At the intersection of 615 Day 2023 and Juneteenth Weekend is the inaugural Blavity House Party. The new festival, organized by Blavity Media Group, took over Nashville, Tennessee on June 14th and 15th, treating locals and travelers alike to two nights of fiery performances in celebration of Juneteenth and Black Music Month.
Hosted by Zack Fox, Bridget Kelly and Mani Millss, the Blavity House Party boasted an array of artists from the myriad genres of the black diaspora, including Monica, Rick Ross, K. Michelle, Dru Hill, Uncle Waffles, Blxst, Ryan Leslie, Leon. Thomas, Big Freedia, Freeway, Lil' Mo, Travis Porter, Reyna Roberts, Nesta, Domani and more. In addition to the two performance stages (one outside and one inside Music City's famed Municipal Auditorium), the atrium hosted a number of local black-owned businesses to support festival-goers.
The opening day of the festival began with a semi-sanctification with a rousing performance by the Sainted Trap Choir. With tight choreography and tighter arrangements, the choir belted out a medley that blended secular and pop hits including Travis Porter's “Make It Rain,” Victoria Monét's “On My Mama,” Tyla's “Water” and “Melodies from Heaven” by Kirk Franklin. Big Freedia kept the energy high with a bouncy, NOLA-elevating set that featured endless twerking displays and high-energy displays from her dancers, while Grammy-winning R&B singer-songwriter Leon Thomas mesmerized the audience with his honeyed vocals and impressive guitar skills.
Despite strong performances from the artists on the first day, the meager audience turnout was impossible to ignore. As the day wore on, the floor began to fill up, with legendary R&B group Dru Hill drawing the most passionate crowd of the night. Celebrating more than 25 years of hits, Sisqó led his bandmates in jaw-dropping renditions of timeless hits like “Tell Me” and “In My Bed,” showcasing the power of their soulful vocals and pristine harmonies. With their set, Dru Hill were able to capture lightning in a bottle and really make Blavity House Party feel like a must-see festival. However, that energy quickly dissipated as the crowd anxiously awaited Lil Wayne – who was scheduled to headline the night – only for the “A Milli” rapper to ghost the festival, with no reason for his absence.
In an effort to make up for the last-minute disappointment of day one, Blavity House Party packed in several extra performers for day two of the festival, including Lil Scrappy, Rick Ross and Tennessee's own K. Michelle. Standout performers from day two included outlaw country princess Rayna Roberts – who put on an incredible show to match her hot hair – and hip-hop trio Travis Porter, who provided a timeless soundtrack to a Black House party for almost 15 years and counting. . Lil Scrappy, something of a musical forefather to Travis Porter, also lit up the auditorium with live renditions of '00s classics like “Head Bussa” and “Neva Eva.”
Clearly an eleventh-hour addition, K. Michelle went through a six-minute set that included covers of “Can't Raise a Man” and “VSOP.” Curiously, the R&B superstar didn't perform any of the country songs, though she confirmed that her highly anticipated country album is still on the way. Headliner Monica took fans down memory lane with a set that pumped up the crowd singing along to some of her most beloved tracks, including “So Gone” and “Before You Walk Out of My Life.”
Once again, the show threatened to fly off the rails near the end of the night. Rick Ross' music was shockingly cut about six songs into his set. After asking his DJ to drop the next track, there was silence. The DJ continued to push buttons to figure out the situation, but within the next seven minutes, Ricky Rozay had given away a bottle of Belaire champagne, thrown into his backpack and exited the stage for good, making for a sudden and memorable end. the Blavity House launch party.
Here are the six best moments from Blavity House Party 2024.
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Leon Thomas Mounts Swoonworthy Set
From starring alongside Ariana Grande and beyond Victorious To win Grammys with SZA and Babyface, Leon Thomas has been mesmerizing audiences for his entire career. Making his Blavity Hosue Fest debut, Thomas turned up the heat with a sultry set consisting mostly of selections from his acclaimed debut LP, Electric twilight. With his supple vocals over the catchy riffs and his instrumental skills on full display with his guitar, Thomas helped set the R&B tone for the night before Dru Hill's set, reminding everyone that this is the genre for true lovers.
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Rayna Roberts sets the scene on fire
Reyna Roberts has been riding high all year since the release of Beyoncé's Culture Cowboy Carter LP. Country's illegitimate princess may have lent her vocals to two Cowboy Carter tracks, the Billboard Hot 100 hits “Blackbird” (No. 27) and “Tyrant” (No. 44), but her set at Blavity House Party was all about her own music.
Bursting through spirited renditions of “Raised Right,” “Lawless” and “Louisiana,” Roberts packed the fireworks as she strutted up and down the stage with Queen Bey's own sultry comedy. Dressed in a matte black leotard and cowboy hat, Roberts took advantage of the small crowd and opted for a more intimate approach midway through her set. For “Lousiana” she sat on the side of the stage and sang exclusively to the left side of the audience, showing off both her bombastic vocals and effortless charisma.
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Big Freedia turns Nashville into NOLA
Whether there are 10 people in the audience or 10,000, Big Freedia will always rock the roof off the venue. Despite taking the stage quite early in the day, the Queen Diva delivered the festival's most consistently high-octane set as she took Music City to New Orleans, the bounce capital of the world.
Flanked by a quartet of dancers championing different styles of local Black dance — tripping out, jiggling, shaking, oh my! — Freedia's booming voice echoed throughout the venue, inviting every member of the audience to dance as hard as they could. Running through notable bounce cuts like “Y'all Get Back Now” and “NO Bounce,” Freedia really kept it for Louisiana — a moment that only felt more important after Lil Wayne's no-show.
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Rick Ross plays the last-minute hero and villain
Rick Ross has been the biggest troll of the year since getting into the Future/Metro Boomin/Kendrick Lamar vs. Drake beef, and for a moment it looked like he was going to troll the Blavity House Party crowd, too.
Despite being a recent addition to the festival, Ross' set was complete with impressive visuals and interludes, as well as a bottle of Belaire white champagne that his team presented to an audience member shortly before abruptly wrapping up his set. Kicking things off with “I'm a Boss” before launching into unaccompanied hits like “BMF” and “I'm Not a Star,” Ricky Rozay kept the crowd rocking as he belted out his lyrics while wearing a white Balenciaga set. .
In typical troll fashion, Ross didn't miss out on his myriad collaborations with Drake. Instead, 6 God's voice echoed through the auditorium during Ross' performances of “I'm on One”, “Aston Martin Music” and “Diced Pineapples”. What can you say, a hit is a hit!
While Ross may have donned the superhero cape to save the festival's top mainstream rapper representative, he stumbled into the era of evil when he abruptly left the stage after his music was seemingly cut off by the powers that be, effectively ending the festival on a whim. particularly sour note.
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Lil' Mo Brings the House Down
The reals love Lil' Mo and the Blavity House Party audience was filled with reals. The Grammy nominees, Advertising sign The chart-topping R&B star sang to the roof of Nashville's Municipal Auditorium, delivering the festival's most impressive vocal performance outside of Dru Hill — and she did it all solo.
In addition to treating the crowd to near-flawless renditions of “Superwoman Pt. II,” “I Cry” and “1st Time,” Lil' Mo also took a page out of Beyoncé's book and incorporated some current hits into her set. The New York singer-songwriter mixed SZA's “Snooze,” Tinashe's “Nasty,” Lil Uzi Vert's “Just Wanna Rock” and TiTom and Yuppe's “Tshwala Bam” into her set, showing off her dance moves her abilities and natural magnetism in the process.
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Dru Hill 25th Anniversary Celebration
If Lil' Mo satisfied the crowd's craving for some good flat-footed singing on day two, Dru Hill did the same on day one. The R&B trio's endlessly impressive set was less a trip down nostalgia-tinged memory lane and more a reminder that they're of the last generation to really prioritize the fundamentals of showmanship and live performance.
With plenty of moments reminding the audience, in Sisqó's own words, that “those mics are on,” Dru Hill also incorporated classic choreography from their music videos and stunning solo showcases for each member. Of course, Sisqó garnered the most enthusiastic crowd response with his solo material—he unsurprisingly chose DMX's “Thong Song” and “What These B—es Want”—but Jazz had the most exciting solo set of the night. The vocal powerhouse slayed the lead vocal on “Never Make a Promise,” soaring, bloodied sweat.
Jazz's spirited performance set the bar for the rest of the men's solo moments, with Scola rocking for life on “I Love You” and Smoke performing a sultry, piercing cover of D'Angelo's seminal “Untitled” . When a group has a catalog filled with timeless hits like “Tell Me,” “In My Bed” and “We're Not Making Love No More,” very little can go wrong on the performance front. But when you've got voices like Dru Hill's at the helm, you're in for 40 minutes of the kind of song we don't get to hear in the mainstream all that often these days — and how welcome and glorious it is.
