It’s rare to see a hip-hop focused festival beyond the Rolling Loud franchise, especially in Chicago, but the niche is working for SS. The brand’s blog continues to spotlight upcoming and unsigned artists, a vital curator for a generation of hip-hop that begins with the “Soundcloud rap” wave immortalized in XXL’s 2016 Freshman Class. Lyrical Lemonade has built a dedicated fanbase thanks to Bennett’s distinctive neon animation flourishes and ear for young talent the 25-year-old videographer filmed the clip for Juice WRLD’s breakout hit “Lucid Dreams” and has kept launching stars since. Last weekend was the third installment of Summer Smash in Chicago’s Douglass Park, a festival co-owned by Cole Bennett’s music video company and brand Lyrical Lemonade and Berto Solorio’s promotion company SPKRBX. Or, to quote a beloved Gen Z children’s song, “My world’s on fire, how about yours? That’s the way I like it and I never get bored.” Yes Virginia, they do sell edibles here. Summer Smash understands the ethos of its college-aged target market, smuggling gray market vape cartridges in their Vlone tees and Perc 30 basketball jerseys: Things are bad, let’s rage while we can. The second thing I saw was a kid with a patchy goatee exclaim “They sell edibles here?” at the sight of delta8 joints and brownies for sale at one of the vendor tents. The first thing I saw inside the gates of the Lyrical Lemonade Summer Smash was a memorial: a painted mural of Squeak PIVOT, Juice WRLD, and King Von, three musicians with little in common besides their city of origin and their untimely deaths.
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