeles is hosting. He also wants to open a legends walk to showcase famous Long Beach natives.

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Due to the ever-evolving music industry that has shifted to streaming, the Anderson family closed all but its Long Beach store, which is a few steps away from its original location. Historical artifacts fill the walls of the record store, including plaques and awards from various record labels and photos of artists like Rick James, the Jacksons and Donna Summer who visited the shop. Near the front of the store is a replica of the shop’s landmark sign that Snoop Dogg famously featured in his music video for “Who Am I (What’s My Name)?” from his 1993 debut album, “Doggystyle.” Next to a counter, there’s a framed image taken by longtime photographer, Duke Givens, of his childhood friend, Snoop Dogg, on display.

“The reason why [VIP Records] has staying power is because of love,” says Givens, a Long Beach native who grew up frequenting the store and described it as a third space for locals. “It’s an institution. It’s more than just a location. You know how we have church, we have school, we have sports … we have VIP.”

Photographer Duke Givens poses for a portrait with an image he took in 1994.

(William Liang / For The Times)

The idea to open a museum came to Anderson several years ago when a father walked into the store with his two sons. As they thumbed through the vinyl records, one of the preteens said, “Dad, what’s that?” Anderson recalls.

“There were a lot of people at the store that day, and everyone seemed to be tuned in,” Anderson says. “It was funny. I said, ‘Man, we need to tell the story. We need to tell the story of the record business.’”

During Tuesday’s event, Snoop Dogg called in and shared his support for the museum, marking a full-circle moment.

“I just want to thank you for giving us an opportunity to actually showcase our talent back when rap wasn’t so popular and it wasn’t so easy to do,” he said to Anderson. “All of y’all up there at the VIP gave us hope. Y’all gave us opportunity to actually make our dream come true and give us a platform to hear our voice for the first time on a cassette, to hear what we sounded like, to see what we meant to people.”

Travis A. Scott, a Long Beach native and rapper who goes by H.O.B.O (an acronym for Heart of a Brave One), went to VIP Records for the first time several years ago after hearing that Anderson was allowing artists to record music in the studio. He recorded his debut album, “City by tha Sea,” there and was signed under At Last VIP Entertainment, VIP Records’ label.

“VIP Records is a safe haven,” he says. “It protected me. It protected my mind from venturing fully into the gang violence and into the drug trade and all the other things that were negative in my community. This where I was able to come to be able to take my negative frustration out in a creative and productive way. That allowed me to free myself from the burdens of others calamities, to be able to be myself instead of what the community and the environment wanted me to be.”

The record store, which remains a place to find modern and classic albums, often hosts events for the community.

(William Liang / For The Times)

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Anderson says he envisions great-grandparents bringing their great-grandkids to the space to learn about the evolution of the music industry and most importantly, VIP Records’ impact on it.

“We need that support,” says Anderson, adding that people can make donations via their foundation website. “We need everybody to get behind this movement. It would be something that people would enjoy throughout the rest of their life.”

As Tenisha Anderson, chief operating officer for VIP Records, flipped through photos of her father, Kelvin, in his early days at the store, she said that it’s a “no-brainer” for VIP Records to have a museum.

“There are so many things that are actually dying off, and I don’t want to be political, but they are even taking books away,” says Tenisha, who is also the founder of the VIP Family Foundation and runs several young adult programs including Beauty, Brains and Beats, a workshop that highlights the music industry from a female perspective. “The thing is, you can’t take the music away. The music is always going to tell the story. The music is always going to build you up emotionally. The music is always going to be empowering because it comes from the soul.”