People We Meet: Diamond Vibes Of Afrolicious

San Francisco CA

23 May, 2021

2:35 PM

Description

By Clara-Sophia Daly, Mission Local May 22, 2021 Diamond Vibes, as captured by Clara-Sophia Daly.Diamond Vibes was feeling good in his silver velvet pants as he walked around the city he had spent over two decades in. "I came down from Nevada city to get a break from life there," he explained. After living in San Francisco for 25 years, Vibes, 54, moved to Nevada City during the pandemic to work on his art. Vibes is the vocalist and percussionist in Afrolicious, a band that he says created a movement of percussion-based danceable funk music in the Bay Area. Every Thursday night for 13 years, Vibes played and sang at the Elbo Room. The music, he says "has respect and love for all of the Afro music, whether it be reggae, hip hop, folk, or any other blues based music." It is music to get people dancing. And over the years, Afrolicious grew in popularity. Eventually, Afrolicious opened for Erykah Badu, and played alongside the Broadway cast of Fela!, a musical based on the music of Nigerian multi-instrumentalist Fela Kuti. "Everything we do should always be for the greater good and our community," said Vibes, who grew up in Brooklyn's Bedford Stuyvesant. Music lets him do that. "When I go on stage to play, I feel that it's coming from my soul, it's non-rehearsed." We're on Instagram! Follow us @missionlocal for news updates! Mission Local covers San Francisco from the vantage point of the Mission, a neighborhood with all of the promise and problems of a major city. You can support Mission Local here.