For the month of March, our journey following Atlanta’s hottest rappers on America’s biggest stages brought us to SXSW in Austin, Texas. To address the rumors that have been circulating, it is true that this month’s feature of our series, which began with 21 Savage, Gunna, and Shah during Super Bowl LIII, was in jeopardy. This is because leading up to SXSW 2019, industry rumors intensified about 21 Savage and Shah needing to avoid the festival because the injustices each of them have been facing in each of legal sagas made travelling to Texas too risky under the Trump government. This combined with Gunna’s name having been absent from the SXSW conversation altogether, put our SXSW story at risk until we got the surprise announcement that Shah would be making his official SXSW debut this year.
While 21 and Gunna did end up foregoing this year’s SXSW, this opened up the opportunity for our series to feature our first female and we chose Yung Baby Tate, who’s been bubbling in Atlanta since her 2015 ROYGBIV debut. Since SXSW is rooted in discovering new artists, we also used the opportunity to cover other emerging Atlanta artists who, alongside Shah and Yung Baby Tate, make up the next next wave of Atlanta artists becoming household names like 21 Savage. To make up for that more established star presence we were missing in 21’s absence, we followed Atlanta rap OG Big Boi, who we appeared previously in our NBA All Star Weekend coverage and K Camp, whose Slum movement has made him an underground ATL fixture for almost a decade. On that note, here are the biggest moments of SXSW 2019.
BEST DAY PARTY: RACHAEL RAY'S FEEDBACK HOUSE, THURSDAY
This may come as a surprise to some of our readers, but the best day party of SXSW (at least the best party we’re allowed to report on) was Rachael Ray’s Feedback House. Rachael Ray is a nationally televised chef, sort of like a younger Martha Stewart who’s never been to prison. Each year during SXSW she organizes Feedback, a music and food festival at Stubbs BBQ for over 2000 people. Additionally, she hosts Feedback House, an invite-only, private house party we attended on the Thursday of SXSW. Rachael selects the bands, the food, and the drinks which all keep flowing for three days. This was an immaculately well run party, and the only suggestion we can make would be to add some rap music to the artist bill next year.
BIGGEST CROWD: BIG BOI SXSW FREE OUTDOOR STAGE, FRIDAY NIGHT
Big Boi’s show at SXSW’s epic outdoor stage at Lady Bird Lake was billed as a Dungeon Family reunion, which inevitably led to whispers of an Andre 3000 appearance, that didn’t actually seem to be taken seriously by anyone. The turnout was strong, and kudos to Big Boi for still being able to still draw a crowd after all these years but the vibe was less ‘concert of the ages’ and more FOMO on a buzzing showcase. At least it was free!
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(Apologies for video quality.)
BEST SHOWCASE: K CAMP, SHAH, at MOHAWK, SATURDAY NIGHT
Leading up to Saturday night, it seemed like the final night of SXSW at the Mohawk was primed to be one of the festival’s best hip hop showcases in years. The Mohawk is one of Austin’s best venues, and both the indoor and outdoor stages were devoted to rap. Stage sponsors included rap festival upstart Rolling Loud, SXSW veteran Kosha Dillz and CMMNTY leading to an eclectic bill that ranged from relative unknowns to buzzing independents like Tate, Shah, and Kodie Shane, to “Pump Plan” signees with over a million followers like Asian Doll and Lil Mosey, to new stars with a national hit records like Flipp Dinero and Da Baby. The show had Austin buzzing and the longest line-up seen at any point during SXSW had formed 2 hours before doors opened. Yet somehow, the organizers managed to turn what should have been a magical night for these artists into a complete mess. For starters, artists stage times began at 7:30pm but the line was still being held until well after 8pm, meaning acts like Atlanta’s Blaatina were performing to empty rooms while thousands of fans were waiting outside the venue.
Acts like 12HONCO and StepdadFla who travelled from Florida were given sets that were only 5 minutes in length and no artists were allowed to do a sound check. SXSW’s set times appeared to be completely disregarded, as we never saw Tate, Shane, Mosey, Asian Doll, Da Baby, Flavia, Danny Ali and many other artists we had come to see. So if you’re wondering why we still ranked this the best showcase of SXSW, it’s because K Camp and Shah did what great Atlanta rappers always do in the face of adversity and seized the moment. K Camp’s performance helped transform the vibe of the understandably irritated audience and Shah’s performance lived up to the reputation established by the praise of industry OGs like Greg Street.
The audience also deserves praise for their patience. By Saturday night, the finale of SXSW, much of the music industry that floods Austin during the work-week has already returned home. Similarly, most brand activations have packed up, taking with them their open bars and gift bags. This means that the audiences at Saturday night showcases are heavily comprised of local Austinites looking to discover new music. With Austin having established itself as an early cultural litmus test for musicians looking to become household names, The Mohawk’s audience’s reaction to Shah and K Camp help show why Atlanta rap has become such a dominant cultural force.
Thankfully our series will be returning to Austin this October for Austin City Limits. We hope all our readers enjoyed the SXSW edition of our series, and we’ll see you next month with the next episode.
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