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Recap: TuneCore at the 2016 Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival

July 22, 2016

The borough of Brooklyn and the genre of hip hop are two things that we here at TuneCore have a whole lot of love for. So when we were invited to participate in the 2016 Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival, you can bet we were all over it.

Celebrating it’s 12th year in a row, the multi-faceted festival takes place over four days, with the daily events being The Hip Hop Institute, The Dummy Clap Film Festival, The Juice Hip Hop Exhibition, and closes out with a big bang at the Finale Concert. This year’s Finale included Nas (featuring the Soul Rebels), Rhapsody, Fabolous, Talib Kweli and others.

Brooklyn Hip Hop Fest

Our Senior Director of Artist Relations Chris Mooney was invited to sit on the panel alongside Ibrahim H. ( Dreamville Records) and Hovain (Troy Ave’s Manager) to talk “Independence in Hip Hop” at Medgar Evers College. Moderated by Wes Jackson (Brooklyn Bodega – presenters of the festival), the panelists discussed and  answered questions about music career foundations, getting your music featured in stores and placed on playlists, and at times, TuneCore.

It was an honor to be able to connect with a crowd full of talented up-and-coming artists, producers and entrepreneurs right in our backyard.

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To make the music distribution circle complete, we went from hanging with artists to hanging with one of our awesome digital store partners. On Saturday, TuneCore staff were helping to hold down the Tidal Tent at Brooklyn Bridge Park from 11am through the last song performed onstage.

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Despite a brief rain scare, the day was gorgeous and hip hop fans were everywhere. TuneCore Artist Taylor Bennett was rocking in the St. Ann’s Warehouse and the main stage was bringing the heat, showcasing artists like Rhapsody and Rob Swift. By the time Talib was set to perform, a good sized crowd had packed the fest.

Native Fabolous was showing love the Brooklyn way, bringing up guests like Smiff n Wessun, and Nas capped off the evening perfectly with the amazing Soul Rebels backing him up. To top it off, Tidal was streaming the whole thing live online.

Positive vibes, great food, and amazing hip hop – classic and fresh – made for a pretty epic blowout. A big thanks to the festival’s organizers and Brooklyn Bodega, as well as our friends at Tidal – it was definitely a highlight of our summer.

We’re already excited for next year. Take a look at some pics snapped by TuneCore staffers below.

Tags: 2016 brooklyn brooklyn hip hop fest fabolous featuring Hip Hop indie Nas rhapsody soul rebels talib kweli tunecore