San Francisco-based rapper Aft uses his stoop to host jam sessions, concerts
Stoops in San Francisco are a part of city culture. For many, they are a gathering place for family and friends, sometimes to share a quick meal or to have a deep conversation.
For San Francisco-based rapper Aft, they were a part of his upbringing in the Fillmore District.
"I've been selling like lemonade and cookies with my siblings and my cousins on the stoop since I was young. And then you know, growing up you would hang out just like we're doing right now and like, chill or people watch or whatever," Aft said.
Aft's stoop near Alamo Square Park is also a concert venue as of late. He and his band, The Top Chefs, have been using his front steps to host jam sessions, concerts and to function as an outdoor recording studio.
The Top Chefs first got the idea when they recorded an audition for NPR's Tiny Desk Concerts on the steps, and said a crowd started to form as they rehearsed the same song over and over.
Since then, they have begun recording and posting the performances, dubbed "Stoop Sessions." Some of the videos, which are posted to TikTok and Instagram, have tens of thousands of views.
"Random people were hitting us on Instagram like, 'Hey, I have a stoop in the Haight,' or 'I have a stoop in The Point,' or 'I have a stoop in Bernal,' like, 'could you come here?' So we did a whole stoop tour," Aft said.
It is part social media sensation and part business. The Top Chefs offer a paid service for artists and record labels to hire them to perform on their stoop, using it as an opportunity for the artists to record a record with a full, live band.
"For the band, if there's no people, if there's a bunch of people, we're going to rock no matter what, but I think for the artist it's a really beautiful thing when a bunch of people stop and are like, 'Wow, this is really cool,'" said Loveberry, one of the band's founding members.
The group has performed with RBL Posse and local rapper Cellski, and aspires to one day collaborate one day with Bay Area hip hop legends like E-40, Messy Marv and Larry June.
"Lots of people have bands that do hip hop and R&B and reggae, and lots of people have bands that play in cool spaces. We're just being authentic to ourselves. We really hang out on the stoop like this. We really jam on the stoop like this and we're really just a bunch of kids from San Francisco who like love music and want to highlight other artists who we also like their music," Aft said.
For information on how to hire the band and where they are performing next, the band maintains an email list. You can find the signup on their website.