ONRA

Would you rather be called “passionate” or “pathetic?” If you know your roots - like 31 year old beatmaker and record-junkie Arnaud Bernaud, better known as Onra - then you might say these words have similar meanings, sharing a basis in the concept of suffering. And it’s truly a pathetic passion to collect records the way Onra does. The hours spent sifting through dusty bins in thrift store corners; the smells of cat-pee and onions and mildew and elder armpits as you search for rare pressings; bumping elbows with record-store curmudgeons and other insufferable types; knee problems; oh, and the insane amount of dough one spends on this habit. Double K from People Under the Stairs put it best:  The only way my life makes sense/ I'm 2 weeks late payin my rent /I'm diggin up the past and the present /And all my fuckin money's being spent...

But it’s all good. Just watch this trailer for Onra’s 2011 release Chinoiseries Pt. II: 

All that passionate crate-digging pays off, and Onra’s oeuvre is proof. His influences and colleagues are far and wide—obviously Dilla, Madlib, and Low End Theory crew—but it’s the unearthed, yen-bin, offbeat Chinese and Vietnamese samples that create his signature. If you can’t afford a trip to Hanoi because you’ve spent half of your paycheck at Amoeba buying records, that’s fine because Onra has you covered. Chonoiseries Pts. I and II for the Asian-influenced beat-tape thing, Long Distance for your RnB fix. Follow up on this guy at his here to experience the fruit of his labors…

And to complete the experience, Nong Lá Cafe on Sawtelle serves up the best Tra Đặc Biệt

(homemade passion fruit iced tea) outside of Saigon.