In the wave of L.A.’s concurrent funk, jazz and hip-hop revivals, fortune has favored Renaissance men — the Dâm-Funks, Thundercats and Kamasi Washingtons of the world who transcend the fluid membranes of genre classification. It was a point well taken by Anthony Cruz, a singer-songwriter from Long Beach who moonlights as hip-hop producer L’s. His latest project, Funkfornia, released under his production alias, stands among 2017’s funkiest rap albums. “I was sitting back and looking at the climate of L.A. music,” Cruz says. “Live funk had returned to all of it. When you think Cali, when you think L.A., when you think Long Beach, you think funk. I wanted to present the experience of growing up in this atmosphere, and now seeing the return of authenticity to the West Coast sound.” Although much of Cruz’s earlier production work had been rooted in the sample-based tradition of Long Beach G-funk, his experience as a studio rat and performing in bands helped engender a seamless stylistic transition. Funkfornia bursts with thick grooves and upbeat melodies, its live instrumentation further animated by slick engineering. Cruz considers the opening track, "Foreign," an infectious anthem with percussion reminiscent of DJ Quik’s, emblematic of the collaborative spirit that imbued Funkfornia as a whole. <br>