Glenn Waco Is Leaving Portland

Glenn Waco, one of Portland's most promising hip-hop artists, is following in the footsteps of several other prominent local rappers—by leaving town.

Waco has announced he's moving to Santa Barbara, Calif., in a few days, along with another rising MC, his girlfriend, Alia Zin. He says he'd already been planning to relocate in the next year, but certain "life circumstances"—including the death of his great-grandmother, who raised him—sped up the process.

"I got to a point where we needed to make this last minute decision," Waco says, "so we said, 'Screw it, let's go for it.'"

The St. Johns-bred 23-year-old, whose given name is Loren Ware, first turned heads with his 2013 mixtape, NorthBound, and as a member of the Resistance crew with Rasheed Jamal and Mic Capes.

In the last year, though, Waco has arguably been more visible for his work as an activist. He emerged as a leader of the Don't Shoot Portland protest movement, recently helping bring R&B singer Janelle Monae to a rally in North Portland. In May, Waco and another activist were arrested after coming to the aid of a shooting victim during the Last Thursday street fair on Northeast Alberta Street. They were charged with interfering with a police officer, disorderly conduct and harassment, and sentenced to community service.

After a year and a half of protesting and organizing, Waco says he was getting burnt out.

"I started to take a break to recover mentally," he says. "I wanted to focus on putting my experience and the knowledge I got from elders into the music and sharing it with people in my community. I did real-life shit. Now I'm gonna focus on being an artist."

Waco's departure follows that of Tope and the rap-soul duo Neka and Kahlo, who have also left for California recently. In 2013, Luck-One (now known as Hanif) decamped to New York, saying, "I felt like I had completed what I was supposed to do in Portland." But Waco feels he isn't escaping his hometown so much as trying to help it from afar.

"It's kind of like the prodigal son story," he says. "Go away, handle your shit, and bring it back home."

Waco is currently plotting his next album, and is trying to raise $10,000 to cover studio time and other expenses. (Zin is also planning to release her debut EP soon.) Tomorrow, Waco performs at a Don't Shoot Portland rally against mass incarceration at Dawson Park, which will also serve as his going-away show and album fundraiser. Waco says the first 20 people to donate $20 will get a "Fuck the Police" shirt.

"That's my parting gift to the [Portland Police Bureau]," he says.

Willamette Week