At the intersection of 615 Day 2023 and Juneteenth Weekend lies the inaugural Blavity House Party. Holsted by Blavity Media Group, the new festival took over Nashville, Tennessee, on June 14 and 15, treating locals and travelers alike to two nights of fiery performances in celebration of Juneteenth and Black Music Month.
Hosted by Zack Fox, Bridget Kelly and Mani Millss, Blavity House Party boasted a slew of performers across the myriad genres of the Black diaspora, including Monica, Rick Ross, K. Michelle, Dru Hill, Uncle Waffles, Blxst, Ryan Leslie, Leon Thomas, Big Freedia, Freeway, Lil’ Mo, Travis Porter, Reyna Roberts, Nesta, Domani and more. In addition to the two performance stages (one outside and one inside Music City’s storied Municipal Auditorium), the patio hosted a bevy of local Black-owned businesses for festivalgoers to support.
The festival’s opening day got off to a semi-sanctified start with a rousing performance from Sainted Trap Choir. With a tight choreography and tighter arrangements, the choir ripped through a medley that combined both secular and pop hits, including Travis Porter’s “Make It Rain,” Victoria Monét’s “On My Mama,” Tyla’s “Water” and Kirk Franklin’s “Melodies from Heaven.” Big Freedia kept the energy high with a NOLA-exalting bounce set that featured endless twerking and racy fellatio demonstrations from her backup dancers, while Grammy-winning R&B singer-songwriter Leon Thomas enraptured the audience with his honeyed vocals and impressive guitar skills.
Despite strong performances from day one’s performers, the meager audience turnout was impossible to ignore. As the day went on, the floor started to fill up, with legendary R&B group Dru Hill drawing the most passionate crowd of the night. Celebrating more than 25 years of hits, Sisqó led his fellow group members in impressive renditions of timeless hits like “Tell Me” and “In My Bed,” flaunting the power of their live vocals and pristine harmonies. With their set, Dru Hill was able to capture lightning in a bottle and truly make Blavity House Party feel like a must-see festival. Nonetheless, that energy quickly dissipated as the crowd waited anxiously for Lil Wayne — who was scheduled as the night’s headliner — just for the “A Milli” rapper to ghost the festival, providing no reason for his absence.
In an effort to make up for the last-minute disappointment of day one, Blavity House Party packed on several additional performers for the festival’s second day, including Lil Scrappy, Rick Ross and Tennessee native K. Michelle. Standout performers from day two included outlaw country princess Reyna Roberts — who put on a blazing show to match her red-hot hair — and hip-hop trio Travis Porter, who have provided a timeless soundtrack to Black house parties for nearly 15 years and counting. Lil Scrappy, something of a musical forefather to Travis Porter, also lit up the auditorium with lively performances of ’00s classics such as “Head Bussa” and “Neva Eva.”
Clearly an eleventh-hour addition, K. Michelle breezed through a six-minute set that included renditions of “Can’t Raise a Man” and “V.S.O.P.” Curiously, the chart-topping R&B star did not perform any of her country songs, though she did confirm that her long-awaited country album is still on the way. Headliner Monica took fans down memory lane with a set that spurred mass sing-alongs to some of her most beloved tracks, such as “So Gone” and “Before You Walk Out of My Life.”
Once again, the show threatened to fly off the rails near the end of the night. Rick Ross’ music was shockingly cut short about six songs into his set. After requesting his DJ drop the next track, silence ensued. The DJ continued to press buttons to figure out the situation, but within the next seven minutes, Ricky Rozay had given away a bottle of Belaire champagne, threw on his backpack, and exited the stage for good, making for a sudden and unforgettable end to the inaugural Blavity House Party.
Here are the six best moments from Blavity House Party 2024.
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Leon Thomas Mounts Swoonworthy Set
From starring alongside Ariana Grande on Victorious to winning Grammys with SZA and Babyface, Leon Thomas has been captivating audiences for his entire career. With his Blavity Hosue Fest debut, Thomas turned up the heat with a sensual set mostly comprised of selections from his acclaimed debut LP, Electric Dusk. With his malleable vocals ripping through mind-bending riffs and his instrumental skills on full display with his guitar, Thomas helped set the R&B tone for the night ahead of Dru Hill’s set, reminding everyone that this is the genre for the true lovers.
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Reyna Roberts Sets the Stage Ablaze
Reyna Roberts has been riding high all year since the release of Beyoncé‘s culture-rocking Cowboy Carter LP. The outlaw country princess may have lent her vocals to two Cowboy Carter tracks, the Billboard Hot 100 hits “Blackbiird” (No. 27) and “Tyrant” (No. 44), but her Blavity House Party set was all about her own music.
Ripping through spirited renditions of “Raised Right,” “Lawless” and “Louisiana,” Roberts packed on the pyrotechnics as she strutted up and down the stage with the sensual swagger of Queen Bey herself. Decked out in a bedazzled black leotard and cowboy hat, Roberts took advantage of the small crowd and opted for a more intimate approach midway through her set. For “Lousiana,” she took a seat on the side of the stage and sang exclusively to the left side of the crowd, showing off both her bombastic vocals and effortless charisma.
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Big Freedia Turns Nashville Into NOLA
Whether there are 10 people in the audience or 10,000, Big Freedia is always going to blow the roof off the venue. Although she hit the stage fairly early in the day, the Queen Diva delivered the festival’s most consistently high-octane set, as she transported Music City to New Orleans, the bounce capital of the world.
Flanked by a quartet of dancers championing different Black regional dance styles — tripping out, twerking, bucking, oh my! — Freedia’s booming voice echoed across the venue, beckoning each audience member to dance as hard as possible. Rolling through notable bounce cuts like “Y’all Get Back Now” and “N.O. Bounce,” Freedia truly held it down for Louisiana — a moment that only felt more important in the wake of Lil Wayne’s no-show.
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Rick Ross Plays Last-Minute Hero & Villain
Rick Ross has been the year’s biggest troll since he entered the Future/Metro Boomin/Kendrick Lamar vs. Drake beef, and for a moment, it looked like he was going to troll the Blavity House Party audience, too.
Despite being a late addition to the festival, Ross’ set came complete with flashy visuals and interludes, as well as a white bottle of Belaire champagne his team gifted an audience member shortly before he suddenly wrapped his set. Kicking things off with “I’m a Boss” before launching into unaccompanied hits like “B.M.F.” and “I’m Not a Star,” Ricky Rozay kept the crowd rocking as he recited his verses while donning a white two-piece Balenciaga set.
In typical troll fashion, Ross didn’t skip over his myriad Drake collaborations. Instead, the 6 God’s voice rang out across the auditorium during Ross’ performances of “I’m on One,” “Aston Martin Music” and “Diced Pineapples.” What can you say, a hit is a hit!
While Ross might have put on his superhero cape to save the rep of topline mainstream rappers at the festival, he did stumble into his villain era when he abruptly left the stage after his music was seemingly cut off by the powers that be, effectively ending the festival on a particularly sour note.
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Lil’ Mo Brings the House Down
The real ones love Lil’ Mo, and the Blavity House Party audience was filled with real ones. The Grammy-nominated, Billboard chart-topping R&B star sang the roof off of Nashville’s Municipal Auditorium, delivering the festival’s most impressive vocal performance outside of Dru Hill — and she did it completely solo.
In addition to treating the crowd to near-flawless renditions of “Superwoman Pt. II,” “I Cry” and “1st Time,” Lil’ Mo also took a page out of Beyoncé’s book and incorporated some current hits into her set. The New York singer-songwriter blended SZA’s “Snooze,” Tinashe’s “Nasty,” Lil Uzi Vert’s “Just Wanna Rock” and TiTom and Yuppe’s “Tshwala Bam” into her set, showing off her dance skills and natural magnetism in the process.
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Dru Hill Smashes 25th Anniversary Celebration
If Lil’ Mo satisfied the crowd’s craving for some good ole flat-footed singing on day two, Dru Hill did the same on day one. The R&B trio’s endlessly impressive set was less of a nostalgia-streaked trip down memory lane and more of a reminder that they are of the last generation to truly prioritize the foundational elements of showmanship and live performance.
With plenty of a cappella moments to remind the audience, in Sisqó’s own words, that “these mics are on,” Dru Hill also incorporated classic choreography from their music videos and stellar solo showcases for each of its members. Of course, Sisqó drew the most excited crowd response with his solo material — he unsurprisingly opted for “Thong Song” and DMX’s “What These B—-es Want” — but Jazz had the most enrapturing solo set of the night. The vocal powerhouse killed the lead vocal on “Never Make a Promise,” riffing to high heaven, sweat be damned.
Jazz’s spirited performance raised the bar for the rest of the guys’ solo moments, with Scola belting for his life on “I Love You” and Smoke delivering a sultry, range-traversing cover of D’Angelo’s seminal “Untitled.” When a group has a catalog filled with timeless hits like “Tell Me,” “In My Bed” and “We’re Not Making Love No More,” very little can go wrong on the performance front. But when you have voices like Dru Hill’s at the helm, you’re in for 40 minutes of the kind of singing we don’t get to hear in the mainstream that often nowadays — and how welcome and glorious it is.
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