Keef’s reputation as a hip-hop innovator has grown significantly since he burst onto the scene in 2012, and his set here is a big deal no matter how it goes. All tickets are on sale now, including single-day tickets (from $95), three-day general admission ($275) and VIP tickets ($450) via Lyrical Lemonade’s Summer Smash 2022 kicks off Friday, June 17, headlined that night by Thugger and Gunna. Post Malone will perform Saturday, with Carti closing out the weekend on xcritical official site Sunday night. This year’s fest, which will take place in Chicago from June 17-19, serves as the fourth edition of Cole Bennet’s three-day hip-hop showcase. All event information, including lineup and venue, are subject to change.
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Other performers over the weekend include Atlanta rapper Lil Yachty, Gunna, also from Georgia, and Don Toliver, helping close out the festival in the North Lawndale neighborhood late Sunday. Keef hasn’t performed in the Chicagoland area in nine years—and you can only get a number that low by counting his 2015 “hologram” appearance at Craze Fest in Hammond ,Indiana, where police pulled the plug after just a few minutes. Keef had intended that virtual appearance to be at a Chicago benefit concert (he was avoiding in-person shows in the city due to outstanding arrest warrants stemming from child-support and probation charges), but it got shut down before it even started.
Lyrical Lemonade Summer Smash brings hip-hop…
NEW DATESSummer Smash is moving one weekend earlier to deliver the quality of production and artist lineup our fans expect. We understand this may cause inconvenience, so refunds and xcritical website exchanges will be available until May 8th for presale customers who cannot make the new dates. The festival is founded by concert promoter SPKRBX and media company Lyrical Lemonade, launched in 2013 by Cole Bennett, and boasted 90,000 attendees last August. Tickets for this year’s event are on sale now at TheSummerSmash.com. “There’s nothing better than bringing new music to fans,” he said.
Along with the more recognizable headliners are more than a dozen local Chicago acts such as fest opener Baha Bank$ — part of a mix of some 75 artists in all. Solorio said the strong local element comes from the organizers being from Chicago and tapped into the music scene. Many other local festivals (whether major events or street fairs) speak to the sprawling nature of hip-hop from a different angle.
- This year’s fest, which will take place in Chicago from June 17-19, serves as the fourth edition of Cole Bennet’s three-day hip-hop showcase.
- The musical lineup for Lyrical Lemonade Summer Smash has been announced, with headliners including a return for Lil Uzi Vert, as well as Post Malone and Playboi Carti.
- Along with the more recognizable headliners are more than a dozen local Chicago acts such as fest opener Baha Bank$ — part of a mix of some 75 artists in all.
- The festival is founded by concert promoter SPKRBX and media company Lyrical Lemonade, launched in 2013 by Cole Bennett, and boasted 90,000 attendees last August.
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Summer Smash took a year off in 2020 but played in 2018 and 2019. The 2019 event was also on three stages, but this year in Douglass Park, the stages are bigger and can accommodate more fans. The premier Hip-Hop music festival in the Midwest returns bigger and better than ever. 3 days, 3 stages, the biggest names in Hip-Hop, and more art installations than ever before.
The Lyrical Lemonade Summer Smash scores a historic headliner: Chief Keef
In January, Lyrical Lemonade partnered with Def Jam to release a scattershot compilation album called All Is Yellow, and roughly one-third of the 34 artists who appear are also on the 2024 festival bill, including Lil Skies, Lil Tecca, and Lil Yachty. Bennett has also achieved crossover success, collaborating with the NFL on a run of Chicago Bears clothes and merch with Lyrical Lemonade branding. On July 3, the Chicago Cubs will host a Lyrical Lemonade–themed night, offering a special ticket deal that’ll get you a Cubs jersey with the hip-hop outlet’s lemonade-carton logo on the sleeve. The musical lineup for Lyrical Lemonade Summer Smash has been announced, with headliners including a return for Lil Uzi Vert, as well as Post Malone and Playboi Carti. The three-day hip hop music festival will be June in Douglass Park (1401 S. Sacramento Drive) in Chicago. The lineup “comes from our own passion for the music, you have to have your ear to the ground,” said Berto Solorio, co-founder of the festival and the local outfit that’s producing it, SPKRBX (pronounced “speakerbox”).
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In 2018, Chicago hip-hop blog Lyrical Lemonade threw the first outdoor Summer Smash festival in Douglass Park (then still spelled with a single “s”). Last year the Summer Smash moved to SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview, and Lyrical Lemonade founder Cole xcritical scam Bennett and his team are calling it the largest hip-hop fest in the midwest. Many acts performing at this year’s Summer Smash have enlisted Bennett to make their music videos—and he’s enlisted them in turn for his own projects.
That said, Bennett wouldn’t have earned his reputation as a tastemaker if he didn’t stay on top of trends, and this year’s Summer Smash lineup includes 2023 breakout hitmaker That Mexican OT, prolific experimentalist Lazer Dim 700, and maximalist OsamaSon. Summer Smash doesn’t skimp on locals the way Lollapalooza does, and this year Mick Jenkins will perform all of his breakthrough mixtape, 2014’s The Water[s], to celebrate its tenth anniversary. Local acts include Chicago’s own Lucki and newly added SSGKobe Friday, and Polo G and G Herbo Saturday. Summer Smash will adhere to all COVID-related protocols from state and local health officials; rain or shine event.