Hip Hop Hooray (Leah)
Hey everybody! There’s a rad new festival coming to Austin and if you don’t know yet, now ya know: Weird City Hip Hop Festival is where it’s at for the best in independent artists and it’s happening downtown from September 26-28 and tickets are on sale now. Full disclosure, I am one of the fest organizers and I am super excited about the amazing artists we’ve managed to book, along with our friends at HE^RD ENTERTAINMENT, Pushermania, Proper Entertainment, Body Rock ATX, The Tipping Point, and Exploded Drawing. Below is a mix of artists that will be at Weird City. And below that you’ll find some extra deets on the festival. Get your tickets now, dudes. Don’t sleep.
:Dilated Peoples – Show Me the Way (Featuring Aloe Blacc):
:Jean Grae – Killing Em (Featuring Pharoahe Monch):
:Diamond D – Rap Life (Featuring Pharoahe Monch):
:Jean Grae – Don’t Rush Me:
:Black Milk – Sunday’s Best – Monday’s Worst:
:Guilty Simpson – Money Motivated Movements:
:Jonwayne – Numbers On The Hoard:
:Homeboy Sandman – Table Cloth (Featuring Fresh Daily):
:Open Mike Eagle – Cobra Commander (Featuring Danny Brown):
:Bleubird – Down Like Brothers (Featuring Radical):
:League of Extraordinary G’z – Hankuri:
:Space Camp Death Squad – Southern Hospitality:
:Subkulture Patriots – Near You (Featuring D.O.S):
What to expect at Weird City …
Opening night, Friday, September 26 Dam Funk, king of L.A.’s modern funk-disco-boogie sound will be setting things off with a special DJ set inside at Empire’s Control Room stage with Body Rock ATX: Austin’s premiere dance party led by DJ Chorizo Funk and Riders Against the Storm (Austin’s 2013-14 ‘Band of the Year’).
Also on that night at Red 7, Pushermania’s Texas Showcase will welcome breakout performers from the Houston and Dallas scenes with a huge line-up curated by former SXSW Hip Hop czar Matt Sonzala that includes Doughbeezy (Houston), A.Dd+ (Dallas), League of Extraordinary Gz (Austin), Worldwide (Houston), Subkulture Patriots (Austin), Uzoy (Houston), Dat Boi T (Houston), Lyric Michelle (Houston), Lil Sicc (Austin), Sertified (Austin), DJ Grip (Houston), and more.
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On Saturday, September 27 Dilated Peoples (LA) will perform the festival’s headlining set at Empire Garage. Dilated Peoples are hot off the August release of their critically-acclaimed album Directors of Photography, released through their new home at Rhymesayers, and have been a consistent presence in hip-hop for years, straddling the line between conscious rhymes and bangin’ beats. Inside the Empire Control Room at the monthly Tipping Point event (hosted by Riders Against the Storm), we will be featuring performances by Pharoahe Monch and Jean Grae.
Jonwayne (LA) will be headlining Saturday night’s show at the North Door. As part of Stone’s Throw Records’ hip hop/soul arsenal, Jonwayne most recently released Cassette on Vinyl, a 2014 compilation of his former mixtapes. A frequent collaborator of Flying Lotus and others, Jonwayne was discovered as a producer by Peanut Butter Wolf, which helped launch his studio career as an emcee.
Weird City Hip Hop Festival will also feature Homeboy Sandman (NYC), another Stones Throw Records artist, performing live with Black Milk (Detroit)/Open Mike Eagle (L.A.), and Bleubird (Ft. Lauderdale) at Red 7 on Saturday night. Not only an emcee, but a frequent contributor to Huffington Post and Gawker, Sandman has been called “one of the best pure lyricists around” by Pitchfork.
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On both Friday night and Saturday night at Beerland, AMX will be teaming up with noted battle league Grind Time Now to present two consecutive nights of battles. Grind Time Now runs one of the most successfully subscribed and viewed battle channels on YouTube. Both battles will be tournament-style with 16 artists competing to win.
Beyond the live performances, the Weird City Hip Hop Festival will also feature workshops/panels for artists, and a Kids Rap Camp, led by Austin non-profits, Attendance Records and Dub Academy.
