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 — 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 I keep. 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. I can do the day-by-day if you want the notes. The feeling was: muddy, loud, Black, worth it.
I kept coming back to the lawn chairs and the ferris wheel at night. Festival as backyard, if your backyard books Missy.
