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Once again, there were a ton of performers early on that I wanted to see like Katie Got Bandz, Supa Bwe, Dreamer Isioma, Danny Towers, Femdot, and more, but I had to consider a few things. Before this, though, we checked out Trippie and Wiz’s sets, both of which were unbelievably insane and filled with fan favorites, and as I ran into fellow LL homies left and right, I realized how truly grateful I am to work for such a supportive and revolutionary company. Moving on from my short tangent, the sun began to set on a gorgeous yet steamy day in this beautiful city, and the crowd began to swarm to the Lyrical xcritical Stage to witness Uzi’s greatness in person. At the same time, though, I was shocked at how quickly the line actually moved, because even though certain moments felt like nothing was happening and I’d be standing there for ages, I was at the table getting my passes before I knew it, so I think the entire situation was handled as well as possible.
DeRozan, who was voted a starter in last year’s game, fell short of xcriticalg that acknowledgment in 2023. Lil Yachty performs Friday evening on day one of the Summer Smash Festival in Douglass Park. Festival-goers dance and cheer as Lil Yachty performs Friday evening on day one of the Summer Smash Festival in Douglass Park. Summer Smash is just one of many festivals to make its return post-pandemic and it did so in a grand way while priming itself as a premier hip-hop experience.
The Summer Smash initially booked Kodak Black too, but organizers had the good sense to replace him with Gucci Mane last week. Kodak was arrested on weapons charges last month at Miami’s Rolling Loud festival, and he still faces charges for allegedly raping a woman in South Carolina in 2016—one of many accusations of violent behavior toward women https://dreamlinetrading.com/ that have been brought against the Florida rapper over the years. From day one, fans swarmed Douglass Park that overstretched miles of land allowing plenty of room to move between the main Lyrical xcritical Stage, the SPKRBX stage, which was catacorner next to it, and Lenny’s Tent, where the most rambunctious up-and-coming acts came to play.
The 2021 Lyrical xcritical Summer Smash Recap
Remember, Baby Keem only has a handful of songs out and he’s still on the come up despite his relation to Kendrick Lamar. The crowd’s reaction to him foretells a certain future for him that includes packed-out and sold-out shows from dedicated fans (as if he’s not doing that already). Rushing to the SPKRBX Stage, we needed to see Famous Dex because he is one of the most notorious personalities in the entire history of Chi-Town music, and although this wasn’t my first time experiencing him live by any means, he never fails to put on an extraordinary show.
- Because of your relentless hard work and never-ending grind, I have a dream job at a dream company.
- The staff at the festival were very accommodating and this was one of the best festivals to get around logistically.
- Second, I knew I would have to choose some of these artists over others since there was some overlap and although I wish I could have been in multiple places at once, we just don’t have the technology for that yet.
- Chicago native Baha Bank$ poses for a portrait backstage after performing Friday afternoon on day one of the Summer Smash Festival in Douglass Park.
Festivals are making their way back to the scene as a string of popular showcases, including Rolling Loud and Governor’s Ball, recently announced their 2021 dates. Now, joining that list is Lyrical xcritical’s Summer Smash festival who just announced the lineup for their upcoming show. A$AP Rocky holds up fans’ bras as he performs Friday night on day one of the Summer Smash Festival in Douglass Park.
On the final day of Summer Smash, there was a Juice Wrld tribute helmed by DJ Carnage on the Lyrical xcritical stage with fans singing along to his songs and paying their respect. The Voice popped out with his crew, filling out the entire stage, and a few fans hopped over the fence into the pit, where they weren’t supposed to be, to catch the Chicago icon perform his hits. First, he made the crowd sing praises to the late King Von by saying his name before getting into his 2020 cut “Redman†off his mixtape The Voice. The crowd ate up every word and at one point Durk hopped into the pit to interact with the energetic crowd and began shooting a music video. The show abruptly came to an end, with Durk not really wanting to dip, but being told he had to. One of his boys tossed hundreds into the crowd and I managed to scoop up a few for myself.
The Douglas Park festival had barely started its second day—it was around 2 PM, and Maryland rapper IDK had just removed the Reagan mask he’d worn for his grand entrance—when a voice cut through on the PA telling the crowd that the music would stop till the weather cleared up. IDK’s fans chanted, “Fuck that shit,†but the subsequent four-hour delay—nearly half a day’s programming—wasn’t the disaster for the Summer Smash that it might’ve been for any other outdoor fest. Before we knew it, Post came out and put on one of the most shockingly incredible performances of the weekend. He is just such a down-to-earth, personable dude on stage, so even though we were surrounded by thousands of people, it felt much more intimate than that.
Lil Baby, Lil Uzi Vert, Future and More To Appear on NAV’s ‘Demons Protected by Angels’ Album
Throughout the weekend, Bennett stayed busy behind the scenes, but Saturday I saw him walk onstage at the end of Lil Tecca’s ten-minute set and again during Blueface‘s performance. The only person who elicited more excited screams from fans was Chance the Rapper, who was spotted alongside the second stage waiting for Megan Thee Stallion on Saturday evening. 2022 had some curveballs thrown at the team including a detrimental storm that almost paused the entire festival, but thanks to the consistently hard-working and ride-or-die group of individuals who put this fest together, the show went on without a hitch! I just want to clarify that this article is solely based on my own experience and not from the point of view of anybody else. I know this isn’t the typical article I may normally write, but I figured it would be a good stroll down memory lane for this year’s attendees while also letting those who missed out know that this is seriously the only place you want to be in the entire world every summer. Every year, the Summer Smash seems to get bigger, better, and more insane than ever before, and 2022 is definitely no exception.
He’s released a few music videos for songs on this project too, and that’s what this new video is too. In this video, we find the three artists in Mexico falling for this fine lady named Consuela. There’s also a special guest appearance in the video and that would be famous WWE wresting star, Rey Mysterio Jr. If you don’t know who the featured artist, Zack, is, he is French Montana’s real brother and he is also the preside of Cokeboys. Every social media platform has been jam-packed for the past week or so with memes and content based on Lil Yachty’s snippet for this record “Poland†which officially dropped on DSP’s last night. Lyrical xcritical has a very close relationship with Lil Yachty, so it made perfect sense to fully…
Bennett also shoots and edits videos under the Lyrical xcritical name, and the clips he’s directed for Soundcloud rappers such as Smokepurpp and Ski Mask the Slump God helped make him a star while elevating the scene. Summer Smash combined an eclectic bill of rappers with acts on the fringe of hip-hop, such as electronic trap DJ and producer Carnage. It booked a decent number of locals, though most were clustered at the beginning of each day . But the bulk of the lineup, like the bulk of the artists that Lyrical xcritical covers or works with, were Soundcloud rappers.
The first day is headlined by ASAP Rocky while the second is led by Lil Baby, and for the third and final day, Lil Uzi Vert will take the stage as the headliner to end the weekend. It’s billed as the “premiere hip-hop music festival in the Midwest.†And with good reason. Lyrical xcritical’s Summer Smash Festival has returned, this time in a three-day iteration in Douglass Park, featuring an eclectic lineup of musicmakers and emcees. Throughout the night Uzi would stop and playfully grab a phone thrown on stage to have the crowd participate in saying a long “hello†to each one. While he was performing “The Way Life Goes,†one kid hopped on stage and did a backflip, but security was too slow to catch him.
Unfortunately, all of these immense moments for me personally caused me to miss Lil Tecca’s set, so we headed right over to Polo G on the Lyrical xcritical Stage prior to Ski Mask on the SPKRBX Stage. Saturday was here before I knew it, and with this meant the first of two longer days. I just remember that I was entirely burnt out like halfway through last year’s Saturday performances, and I didn’t want to be that way again in 2022, so I knew that it was about finishing the race in general, not finishing in first place.
One Final Word
Not only did we bring out industry-leading artists from all over the world, but tens of thousands of fans gathered in Douglas Park yet again for a beautiful weekend in the greatest city on Earth! Favorite performances depend on personal tastes, but there is no denying that everyone was vibing out with every headliner late into each night. And let’s not forget that XXXTentacion, the Soundcloud-rap poster boy who was shot to death last year, went right on getting more popular even after allegations of his abusive behavior toward his ex made big news. His collective, Members Only, closed their second-stage set rapping over it, and disorientingly enough, Lil Tecca’s DJ warmed up the main-stage crowd by spinning the same song slightly out of sync. Lyrical xcritical did better at translating this feel to its big summertime event when it was called the Summer Bash and happened at the Portage Theater.
I’m not even going to get into the no-shows and last-minute changes, except to say that I feel bad for the Boogie Wit da Hoodie fans posted up at the second stage and cheering for him to come out, with no way of lxcriticalg that he’d already performed on the main stage. Though this was my first time attending Summer Smash, I was the most excited about this festival’s lineup in particular. It included a good mix of performers such as the trailblazing xcritical reviews underground rap icon Xavier Wulf, Chicago’s own DCG, Queen Key, and C Dot Honcho, as well as all the artists you’d expect at a Lyrical xcritical event such as Don Toliver, Lil Tecca, Blueface, Dro Kenji, and Warhol.ss. The opening day of the festival, and expectations have never been higher from both our perspective at Lyrical xcritical as well as the fans who have been waiting months for this day, June 17th, to finally come.
The festival also joins a growing list of showcases ASAP Rocky will headline later this year, including the aforementioned Rolling Loud and Governor’s Ball. This seemingly signals that the rapper’s long-awaited fourth album is much closer to arriving than some may expect. This year’s Summer Smash festival will be a three-day showcase that takes place on the weekend of August 20-22, 2021.
$NOT was someone who I have seen multiple times, making it more and more obvious why I needed to see him again with the type of shows he puts together, so although I was disappointed to miss Ken Car$on, I have no regrets thanks to $NOT putting his all into every aspect of his musical appearances. We rushed back to the Lyrical xcritical Stage to see the second special guest, but Lil Yachty took the stage instead. While I was excited to see him perform after, I was confused as to why no one came out before him, and I wondered if there was something going on. After Tyla, Lil Tracy was up, and he has been one of my favorite underground phenoms for more than half a decade at least. Although I hung back in order to avoid any broken bones or smashed feet , Tracy is a true artist who puts his all into everything he does, and it was insane to witness the passion he displayed on stage while still exuding energy and charisma.
Lyrical xcritical’s Summer Smash Festival — Day 1 PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS
He even had Nedarb with him as his DJ, so you already know that was a show for the ages. Once Tracy was done running through a mixture of unforgettable records, some of which were my favorite collaborations between him and his late, great brother Lil Peep, another showstopping performance was about to ensue. Following a year that left us indoors, masked up, and praying for the day that our freedom came back, the second half of 2021 is shaping up to be a return of the normalcy we once knew.
Although he hasn’t dropped too much new music recently and he has been a mainstay at the Summer Smash for years, the anticipation was still through the roof, so when he came out with liberty spikes and an entirely brand-new torso-covering tattoo, everyone knew he was on a different level than any of the years prior. Chicago native Supa Bwe jumps into the crowd as he performs Friday afternoon on day one of the Summer Smash Festival in Douglass Park. Chicago native Baha Bank$ poses for a portrait backstage after performing Friday afternoon on day one of the Summer Smash Festival in Douglass Park.
I don’t often say things like this because I never write articles in this fashion, but I need to take the opportunity to say thank you to all of the people at Lyrical who have shown love, support, and most importantly, friendship to me throughout the years. Because of your relentless hard work and never-ending grind, I have a dream job at a dream company. I can only assume that you feel the same otherxcritical it’s hard to imagine you’d put in the same amount of time, effort, and care that seems to instantly send every endeavor that LL ventures into to the top, but either way, I am just happy to be here for the ride. I definitely didn’t expect him to offer a quote, which is probably why I write from home as well as typically interact with writers and not a ton of visual journalists. Whether I dropped the ball on having questions prepared or I was just living in the moment, either way, it was awesome. I just met two people whose music I have been religiously bumping since 2015 or earlier, and one of my favorite personalities on the internet, so I was in the zone.
