Dreamville Festival
Dorothea Dix Park, Raleigh
If you look at the flyer for Dreamville, the N.C.-bred rap icon J. Cole’s new one-day hip-hop festival at Dix Park, and a few names scream out while the rest make you scratch your head, don’t worry: You’re not necessarily out of touch. Rather than going for pure star power, this fest has a subtler agenda. Let’s chop it up.
The Ringers: This is where Dreamville is making its play for your money. For us, the headline is, SZA’s back, after a flood of media reports last May said her voice was permanently damaged, before a flood of media reports in June said no, it wasn’t. The big font also features Atlanta mumble-trap menace 21 Savage, platinum rapper and lifelong label tourist Big Sean, and Grammy-nominated R&B singer 6lack. Also check for Teyana Taylor, whose fine GOOD Music album, K.T.S.E., got overshadowed by strong Pusha T, weak Nas, and weird Kanye last year.
The Given: “Dreamville Festival founder J. Cole is headlining the Dreamville Festival” is the least surprising sentence ever. But you know, for a star, J. Cole is kind of reclusive. J. Cole does not like to do a lot of media, so we don’t know how he feels about any of this. We’re only certain he lives in Raleigh because he was photographed there by GQ recently. If we were getting asked to put on high-waisted culottes and pose with a lynx, we probably wouldn’t talk to any local media about our hometown festival either. Sincerely, we get it. It’s fine. We’re fine.
The Nelly: Most stuff in the Dreamville lineup fits into some kind of niche, even if it’s as small as local artists (Rapsody, Mez, Charlotte-based rapper Lute) or international connections (Davido, Bas). But what is Nelly doing here? Nelly, who seems to mainly be doing reality TV since his last album, six years ago? How hot in here can it possibly get on the sylvan grounds of a former psychiatric hospital in early spring? Das EFX may have rocked that Band-Aid ten years before Nelly did (quoth Sage Francis), but he’s the one rocking it in the end. Good for him. It’ll be fun.
The Dreamville Label Showcase: Now we’re down to the nut. Half the artists here are signed to J. Cole’s label, which, in a dead giveaway, is called Dreamville Records. The signees reflect the founder’s sensibilities—conscious, classic, authentic, regionally rooted but globally minded—though none of them are as well-known as him. It’s a way to round out the ringers with readily available talent that obviously reflects Cole’s tastes, and to put his label vision to the test. As a primer, check out “Backseat,” by Washington, D.C., singer Ari Lennox and South Central LA rapper Cozz, and “Never” by Atlanta’s J.I.D.; both are cosigned to Dreamville and Interscope. And try “Up,” by EarthGang, a young duo that comes from the same Spillage Village collective J.I.D. came from.
Dreamville is the first big event at Dix Park, and the City of Raleigh is anticipating thirty-five thousand people. The Williams Field and the Big Field are closed to the public through April 9, while the entire park is closed for the festival from 6:00 p.m. the day before to 2:00 p.m. the day after. You’ve no doubt heard some wag in your set making Fyre Festival jokes of the type any new hip-hop festival in 2019 would attract. God knows what went on behind the late lineup announcement, just two weeks before the festival, which was rescheduled from a Hurricane Florence–canceled date in September. And there are bound to be some hitches in the debut multi-stage event in a large outdoor venue. But even if Dreamville goes off the rails, it’s not going to be social media influencers garroting each other for tents. Maybe the promised mini-golf course won’t appear or will run out of balls.
In addition to being a test for J. Cole’s music-business vision and for Dix Park, Dreamville is a test for Raleigh as a hip-hop city. Durham has Beats ‘n’ Bars and Art of Cool, but Raleigh just has hip-hop in a festival setting at Hopscotch, and it’s not the dominant key.
Some portion of Dreamville proceeds will go to hurricane victims across the state, the Dorothea Dix Park Conservancy, and the Dreamville Foundation, which serves urban youth in Fayetteville. Whether you’re a fan of his throwback style of hip-hop or not, J. Cole cultivates a diverse musical world and has built a lot of giving back into his success.
If Dix Park turns into Lord of the Flies, we’ll be there to tell you about it until we have to barter our phone chargers for water and bread. That would be kind of funny. But it would be more fun if it went well. We’re here for it.
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