Yung Pinch grew up in Huntington Beach, California, dreaming of a music career that would take him to L.A. just 35 miles north. The seaside community isn’t exactly known for producing hip-hop acts, but the rapper born Blake Sandoval in 1997 has been hard at work putting his hometown on the map: His 2016 debut mixtape, 714Ever, nodded to his area code. After moving to L.A., though, Pinch quickly understood that his vision of a glimmering West Coast haven didn’t align with the city he found himself in. His first official album, Back 2 The Beach, takes his melody-laden, emotional brand of SoundCloud rap and focuses it back on the place where he grew up. “I wrote the album about moving to L.A. and getting over it. I wanted to go back home,” Pinch explained to Apple Music. “At first, I wanted more… I found it, I saw it all, but I didn’t like any of it.” He raps over guitar-heavy beats and favours a singsong flow, blending a clean, studio-produced sound with the raw honesty of emo rap―vulnerability informs his most impactful songs, like the 2020 single “Be Yours”. It’s the music’s relatability that allows Pinch to take his songs across the globe, even though his work will always belong to that small city by the water.