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The Do List

T-Pain’s Coming to Golden Gate Park Thanks to This BBQ-Filled Party

R&B and Ribs has grown from holding it down on El Rio’s patio to bringing chart-topping acts to San Francisco.
Nastia Voynovskaya
two Black performers on stage
T-Pain and Ari Lennox will perform at Golden Gate Park on Oct. 17 as part of the R&B and Ribs party that launched at El Rio. (Marilyn Nguyen)

The concept of R&B and Ribs is simple: bring people together through good food and good music. The first time Knowpa Slaps (Kelvin Castellanos) threw the party on the El Rio patio, he DJed and barbecued all the meat himself.

Though R&B and Ribs still holds it down regularly on the beloved nightlife institution’s humble patio, the party has exploded into a phenomenon: Earlier this month, it drew tens of thousands of fans to see Soulja Boy at the Midway. And next month, on Oct. 17, the party will expand into Golden Gate Park for the first time, with a show at Robin Williams Meadow by T-Pain and Ari Lennox.

It’s not the first time the 2000s hitmaker will have collaborated with R&B and Ribs — they threw a concert with him and Sean Paul at Pier 80 during Super Bowl weekend. “Doing 23,000 people for T-Pain and then looking [out] and just seeing the crowd never end was kind of surreal,” Castellanos says of the party’s growth. “Just seeing T-Pain shout out the party … it’s like, ‘Whoa, you’ve heard of us?’”

three women cheer and eat ribs
Audience members at an R&B and Ribs party on El Rio’s backyard patio. (Marilyn Nguyen)

Before he became a force in Bay Area nightlife, Knowpa Slaps made his mark in the dining world. Once a chef at the Michelin-starred restaurant State Bird Provisions, he also worked at notable San Francisco eateries like Delfina before deciding to marry his two worlds of food and music. (R&B and Ribs also has an offshoot Latin party, Perreo y Pususas, a nod to Castellanos’ Salvadorian roots).

For the Golden Gate Park show with T-Pain and Ari Lennox, R&B and Ribs is partnering with the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department and NPU Live, one of the producers of Portola Music Festival. The two organizations assisted with navigating the many layers of permitting bureaucracy.

large crowd in bar backyard, DJ facing them
A view from the DJ booth into an R&B and Ribs party at El Rio. (Marilyn Nguyen)

Though R&B and Ribs has enough pull to attract big names, Castellanos says highlighting talented local DJs is still a major emphasis. DJ Shellheart and Lady Ryan, the official selectors for the Golden State Valkyries, will get the crowd hyped for T-Pain and Lennox, along with bbcarolz, who is one of the R&B and Ribs resident DJs along with J. Espinosa, 143tommy and Shawn Looney.

The audience R&B and Ribs has grown includes people of all backgrounds and ages. Castellanos says those in attendance can range from fresh 21-year-olds to partygoers in their 50s and every decade in between, and every generation gets a shout-out on the mic. The Golden Gate Park event will be all ages.

‘We’re trying to make everyone feel welcome,” Castellanos says. “We’re trying to hype everybody up.”

The R&B and Ribs party featuring T-Pain and Ari Lennox takes place at Golden Gate Park on Oct. 17. Tickets go on sale Sept. 17.

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