Morris Day; K. Michelle; YoungBoy Never Broke Again by Chris Scheurich
Given the recent drama over the cherry-blossom tree removal and the relocation of the Tara Cole memorial bench in Riverfront Park — contributing to the sense that Mayor Briley was happy to sell anything the NFL wanted to buy — it’s hard to think of an unqualified positive for Nashvillians stemming from the NFL Draft coming to Music City. But on Friday and Saturday, the Nashville Draft Music and Food Festival at the Fairgrounds Speedway promises an exceptional lineup of R&B, hip-hop and funk artists.
Friday’s bill is bound to get old-school heads nodding, especially with a set from America’s first superstar beatboxer, Doug E. Fresh. He’s a hip-hop icon who has been making parties move and dance floors shake since his days with the Get Fresh Crew, which also included a then-unknown Slick Rick. Though 2 Live Crew got the infamy and government drama with their filthy party rhymes, and Blowfly lit the way with his X-rated parodies, it was Oakland’s own Too $hort who showed that the field of nasty raps was a subgenre that could evolve into something as artistically refined as it was ball-sweatingly sleazy. Expect Too $hort’s socially conscious 1990 hit “The Ghetto,” a staple of recent set lists, to get some of the biggest audience response on Friday.
K. Michelle is from a younger generation, known worldwide for her time with Love & Hip Hop’s Atlanta and New York incarnations. But she has the voice, the songs and the beats, and she will knock you flat. If you’ve never heard her 2013 debut album Rebellious Soul, it’s a great introduction to her fearless and powerful style as well as a rigorous and ultimately devastating tour through all the emotions the mind can summon.
And then there’s Morris Day and the Time, whom you already know if you’ve been a fan of R&B, funk, the Minneapolis sound, the films of Kevin Smith or quality party music at any point in the past four decades. The group was conceived as an outlet for Prince’s poppier songs, and their badassery made His Purpleness nervous. If the only legacy of The Time had been “Chili Sauce,” that would have been enough. But there’s so much more to be had, and you can rest assured that no one can make you dance like Morris Day when he puts his mind to it.
Saturday, however, is packed with phenomenal rappers from the South and nearby. YoungBoy Never Broke Again (aka NBA YoungBoy, though he’s changed his professional name to avoid any potential legal challenges) is a 19-year-old rising star from the bubbling hip-hop talent pool of Baton Rouge, La. Mumble rap is his style, but the stories he tells about climbing his way to the top of the game couldn’t be clearer. Young Dolph has been in the game a bit longer, and he’s one of the biggest rap talents to come out of Memphis in years. His 2018 LP Role Model — like all his music, released through his independent label Paper Route Empire — features guest appearances from OGs like Snoop Dogg and contemporary stars like Migos’ Offset, and it hit No. 15 on the Billboard 200.
Dolph has both a business relationship and family ties to another outstanding Memphis-bred MC playing Saturday. That’s Key Glock, whose 2018 release Glockoma is a mind-bending display of powerful wordplay that is racking up millions of streams and landing film placements without a single featured guest to attract attention. Rounding out the lineup is Dallas’ Yella Beezy, who stepped into the spotlight with a serious radio hit, the infectious “That’s on Me,” in the summer of 2018 — no easy task at any time, but especially not during the months Drake was burning up the charts with tracks from Scorpion.
No matter what’s left when the NFL Draft has come and gone, our city will have seen one hell of an assemblage of black music talent.
