The Lyrical Lemonade and SPKRBX-presented ‘Summer Smash’ passed by in the blink of an eye but the three-day weekend provided all attendees a dope return to the invaluable experience music festivals can provide. We were fortunate enough to be on scene to witness the magic all weekend and the three of us repping PoD surely covered a lot of ground across the three stages.
Check out our top 12 artists of the weekend below.
Jack’s Picks:
Cochise
To be honest, I hadn’t heard of Cochise prior to seeing his set at Lenny’s Tent Stage on Saturday. I ran over to his set a bit after he was scheduled to start and I was welcomed with absolute mayhem. After some time spent listening to the Florida rapper, I’ve determined that he’s got an impressive discography thus far. Close collaborator $not came out to perform their track “Tell Em” during Cochise’s set and they ran it back for an exponentially larger crowd during $not’s set on Sunday as well. Cochise even popped out at Ski Mask the Slump God’s aftershow at Concord Music Hall to give me another fantastic live rendition of “Tell Em”. I’m a fan of $not’s but I didn’t catch this collaboration… it was awesome to hear it for the first time live; “Tell Em” is an absolute hit. Cochise’s energy was addictive and I would’ve loved to stay for the extent of his set, but I had to run back across the park to catch just a little of Blueface’s set before Ka$hdami and Earl Sweatshirt hit the stages.
Lucki
Chicago’s-own, Lucki, blessed the main stage on Sunday in front of a loving Chicago crowd. Lucki mesmerized a hometown crowd that turned up for each and every track he put on. His laid-back stage presence offers a dope contrast from the energy his crowds immediately reflect back to him. Lucki provided attendees a raw set that tapped into both his old music as well as his new. Fans seemed to be most familiar with tracks off of Lucki’s most recent full-length, Almost There. “TUNE & SCOTTY”, “Prada Tune”, and “Faith” are all quality cuts off of Almost There and it was really amazing to see the Luckster performing these tracks in a live setting.
Jasiah
Dayton, Ohio native Jasiah brought his unrelenting energy to Chicago and I’d say the city welcomed him with open arms. Insanely energetic tracks such as “Crisis” or “Break Shit” are guaranteed to open up several mosh-pits and that’s exactly what happened throughout the Summer Smash weekend. Jasiah opened up for Ski Mask’s after-show at Concord so I was fortunate enough to catch an intimate set on Saturday evening to prepare me for the madness that’d ensue on Sunday of the Summer Smash. Jasiah commanded the main stage like a professional; although Jasiah is only 24, his stage presence feels confident and comfortable. His impressive setlist guaranteed fans a rambunctious time.
Pi’erre Bourne
Pi’erre’s set at Lenny’s Tent Stage was no doubt one of my favorites of the weekend simply because I hadn’t listened to his solo music much at all prior to his set. I’ve always been a huge fan of his production credits, especially alongside artists like Playboi Carti and Young Nudy, but for some odd reason, I never got around to his solo work. Pi’erre’s production style is undoubtedly one of my favorites and it’s no surprise that that style carries over to his solo efforts. Fitted with a full ‘Sossboy’ track-suit, Pi’erre ran through lots of his discography during his Sunday set, including “Switching Lanes” (feat. Playboi Carti) as well as “Poof”. Be sure to check out Pi’erre’s solo work if you haven’t yet… I’ve been listening to his ‘The Life of Pi’erre’ series quite a bit since Summer Smash and he provides a lot of addicting cuts across his discography.
$NOT
$NOT spent a lot of his daytime set on Sunday interacting with the crowd during hit songs like “GOSHA” and “BERETTA”. $NOT’s music is typically very melodic but there are countless hard-hitting moments across his discography. The contrasting mix between beautiful, melodic, and bass-booming production is a part of why $NOT’s music is so addicting and appealing to listen to. Like I mentioned earlier, Cochise popped out for $NOT’s set to perform “Tell Em” and they really turned it up. I’d highly recommend checking a $NOT show out if you ever have the chance.
Lil Yachty
I remember missing Yachty’s set at Lollapalooza a few years back so I was really excited to see his name on the bill when it dropped. His fan base is loyal and he’s got a lot of dope music, a lot of it perfect for a festival setting. Yachty first ran out for his hard-hitting track “Coffin” which immediately electrified the massive audience. Check out his Instagram post below to get a glimpse of his amazing entrance. The energy was top-notch throughout his set.
Frankie’s Picks:
Teezo Touchdown
Teezo Touchdown was included on my list of artists you should not miss at The Summer Smash this year, and he truly did not disappoint. The set began far past the scheduled time seemingly due to technical difficulties, and he really only performed three to four songs max. With all that being said he still was able to put on one of the most interesting sets I have ever seen in a festival setting, including theatrics that featured Teezo emerging in a tiger costume with a football coach commanding the crowd in various ways. The tracks I recall him performing were Mid, SUCKA!, and Social Cues in that order. The football coach character also brought a bedazzled football on stage and eventually tossed it into the crowd after incessant taunting. I was able to catch up with the lucky fan who caught it and caught a picture shown here below.
Yung Bans
I have always been a huge Yung Bans fan pretty much since his debut tape, and while I have this admiration for him and his music, he has been extremely dry in regards to musical output in the last couple years. I was able to catch him at the Jugrnaut pop-up that weekend and after asking about when we will receive new music he replied “ASAP,” so make what you will of that. As for his performance I think he did an excellent job of bringing energy to the stage, as well as bringing out a copious amount of guests on stage such as BabySantana, Slump6s and Ka$hdami. The energy of them all on stage together came across as really fun and the crowd was loving it.
City Morgue
I have been wanting to see City Morgue live for years now, and after their tour was canceled due to the pandemic, their set was one of my most anticipated. Their set was pushed back due to the downpour the festival received on the second day, and they ended up being placed on the smallest stage with conflicting times with Gunna and Lil Baby. I was surprised to see the large turnout they received and how dedicated the fans that popped out were; although to no one’s surprise they put on a wildly energetic set. They were able to put on a relatively lengthy set that featured all of their biggest hits such as DRAINO, 33rd Blakk Glass, SHINNERS13 etc. They recently announced their fall tour so you most definitely will be seeing me there.
Baby Keem
Baby Keem has been on my radar for quite a while now, and this was my first opportunity to see him live. His set featured pretty much every track off ‘DIE FOR MY BITCH’ as well as the singles he has released after the project. It’s crazy how meteoric his rise to fame has been the last few years. For example, he performed a show at Subterranean (Cap. 247) two years ago, now just over a week ago he had main stage placement at a festival in which everyone in the crowd was screaming every word to his songs. His performance itself was extremely lively. It’s always nice to see when an artist is able to match the energy their music perpetuates in a live music setting.
BKTHERULA
Prior to her performance I had only been familiar with tracks LEFT RIGHT and Tweakin’ Together, so I almost rode off her music as laid-back lo-fi hip hop. Evident from her performance I was completely wrong and she put on one of the rowdiest performances of the weekend. Tracks like Santanny and GANGO are quite abrasive, especially in a live scenario. She also made an appearance during Jasiah’s set making it clear she can rage.
SoFaygo
I have been extremely excited for SoFaygo’s future in this space and his Summer Smash performance only enhanced that feeling. I always found SoFaygo to be the biggest frontrunner for the new generation, and it seems that every new track he releases is a hit. You can definitely see his Travis Scott influence in his live performance, absolutely going wild on stage. He also sprinkled in some unreleased music during his set that I found to be really good. He finished his set with the track “Off The Map” which was definitely a crowd-pleaser.
Check out all three days of photo coverage below!
POD Photos: Summer Smash 2021 – Day 3
