Apart from spring, New Yorkers now have something else to get excited about coming this May. It was announced today that NYC will be holding its own groundbreaking Asian concert “Head In The Clouds Music and Arts Festival.” This “Head In The Clouds New York Music Arts Festival” like its Los Angeles counterpart will be presented by 88rising.
Shaq’s Fun House presented by Netspend took place over Super Bowl Weekend with the splendid Shaquille O’Neal kicking off the incredible moment.
ONE Music Fest shut down the city once again and this year’s show may be their biggest one yet.
With Atlanta being the cultural intersection of music, food and fashion, it was no surprise that this year’s event brought out more than 50,000 festival goers. Dozens of food trucks offering various cuisine across multiple cultures, a mini skating rink sponsored by BET and unique cocktail experiences provided by brands like Bacardi and Tito’s Vodka were spread throughout Central Park in downtown Atlanta.
Colder days are quickly descending on the peach state but that didn’t stop attendees from sporting some of their best festival looks; from fringed crop tops and maxi skirts to sweaters and bell bottom jeans.
The only thing more eye-catching than everyone’s fall fashion was the eclectic artist lineup.
R&B icon Lauryn Hill made a rare yet spellbinding appearance as she closed out Saturday night with a soulful live set. Her son Zion, famously referenced in the song “To Zion” from the singer’s 1998 debut album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, along with her grandsons joined her as they sang along to her some of her timeless classics.
City Girls put on for them hometown of Miami right before the duo brought out Usher for a surprise performance of their recent feel-good collaboration “Good Love.” Chlöe gave a show stopping performance with a sexy cover of Adina Howard’s “Freak Like Me,” and Jeezy resurfaced his popular snowman alter-ego rapping to “I Luv It” while Democratic Georgia Governor nominee Stacey Abrams cheered him on from just a few feet away.
Ashanti & Ja Rule, Juvenile and Tweet put on the 99’s and 2000’s and effortlessly transported the crowd back to 2002, performing songs from their early catalogs and hyping up the crowd as they didn’t miss a beat and recited every word.
Lil Baby set off an explosive performance (literally). Fans watched on as the stage dramatically lit up with sparklers as the Atlanta native rapped along to some of his biggest hits like “We Paid” and “Drip Too Hard.”
ONE Music Fest has successfully provided epic experiences for the Atlanta community for more than a decade and continues to push the needle in entertainment with the help of Toyota, Live Nation, Pandora and more, while promoting cultural innovation and social change.
Check out some of the most memorable moments from One Music Fest 2022 below.
PHOTO CREDIT: ONE Music Fest
Rain or shine, Rolling Loud NY was going to finish off strong!
Day 1 of Rolling Loud NY (Sept. 23rd) was a great start to the three-day weekend!
Last weekend kicked off Roc Nation’s Made In America Festival held annually in Downtown Philadelphia, and this year’s star-studded lineup included Bad Bunny, Tyler, The Creator, Burna Boy, Don Toliver, Lil Uzi Vert and more. The 2-day festival featured an extensive lineup of performances, food, rides and some scorching hot weather.
To kick off their 10th year in the City of Brotherly Love, the festival teamed up with popular retail brand SHEIN to promote different organizations dedicated to various causes including fighting gun violence, social justice reform and voter rights.
Saturday brought a hype set from Detroit rapper Babyface Ray whose audience grew throughout his set once the infectious bass from his hits like “Idols” and “Sincerely Face” echoed across the festival grounds.
Photo by Shareif Ziyadat for D’USSE.
Before her set on the Freedom Stage, rapper Flo Milli stopped by the D’USSÉ Lounge to try her hand at teaching a mini cocktail class with D’USSÉ global ambassador Sullivan Doh. The finished product was a “Gold Fashioned,” a lavish spin on the traditional old fashioned but with a twist: chocolate bitters and gold dust.
While Flo was serving up tasty drinks, rapper Pusha T performed his greatest hits just a couple feet away on the Rocky Stage. Headliner Tyler the Creator ended the night with a bang and closed out the day with an hour-long set, rapping songs from his latest project Call Me If You Get Lost.
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA – SEPTEMBER 03: Pusha T performs onstage during 2022 Made In America at Benjamin Franklin Parkway on September 03, 2022 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Roc Nation)
Sunday started off hot (literally and figuratively) with a sexy performance from Victoria Monet. The R&B songstress the commanded the Rocky Stage while performing fan favorites like “Jaguar” and “Moment.” Snoh Aalegra continued to provide the vibes and delivered soulful melodies while donning bedazzled pants reminiscent of MJ’s fit in the “Rock With You” music video; crooning her early classics like “Fool For You” and her biggest song to date, “I Want You Around.”
Burna Boy brought Nigeria to Philly with a heated performance on the Liberty Stage. The crowd screamed the words to his summer hit “Last Last” while the Afrobeats artist danced around the stage, showing off his elite footwork.
The weekend ended with a show-stopping performance from Bad Bunny, showing a crowd of more than 25,000 people how Puerto Rico likes to party.
Other performers included Larry June, DIXSON, JID, Glorilla, Toro Y Moi, Jazmine Sullivan, Jenevieve, Tate McRae, KUR, Ryan Castro, Ambré, Young Nudy, Armani White and more.
The annual Made In America Festival is taking place in Philadelphia this weekend and the lineup is jam packed. Bad Bunny, Tyler The Creator, Burna Boy, Snoh Aalegra, Jazmine Sullivan and more are set to take the stage at the Roc Nation led music festival during Labor Day weekend.
The name DIXSON may be unfamiliar to some, but his work in the music industry precedes him. He’s worked with some of your favorites including Beyonce, Chance the Rapper and Yebba. His most notable work is his collaboration with the Queen Bey herself for her song “Be Alive,” written specially for the Venus and Serena Williams biopic King Richard which follows their journey to success with the help of their father and coach Richard Williams.
The song also earned him his first Oscar and Golden Globe nomination this year for Best Original Song. While receiving these accolades so early in his career is the ultimate goal for artists everywhere, DIXSON doesn’t shy away from being transparent about his journey to get to where he is now.
“If I were doing this for just the press or the look, it would invalidate the art in a way. It’s really important to fight for your visions, fight for your goals, fight for having the right team around you. That’s super vital,” says the R&B artist.
We spoke with the singer-songwriter 48 hours before making his solo debut at Made In America and he spilled on working with Beyoncé and Chance The Rapper, his desire to get back in to acting and how artists should strive to create regardless of life’s obstacles.
I believe this is your first Made in America, how are you feeling about it?
It’s my first time performing as a solo artist. I performed in 2017 as a background artist. I feel good. I think I’ve been silently praying for this opportunity, to get in front of an audience. This is my first outdoor festival.
Spending years as a background singer, I played a bunch off festivals and I imagined being able to take one of the larger stages and this is really exciting for me at this point in my career.
One thing that really stuck out to me about you is that you play 11 different instruments. How did that journey start?
My parents made a conscious effort to let me explore the things I was interested in. So, my first instrument that I started playing was the drums and then I picked up the piano pretty quickly because my father was a pastor and he needed musicians. I learned how to play everything by ear, and as I got older my parents let me explore everything I was interested in. We always had instruments around the house.
So, it really just started with a home environment. When I was doing other things, I had an instrument in my hand. It was a desire. I really just wanted to know how these instruments works and how I can make them sound how I wanted them to sound.
Which instrument is your favorite to incorporate in music?
Lately my favorite is playing bass. It varies, it depends what I’m working on. But, right not I’m excited to get really good at playing the bass and I’m playing a lot of it on this upcoming project too.
DIXSON is set to release not one but two new albums this year. The first of the two-part project is 004DAISY and is dropping on September 16. His recent single “Cherry Sorbet” featuring Sevyn Streeter is a part of it and features a Beatles sample. The project also features appearances from Tinashe, Vic Mensa and LA-based band frontman Stolen Nova.
In the 70’s inspired music video, DIXSON and Sevyn are seen flirtatiously playing the cat and mouse game while singing about wanting to give in to their sexual chemistry.
DIXSON and Sevyn Streeter in “Cherry Sorbet”.
As a songwriter, you’ve written for films, like King Richard and albums like Chance The Rapper’s The Big Day and Beyoncé’s Renaissance. Is there a difference in the writing process when working on a song for a film versus an album? Is it easier to convey a message due to the visuals already existing, versus a song where you have to paint a visual with lyrics and your voice?
I don’t make one more difficult than the other. I try to approach every project with the same energy and passion. For King Richard, There’s not only visuals for the film but there’s also a mental picture. You go back and think of times you’ve seen Serena or Venus play on TV, or watch that many accomplishments happen in real time and you link those stories back to your own life and experiences, the experience of the artist that’s going to be delivering the song. There’s a lot of representation there.
Chance is an extremely visual person. So, as we work on songs he’s painting a picture for us as well. He’s telling us what he’s thinking, what he’s looking for. He is giving us his potential visual ideas so we had a lot to play with. I’ve been very fortunate to work with artists who have incredible visual sensibilities. I do too, I’m the same way. So, it works well for me that the people I collaborate with are also very visual thinkers, too.
When you’re writing for an artist other than yourself, how do you balance how much of yourself and your experiences to incorporate without going overboard?
I don’t limit myself in that way. At the end of the day it doesn’t matter who you’re working with, whether it’s Bey or another artist I’m realizing more and more that the human experience is the collective experience. Obviously, there are variables. There are very wealthy humans, and very sad humans, very happy humans but it’s all a human experience. I don’t try to limit what I write based on who I’m with.
On your social media, you’re always talking about the importance of versatility. Are there any other creative ventures you’d like to engage in? You were a theater kid growing up and we see musical artists transition from the studio to a movie or TV set in their careers a lot. Are there any other creative ventures you would like to branch out to? Would you consider acting?
I just auditioned for a role not too long ago for a TV show. So, I’m getting back in to it and just trying to make a soft re-entry back in to it. I haven’t been on a stage in a theater as an actor in a while. I have so much respect for actors and also just the workers in theater, television and film that I want to make sure that return in to that space is welcomed and not forced just because I’m having a rise on the music side of things. I respect all of these art forms deeply.
What advice would you give to independent music artists who are struggling with life’s limitations but are still passionate about creating?
One, you have to change how you speak about your work. Secondly, change your view of your experience as an artist. We could be struggling to pay pills, we could be struggling to manage family expectations, but if you have a gift and art that you’re making, as long as you’re not struggling to get those ideas out of your head and on paper, or whatever you record on.
It took me a long time to be interviewed let alone perform at Made In America. It took a lot of financial struggles and hardships to get to this space but you must stay in it. You have to stay in it because to not honor your gift is to not honor the giver and I think that’s the biggest mistake you can make as an artist.
If you stay in it, it’s bound to work. Your work will only get better and your audience will only get bigger.
Festival season is just around the corner and we are here for it. Specially after learning the killer lineup Primavera Sound Festival is bringing to us this June. This 9-day festival, located in Barcelona, will quickly make the top of your festival list. Here is why…
Atlanta-based music festival One Music Fest took place last weekend in the historical Centennial Olympic Park downtown. Surrounded by some of the city’s most notable landmarks including the what used to be the largest aquarium in the world, The Georgia Aquarium and the CNN headquarters, the “#1 progressive urban music fest” was a weekend to remember.
The grassroots festival is set to take place in Denton, TX, and will see headlining performances from Truth, Diamond Saints, Moody Good, and more.