Sadboy Loko

Born in 1989 as Mario Hernandez-Pacheco and raised in Santa Barbara, California, Sadboy Loko came up in lower-income neighborhoods that belied the city’s affluent image and soon drew him into gang activity. He started rapping in the early 2010s, first attracting notice with the 2011 single “I’m Still Here,” whose video eventually drew millions of views and spurred a 2012 album of the same name. Across that release and subsequent mixtapes he sustained the drifting, bass-driven funk of classic West Coast gangsta rap, recounting street violence, incarcerated associates, and a full gangster existence in unfiltered detail. Additional singles such as “I Want It All,” “Take a Ride,” and the widely circulated “Gang Signs”—whose clip surpassed 30 million streams in under two years—expanded his reach. Sadboy Loko later appeared on two tracks from YG’s 2016 album Still Brazy, signed with the rapper’s Universal imprint 4hunnid, and delivered the 2016 mixtape The First Ese plus the 2018 album My Evil Ways. In August 2018 he was arrested on attempted murder charges.