E-40 throws out the first pitch at a game between the San Francisco Giants and Chicago Cubs at Oracle Park in San Francisco on June 9, 2023. Nate McKinley/STAFF. SAN FRANCISCO — East Bay rapper E-40 threw out the first pitch and was the star guest at Oracle Park…

Lizzo performs at Outside Lands in San Francisco on Oct. 30, 2021. Adam Pardee/STAFF. SAN FRANCISCO — There was only one point in her show at Outside Lands on Saturday in which Lizzo was wrong. Lizzo. “I’m the worst headliner,” Lizzo said while coordinating a TikTok video with the…

Kehlani performs at the Greek in Berkeley on June 23, 2017. STAFF file. Every year, while I’m at Outside Lands, I do a column of five bands I think you should see at Outside Lands. You may have noticed that Outside Lands is next weekend, and yet my column of…

Clockwise from top left: Mobley, Makeout, Rexx Life Raj, Sunflower Bean, Juan Wayne and Hot Flash Heat Wave. Every week, there’s a plethora of new music at our fingertips. Artists on platforms like Spotify and Bandcamp are plentiful, and the radio offers a steady deluge of new singles, but…

Rexx Life Raj photographed at the Berkeley Marina on Aug. 18, 2020. Matt Pang/STAFF. Additional photos by Pang and Karen Goldman/STAFF. Singer and rapper Rexx Life Raj has seen the world from quite a few angles in his life. From growing up in Berkeley and Vallejo, to playing offensive line…

Iman Europe grew up with her mother’s side of the family in Los Angeles and spends time in New York, where she was born and where her father’s side of the family calls home. Still, if you ask the singer-songwriter and rapper about her favorite place to call home,…