Duluth resident Tamara Hunter was searching for a family outing during Labor Day weekend when she attended the Atlanta Hip Hop Day Festival for the first time on Saturday.
Her friend saw an event flyer surfing social media and thought it could be fun for kids, a great place to see local performers and patronize Black-owned businesses. Hunter, a native of Jamaica, experienced culture shock when she moved to Georgia five years ago and was seeking events that helped her adapt to her new home.
“We wanted to experience what the Black culture in Atlanta has to offer. The music is good and the people are friendly,” she said.
The annual event, held in Historic Fourth Ward Park across from Ponce City Market on Saturday and Sunday, is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year. It’s the second time the festival was held in the greenspace.
Spark Dawg, protégé of Memphis- and- Atlanta-based hip-hop producer Drumma Boy, has performed over horror film-inspired beats at ATL Hip Hop Day Festival three consecutive years. The maker of custom gold grills, the nasally-voiced rapper from Killean, Texas said performing for the crowd in yellow cartoon boots last year made him familiar with past festivalgoers.
“Anything that you do a lot, you become more comfortable doing it. It’s like muscle memory. People that have been here the last two years recognize me now. I have a few more fans now,” he said.
The female emcees came with stage presence and costuming. Nesha Nyce, a pint-sized Atlanta transplant from St. Louis, wore rainbow-colored braids, a metallic jumpsuit and dark lipstick when she performed “We Ain’t On the Same Type of Time.”
Niko, the festival’s official host, was impressed by Nyce’s showmanship. “This is a star,” he told the crowd.
VVS, wearing an anime-inspired Skorch World t-shirt, did “God’s Work,” a inspirational number accompanied by background dancers doing backflips on- and off-stage, somersaults, backspins and Memphis jookin, a style of dance with fancy footwork and body jerking that originated in the Tennessee city. She gave a moment of silence to Fatman Scoop, rapper and hype man who died on Saturday morning.
Gnarly Cyn, co-host who goes by the moniker “The Peace Pusher,” told the audience that hip-hop music can still make a positive impact without misogyny and graphic imagery. She encouraged each performer to keep their lyrics clean out of respect for younger audience members.
“The songs don’t have to be vulgar to be gangster. It’s all in the story and the cadence that makes the music and the artist hot,” she said.
Arall “MC WAR” Charles and Amir James, Atlanta Hip Hop Day Festival creators, held the inaugural festival in 2011 at Woodruff Park in downtown Atlanta. They wanted to highlight various styles in the genre, pay respect to its history and provide a space for local Black businesses to connect with new customers and market their product and services.
Vendors sold t-shirts listing the names of veteran hip-hop artists and producers, handmade jewelry, bottled cocktails, oils, scented candle making classes, original art and disposable hookahs. Purple Hayze Hookah converted an area of the park into an outdoor lounge with cocktail tables covered in purple and gold elastic tablecloths in front of a black inflatable puffer house.
Aromas like funnel cakes with powdered sugar, fresh-squeezed lemonade and deep-fried chicken wings lingered from food trucks as soon as you entered the park.
Charles and La’Tanya Archie, founders of C-Bo’s Barbecue and Southern Cuisine, first offered their slow and low style of smoked meat at the festival in 2012 with a pull-behind grill. The couple, now proud owners of a food truck and brick-and-mortar in Sandy Springs, started their business the same time the festival was formed.
“We just went out on faith and started working the market,” Charles Archie said.
La’Tanya Archie said they’re loyal to the festival for helping to expand. “We always try to go back with the people that we started with,” she said.
Community organizations used their stations to raise awareness on various issues. Atlanta Citizen Review Board has investigated citizen complaints against law enforcement since 2007.
Charles Curry, ACRB’s public information director and community outreach specialist, handed out cards with QR codes to the complaint form and literature on its creative workshops.
“People still don’t know that we exist. We let them know they have a safe space to go and a fair hearing if they have a problem,” Curry said.
United Breast Cancer Foundation, a non-profit based in Sandy Springs that provides free mammograms and screenings for uninsured people and grants for children of deceased cancer victims, provided information and help to those who have been affected by the disease. Site manager Daniesha Alvarez and her team wore pink vests, interacted with survivors who were afraid to share their personal battles and encouraged others to make their health a priority.
“You never know the type of people you’re going to meet or if you have a disease. Some people don’t take it too seriously, but we have to get ourselves checked out and realize it’s in every community,” she said.
While the artists performed, locals embraced the sunny day by roller skating, walking their dogs and pushing strollers. Others sat on blankets and lawn chairs, brought their coolers, and threw footballs and frisbees on the field.
Children were on swings, leaping through jungle gyms, playing on inflatable jumpies and ran through a fountain in swim trunks. Even twin girls celebrated their Quinceanera, rode to the park in a black stretch Range Rover and wore tiaras with their lavender gowns. The young men were dressed in gray tuxedos with lavender accessories.
In future years, Hunter hopes festival programmers will do more marketing to attract people and make it easier for those already planning to attend the event.
“Getting here was hard, because the GPS kept turning us around, so hopefully they can do more promotion like signs with directions to let other people know that this is happening,” she said.
12-8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 31 and Sunday, Sept. 1. Historic Fourth Ward Park. 680 Dallas Street NE, Atlanta. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/15th-annual-atlanta-hip-hop-day-festival-tickets-723931407327
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