Adam Weiss: Decidedly Caucasian Dude Throws Some of the City's Grimiest Parties

Simone Paz

Somewhere right now, Adam Weiss probably is spazzing out and shouting the word "swag" over sleazy rap songs with hooks that have to do with eating pussy.

The 31-year-old party promoter, who lives in Echo Park, is perhaps best known for his outfits: tie-dyed T-shirts, DayGlo windbreaker jackets, a rhinestone-encrusted "Swag" belt buckle and snakeskin snapback hats. He piles on so many chains that recently he was jumped. (Unfortunately for the thieves, the chains were all fake.)

Along with his beard-n-'stache combo and nerdy black glasses, Weiss looks like a mishmash of hipster, hippie and hood. He might seem like an odd duck, but he's more self-deprecating than dumb. He wants you to stare at him. What's most surprising is that people have recently started taking him quite seriously.

His shows feature under-the-radar hip-hop acts and champion genres like trap rap and ratchet -- Southern-bred, sing-songy hip-hop strains that focus on dealing drugs, frequenting strip clubs and sipping codeine cough syrup. "We just wanna get ignorant and ratchet. [This] is an excuse for people to do that," Weiss says over coffee at downtown's Syrup Desserts.

Weiss is part of a collective known as "H.A.M. on Everything." (H.A.M. stands for "Hard as a Motherfucker.") As his full-time job, Weiss handles logistics like scouting acts and locations; his cohort Stereotype is the resident DJ, while another partner called Romo designs their fliers and directs videos (including this one for Sirah, whom we profiled last year).

In addition to the general public, hip L.A. rappers like the Odd Future crew, Kreayshawn and Riff Raff have attended their events, and even celebrities such as Thom Yorke have shown up.

His formula? Rent a space, charge a pittance, have acts perform short sets and follow with DJs and the occasional freestyle from Weiss himself. The parties feel exclusive, even if they're not.

"I don't overpromote anything," he says. "We just make the Facebook page and post it a couple times. When you're [desperate], people feel it and think, 'This isn't a cool party to be at.' "