The Good Life Cafe was a health food market and cafe in Los Angeles, California, known for its open mic nights that helped the 1990s Los Angeles alternative hip hop movement flourish. In 2008, director Ava DuVernay, who had performed at the cafe with the Figures of Speech hip hop group, released a documentary about the cafe, This Is The Life. The film featured a number of hip hop artists discussing the importance of the Good Life Cafe to themselves and the hip hop scene. The Cafe was open from 1989 to 1999.
It was described as "a platform for rappers to perform their material" and "a testing ground for Los Angeles' independent rap scene".[1] Artists like Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, Lenny Kravitz, Mister CR, and others reportedly attended the open mic, while many other musicians honed their skills at the events.[2]