This summer Rhyme Fest will host its 11th annual celebration at the iconic LA Memorial Coliseum on Saturday, August 17, 2024. This major milestone event will be headlined by the incomparable Minnesota hip hop duo Atmosphere. Composed of Slug (rapper) and Ant (DJ/producer), Atmosphere has crafted a legacy that is embedded in the talisman of underground hip-hop over the course of their 27- year career. Known for their vulnerable lyrics, genre-pushing production, and everyman sensibilities, these quiet titans have released 13 beloved projects and dozens of classic tracks championed by the culture worldwide. Rhyme Fest is ecstatic to bring Atmosphere’s captivating stage show to the Los Angeles hip hop community. Tickets available exclusively on Ticketmaster!
Also commanding this year’s festival, Rhyme Fest is proud to announce performances by Dilated Peoples, Living Legends, Visionaries, Freestyle Fellowship, Funkdoobiest, Project Blowed’s 30th Anniversary Performance, Sage Francis, The Shape Shifters, The LA Symphony 25th Anniversary Performance, Planet Asia, Reverie, DJ QBert, Demrick & Dizzy Wright, DJ Nu-Mark (of J5), DJ Abilities, A-F-R-O & 60East, Coyote, Volume 10, Self Provoked, Speak, and several additional artists affectionately considered to be part of the “Rhyme Fest Universe.”
“We’re building a Rhyme Fest Universe,” says founder Rafael “Scooby” Dos Santos. “We have our characters that are part of our universe that are always featured at our events. Some are in house DJs and some are MCs that we consider a part of the Rhyme Fest family. Rhyme Fest is a gathering for the hip hop heads so it’s important to have the people that helped us build Rhyme Fest from the very beginning to still be a part of it and be represented on the lineup.”
About Rhyme Fest
This year’s Rhyme Fest represents a significant step forward for the seminal hip hop festival. The first ever Rhyme Fest was held on November 15, 2013 at the 500-seat Ukraine Cultural Center in Hollywood and was headlined by KRS-One and The Visionaries. This year Rhyme Fest expects 10,000 hip hop heads to celebrate all elements of the culture in the LA Memorial Coliseum. So along with the timeless tracks, brolic beats, and breathtaking performances that have become synonymous with the Rhyme Fest brand, graffiti, break dancing, and DJing are placed on a pedestal as well.
“The whole purpose of Rhyme Fest is to incorporate all elements of hip hop and to cultivate and grow the hip hop community,” Dos Santos says. “This year will boast a graffiti village area where 30 artists will create live paintings, for example. These are artists that started in the graffiti scene in Los Angeles—graf writers from the 1980s, early 1990s, late 1990s all the way up until today. Besides the music this year, another dope element that you can expect at Rhyme Fest is the whole graffiti area and a lot of art.”
