RiverBeat, year two, Tom Lee Park in Memphis, May 2–4. Mempho Fest people behind it. Fifty-plus artists, five stages, food trucks, a ferris wheel on the river. Friday it rained and the field turned to soup. Shoes were a casualty.
Steve Aoki threw cake. Of course he did. Busta and Spliff Star in red and white ran a 40-minute set that still had punch. Ludacris in a vintage Vince Carter Grizzlies jersey went about 20 songs — Stand Up, Southern Hospitality, My Chick Bad — a victory lap with the movie clips behind him.
Then Missy. Orion stage, futuristic armor, Work It, The Rain, Cool Off. She brought the dancers forward at the end and named them. That is the part that sticks. Memphis watching Missy by the river is not a novelty. It is the city remembering itself.
Anderson .Paak was on this bill. The weekend had that kind of density. Muddy, loud, Black, worth it. Lawn chairs and the ferris wheel at night. Festival as backyard, if the backyard books Missy.
Mud, Missy, a ferris wheel on the river. Year two already had a personality. Luda in a Grizzlies jersey and Missy naming the dancers is the Memphis of it. The shoes did not survive. The weekend did.
