The 2nd Annual Set Gala Showed LA Love and Celebrated Life (Recap)

If you know Sham1016, then you know where the standard is set and that the energy is up whenever he’s in the room. On Friday, July 7, he had some of LA’s finest suited and booted for his 2nd annual Set Gala. The evening was truly one for the books, filled with nothing but love and memories to last a lifetime.

I had the pleasure of attending the Set Gala for the first time and it was a vibe! Presented by Tensixteen Industries, this year’s Set Gala took place at The Moroccan Lounge. Upon entering the spot, you couldn’t help but fall in love with the black and brown excellence in the room.

The very beautiful and talented DJ Faucet had the party going all night long with the perfect soundtrack for the evening, playing everything from “Gyalis” by Capella Grey to “Persuasive” by Doechii.

An initial standout piece of that night was the long-stemmed blue roses located at the front entrance. I spoke to Sham post-Gala about the significance behind them and he had this to say:

“For me, the blue roses mean love and celebration. In my family, full of crips, whenever it’s a funeral we usually have a bouquet of blue roses when our family and homies pass on. I wanted to change that. Instead of it commemorating death, I want the blue roses to be a celebration. That’s what Set Gala is about, giving people their flowers figuratively and literally. Also, most of the time our people only get dressed up for funerals or occasional weddings and I wanted to change that for a night. It’s all about celebrating our life, our people, ourselves.”

In the spirit of changing the narrative behind why we [should] celebrate and dress up, I also had to ask Sham the story behind his outfit. “I was inspired by watching this documentary Human Playground and I learned about Course Landaise,” he said via Instagram. “Course Landaise is traditional bullfighting that takes place in the South of France. The Frenchmen that take part of this get fresh as f*** in fly bullfighting garb and I was like yeah, I need to do something like that for Set Gala. So I took that inspo and mixed it with my own style. Made it South Central, with Texas roots mixed with the South of France.”

As the night progressed, we got to witness Sham bless the stage, performing songs like “Your Way” and “Been Jointed” from his newly released EP ‘Sorry Not Sorry’ as well as fan-favorite tracks like “To The Roof”, “Internet Bangers” and “Macho Man”.

Of course, the mini-concert wouldn’t have been complete if Sham didn’t bring IHateYouAlx, Jayson Cash, Mark Lux, and Hugh Augustine along to bless the set as well. The four rappers added fuel to the fire of a fantastic evening as each one went up alongside Sham performing some of their own classics. My favorite Sham&Friends moment was with Mark Lux. The LA artist definitely had the crowd jumping once he stormed through the stage with high energy to perform his song “Allat”.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CuiUgSNv3ZH/?igshid=Y2I2MzMwZWM3ZA==

Another highlight of the night was the photo booth setup. San Bernardino-based photographer, Louis Lee captured all the magic leaving us with a timestamp reminiscent of our parents’ prom photos. You can view the full Set Gala 2023 album here.

You can also view the video recap of the 2nd Annual Set Gala at Black House Studios, shot and edited by Holden Black. Huge shoutout to Sham1016 and his team for putting on a night to remember, can’t wait for next year!