West Coast hip-hop group, Warm Brew will take the stage at 8 p.m. Thursday night at the M-Shop.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m. Admission is $12 for the public and $8 with a student ID, with a $2 increase the day of the show.

The Santa Monica-based group consists of Ray Wright, Manu Li and Serk Spliff, who all developed a love of hip-hop as they grew up together. Wright and Li wrote songs together in middle school, and Spliff joined just in time for high school.

When Wright decided to play football for the University of San Diego, it seemed like those days of making music were over. According to Li, it wasn’t until Wright came back from his freshman year with brand new speakers that the group decided to pursue a career in music.

“When he got those speakers, we were going all in,” Li said.

Soon after, the group started recording their own music and performing at backyard shows, slowly but surely gaining a fanbase. Their funk-inspired beats and contemporary gangster-rap would eventually grab the attention of rapper Dom Kennedy, who invited them over to his studio to record their song “Hold On to Her.”  In 2015, the group released their album “Ghetto Beach Boyz” that was recorded entirely in Kennedy’s studio.

In 2016, Red Bull Records released the group’s EP “Diagnosis.”  The release mainly served as an introduction of who they were to anyone that had missed out on the band’s earlier independent releases, and to tide over the fans until the release of the group’s next album, which they are currently working on.

Warm Brew is more than just three friends making music together for kicks; they provide a voice for perspectives that would otherwise never be heard.

“It’s people who are too afraid to speak up because of what others might say,” Li said.

Warm Brew encourages others to take pride in themselves and reassures their audience that it’s OK to have confidence in themselves no matter what the circumstances are. They want people to express themselves unapologetically.

For more information, visit the M-Shop website.