The Pitchfork Music Festival kicks off on Friday at Chicago’s Union Park. The festival has become a staple of summer time Chicago, and showcases over 40 independent bands during its three day span. While Pitchfork still features predominantly indie rock acts, each festival includes Hip Hop and it seems like the genre is taking up a larger percentage of set times each year. Last year’s festival featured Hip Hop acts such as Curren$y, Das Racist, G-Side, and Odd Future. See below for a look at the Hip Hop artists set to perform in 2012, and plan your schedule accordingly.
A$AP Rocky: Friday, 5:30PM at the Red Stage
A$AP Rocky is the first Hip Hop artist to grace the stage at Pitchfork this year, but he is might also be the most talked about. A$AP was nowhere close to performing at this festival a year ago, and now he’s one of Friday’s main attractions. If you missed him at the House of Blues in early May, here’s a chance to catch him live. Maybe we’ll see SHoolboy Q as well since they are both on the bill.
Big K.R.I.T.: Friday, 6:25 PM at the Green Stage
Big K.R.I.T. is having a very nice couple of months. He just dropped his official major label debut, and is coming off a strong performance at the Soundset Festival in Minneapolis. K.R.I.T. also draws a good crowd in Chicago, and puts his all into his performance. I think he’ll grab the spotlight and shine.
Clams Casino: Friday, 7:15 at the Blue Stage
Clams Casino almost accidentally wound up performing at Pitchfork this year. The east coast based producer was going to school for phsyical therapy when he started getting famous rappers to spit over his low-key productions. We’ll see what has up his sleeve for Friday night as the sun is going down. Could pretty dope.
ScHoolboy Q: Saturday, 5:45 at the Blue Stage
ScHoolboy Q went from being described as “part of Kendrick Lamar’s crew” to a name in his own right. While he may not be at the same level as his TDE counterpart, Q has released two very dope projects, and recently pack Reggie’s during his solo tour. His set on Saturday on 5:45 is his time to shine, and chance to get trippy.
Danny Brown: Saturday, 7:45 at the Blue Stage
Pitchfork has been rocking with Danny Brown for a long time, and are somewhat responsible for Brown reaching the right crowds. He’s perfect for this festival and I expect his set to be a big party. Brown was supposed to hit Chicago with Childish Gambino this spring, but Gambino broke his leg and had to cancel. Danny’s only Chicago show as Digital Freshness in the summer of 2011, and this is a helluva lot bigger than Beauty Bar.
Kendrick Lamar: Sunday, 4:45 at the Blue Stage
Kendrick Lamar is the truth. He’s one of my favorite Hip Hop artists out right now, and patiently awaiting the release of his Interscope debut, Good Kid, Mad City. I caught Lamar at The Shrine last spring, and haven’t seen him since. In that time he dropped Section.80 as well as “The Recipe”. Definitely circle his set on your calendar.
Araab Muzik: Sunday, 6:15 at the Green Stage
Araab Muzik is a beast. He’s made a big name for himself by releasing videos in which his hands appear like blurs, and the beats bang. Or, he’s smoking a lot of weed and working with the likes of Dipset and A$AP. Either way, Araab Muzik is pretty dope. He also missed his flight and couldn’t perform at Wicker Park fest last summer. Hopefully he makes up for it here.