It was a rainy Wednesday night in December in downtown Los Angeles, but that didn’t stop partygoers from stepping out for an eventful night.
Where were they headed? To the Continental Club for Brown Sugar Wednesdays, a weekly vibe in DTLA that plays your favorite R&B, hip hop, Afrobeats, and dance hall music.
With a diverse crowd, a plethora of drinks flowing, and a dance floor filled with party enthusiasts, Brown Sugar aims to provide a night worth talking about the following day.
Brown Sugar was created by Chris Roy, director of Brand Marketing and founder of The Lifestyle Group (TLG), and DJ Damage, a nationally-recognized radio host, during the COVID-19 pandemic. While in the process of scaling and marketing and in pursuit of making it bigger, two other partners were added, Maurice of Genius Level Entertainment and Jahmal from Millennium Age.
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So, who’s responsible for ensuring that Brown Sugar lives up to its hype? That would be resident deejays DJ Damage and Alysen James. Guest deejays vary and include DJ R-Tistic, DJ Hunny Bee, DJ Super Nova, DJ Casanova, Crystal The DJ, Yannick Jones, Benjamin Walker, and Tomi Tribe.
Chris Roy said he would describe Brown Sugar to someone who has never been as “a family reunion mixed with passing the aux cord to your favorite deejay while taking a road trip.” Roy emphasized how it’s inviting, loving and, comfortable, and “for us” and “by us.”
“When I say that, I mean it is produced by Black people,” he continued. “It’s catered and centered around Black culture and it is a place where you can authentically be yourself, feel comfortable, and have a great time.”
The concept was developed from him attending traditional Hollywood parties, where there are certain restrictions that come from just wanting to have a good time. Such as, promoters standing outside and picking and choosing who can come in or not. He wanted to eliminate the idea of not being “cool enough” to party.
“I just got to a place in life where I wanted to have a good time being around genuine energy and bring all my friends,” he said.
“I don’t want to pick and choose who can come and who can’t come based on a plethora of different reasons why people can get discriminated against, and I just wanted to create an inclusive atmosphere, and as a result, Brown Sugar was birthed.”
The Lifestyle Group is a Los Angeles-based hospitality company that Roy called, “the operating system for your life.” The goal is to create one-of-a-kind luxury experiences for clients through music, culture, and entertainment. TLG plans weddings, dates, vacations, hosts events, and ultimately takes care of everything outside of work.
Roy said the inspiration behind the name, “The Lifestyle Group”, is because “ultimately the end goal is to be a hospitality group Black-owned version of TAO or SBE where they own restaurants, nightlife, hotels, and all the hospitality experiences that encompass a portfolio like that, and I think it’ll be amazing to do it vertically integrated and totally centered around the Black experience.”
Aside from Brown Sugar, other events TLG is responsible for include being a producer of &FRNDS, a Black music and cultural event that is going on its ninth annual season. They’ve worked alongside some of the greatest L.A. nightlife brands, such as the Supreme Team LA and Made Night Life.
They have a promotion partnership with The Classic Cat in West Hollywood on Thursday-Saturday, and a partnership with Circa 93 who owns The Room, The Continental Club, Queens Berry, and The Association (which they host “Future Fridays”). They produce Special Events at Paris Tokyo in Beverly Hills, Social Climax, and a bi-monthly vibe dining experience on Saturdays at a new lounge in Koreatown called Julianna. Lastly, they consult for the Hot Water Cornbread Southern Festival.
Roy was born in Washington, DC and raised in Chesapeake, Virginia. He comes from a Navy family who moved up and down the East Coast. They settled in Chesapeake because his mother was stationed at Norfolk naval base and lived there from the fourth grade all the way through high school.
Roy is no stranger to hospitality and has produced events since college. He majored in business marketing at Hampton University.
He made the big move to Los Angeles 11 years ago and has worked in the music and entertainment industry. He worked as the senior digital producer for media network Revolt TV, Courvoisier, as well as has worked in retail.
His plans for TLG are to build the hospitality division, create more partnerships in the city that want to bring authentic culture to their spaces, and create well thought-out events where the focus is bigger than the dollar. He wants the focus to be creating genuine experiences, connections, and a vibe where people can ultimately be themselves.
“I look forward to The Lifestyle Group developing and taking on more endeavors in the brand partnership space. I would love for brands to come to us, similar to how Courvoisier came to us, to build out their culture and lifestyle within the city, to create a DNA and a footprint of what a brand should look and feel like,” concluded Roy.
“I would love to be the brain trust behind the development for other brands who want to connect to the Black community and speak to something that’s cool, and speak to what’s next.”
For more information on Brown Sugar Wednesdays, visit: https://linktr.ee/brownsugarglobal, and https://www.instagram.com/brownsugarglobal/
For more information on The Lifestyle Group, visit: https://thelifestyle.co/, and https://www.instagram.com/thelifestylegroupusa/
