Hustling buskers, $20 mixed drinks, groups of resellers, litters of electric scooters, and sweaty but eager concert-goers marked the entrance to the fourth annual Dreamville Festival in Raleigh.
Tens of thousands of local and international hip hop fans converged in Dorothea Dix Park to celebrate North Carolina’s fruitful rap scene from April 6-7.
What is Dreamville Festival?
In 2018, J. Cole announced the inaugural Dreamville Festival, a celebration of local music, culture and art, initially scheduled for September of that year but postponed due to Hurricane Florence. In April 2019, the festival finally took place at Dorothea Dix Park in Raleigh. Boasting a lineup of both emerging and established artists, the Dreamville Festival became Raleigh’s largest event with a crowd of 40,000 attendees and has only grown in the years since.
Day One
This year, Dreamville returned for its most anticipated and largest Festival yet. Domani, the son of hip-hop legend and Dreamville Festival veteran T.I., kicked the day off with a 15-minute set on the “Shine” stage on the northern end of the park to a relatively small crowd. Five minutes later, Tallahassee native Luh Tyler nervously performed his hits such as “Change My Wayz” and “Back Flippin” to a still assembling crowd.
Teezo Touchdown, rapping into a microphone surrounded by flowers while wearing nails in his hair and on his black football chest protector, raised the collective energy of the festival goers through his electrifying blend of hip-hop and alternative rock. An hour later on the same stage, a restless crowd donning bright pink “Make America Sexxxy Again” hats screamed in excitement as Sexyy Red performed her smash single “Get It Sexyy” twice before closing with her breakout hit “PoundTown.”
The first big star of the festival, Lil Yachty, took the “Rise” stage at 5:45, performing his iconic walkout song “COFFIN” as the roaring crowd jumped to every beat. The energy did not last long, leading to a disappointed Yachty stopping his performance mid-song four times in his 45-minute set to re-energize the crowd.
The biggest Dreamville Label star of the festival besides Cole himself, JID performed a set marked by its vibrant visuals lighting up the darkening night sky; the Atlanta rapper lifted the spirits of the tired attendees as he took the stage to chants of his name. JID was the first artist of the festival to perform along with a live drummer and pianist. With an impossibly intricate and supersonic delivery, JID took the energy to new heights as he had nearly all 52,000 fans in attendance attempting to rap along with him.
The first of the two headliners for the night and the last-minute replacement for Chris Brown, 50 Cent took the Shine stage to the delight of the crowd. The audience recuperated and enjoyed classics such as “In Da Club” and “Candy Shop” before Fifty brought out the first and only special guest of the night: North Carolina-native DaBaby. The surprise led to an immediate increase in energy from the crowd, who inched forward to watch as DaBaby, along with his adolescent daughter and nephew, performed “Suge” and “Rockstar.”
As the final event on the “Rise” stage drew to a close, fans migrated en masse to the other side of the park to prepare for R&B singer SZA. The sea of people buzzed with excitement until, at last, the curtains rose to reveal a theatrical set including a faux wrecking ball atop a two-story staircase. In what was easily the most packed show of the night, the audience sang, cried and belted along to SZA’s ethereal sounds. The experience proved to be too much for some fans who fainted, prompting SZA to stop her performance briefly until the medical team took action. SZA’s goodnight message to Dreamville after her hour-long performance was a performance of “Good Days.”
Day Two
April 7 was another beautiful day in Raleigh as festival-goers began streaming in just past noon in Dorothea Dix park. Chase Shakur, known for his smooth and floaty vocals, opened at 1 p.m. to an energetic but small crowd, as some fans were already setting up camp to ensure a front row seat for the J. Cole show at the end of the night.
On the other side of the festival, Key Glock had fans at the “Rise” stage packed shoulder to shoulder to hear his signature, high-energy hits such as “Ambition For Cash” and “Mr Glock.” This energy was only elevated an hour later, when superstar-duo Rae Sremmurd took the stage in outlandish outfits to perform their party classics such as “No Type,” “This Could Be Us” and, of course, “Black Beatles.” The crowd sang along to every song, and, toward the end of the set, a shirtless Swae Lee began taking photos with concertgoers.
The energy of Rae Stremmurd was not mirrored in Nigerian pop star Rema’s set. Small audio errors had plagued the performances all day, leading to most artists on Sunday being around ten minutes late to their show. These issues came to a head during Rema’s performance. Clad in an all-black military style outfit, Rema experienced severe and consistent technical problems, leading him to berate the Dreamville staff and accuse them of prioritizing the American artists over those from Africa. When the performance of his biggest hit “Calm Down” was cut short due to a faulty microphone, Rema said that there were “too many sound issues, my people,” before saying “I love you all” to the quiet crowd and ultimately walking off stage early.
Fans then rushed to the other end of the park to get in a prime position to see Nicki Minaj, the first headliner of the night. The rush proved to be unwarranted, as the “Queen of Rap” was nearly 75 minutes late for her 45-minute set. Due to her late arrival, many fans left the “Rise” stage, where Nicki was supposed to perform, to gather at the “Shine” stage, where J Cole was due to come out at 9:30. When Minaj did come out, some boos were heard until the start of “Barbie Dangerous,” where the jeers turned to cheers. Her shortened set included “Monster,” “Anaconda” and “Superbass.”
Manja’s antics caused J. Cole to delay his set by half an hour to allow her to finish. When she did, the restless sea of hip-hop fans began to cheer and push towards the stage before J. Cole even came out. Eventually, the curtains rose and the instrumental to “Crocodile Tearz” began playing as the crowd erupted.
Cole, dressed in a red “Dreamers” jersey, was sitting on his black Honda Civic as he rapped to the biggest hit from the EP he released the Friday before the festival. After performing “Power Trip,” the 39-year old Cole stunned the crowd by admitting that he wanted “tonight to be a celebration” because he didn’t know how many “Dreamville fests” he had left in him. (Dreamville Festival organizers have since confirmed that the festival will return to Raleigh in 2025.)
The gasps and shouts of disapproval from the crowd were quickly quelled when Cole brought out the first guest of the night, Jerimih, to perform “Planez.”
For the next hour, J. Cole brought out artist after artist, including previous performer Lil Yachty, who garnered a much more energetic reaction from the crowd; 6LACK, who performed “Pretty Little Fears” with Cole; Benny the Butcher, the Grizelda member who features Cole on “Johnny P’s Caddy;” and Lil Durk who performed his “All My Life” accompanied by Cole.
The most prominent guest of the night was Central Cee, who flew out from London for his first ever show in North Carolina to perform “Sprinter,” “Doja,” and his new hit with Cole, “H.Y.B.”
The audio issues apparent earlier in the festival made a return when the Dreamville team came out to perform “Down Bad” and “Stick” as an ensemble. The six performers had two working microphones between them, leading to an intricate and unplanned passing of mics in the team. The mess was only settled when Cole was once again the sole artist on stage.
In an intimate moment with the crowd, J. Cole apologized directly to Kendrick Lamar for “7 Minute Drill,” a diss track in response to Lamar’s own recent jabs at Cole in “Like That.” While calling his actions the “goofiest” thing he has done in years, Cole explained that he wanted to ground himself in who he really is before performing “Love Yourz,” his anti-materialistic anthem of self-acceptance. The fans yelled, rapped and cried as Cole left everything on the stage before apologizing to the city of Raleigh for finishing half an hour past the city’s noise limits. Bowing out to roaring cheers after “No Role Modelz,” the final song of the festival, J. Cole told the crowd to “get home safe” as fireworks began lighting up the sky over the stage.
Overall, the fourth Dreamville Festival was a rousing success that brought together and celebrated the power and diversity of rap for all to see. North Carolina’s finest came out to celebrate the state’s standout music scene, showcasing the talent and energy that continues to define the region’s influence on hip-hop culture.
