On Day 1 of Made in America, ‘All the music is in Philadelphia this weekend’

Made in America returned to Philadelphia on Saturday, with the Jay-Z-curated festival bringing 35,000 hip-hop fans to the Ben Franklin Parkway for the first of two days of rappers and R&B stars holding forth in what has become an end-of-summer rite of passage.

Tyler, the Creator, the Los Angeles rapper-producer who played the very first version of the festival in 2012, when he was the enfant terrible leader of the controversial (and wildly talented) Odd Future collective, closed the first day of the 2022 festival as the headliner. He hit the Rocky stage in shorts, a down jacket and his trademark Ushanka hat with the explosive “Corso,” from last year’s Grammy winning album “Call Me If You Get Lost.”

His growth as both a conceptualist and as a rapper was evident throughout the set, both in its creative visual presentation and in the emotional intensity of songs like “Come On, Let’s Go.” Musically, his newer songs can be thundering and frenzied or display a light and breezy touch, as the lyrics move from the frivolous to the deadly serious.

His main support acts were two Philadelphians: Jazmine Sullivan, who opened her set with a bang with her 2008 hit “Bust Your Windows,” and Lil Uzi Vert who delivered a high-energy set complete with pyrotechnics after announcing, “I hope you’re all ready to rage because I’m ready to lose my mind.”

The fest drew big crowds throughout the day to the fenced-off site extending from the Philadelphia Museum of Art steps, particularly in front of the fest’s two main Rocky and Liberty stages.

Rappers Pusha-T and JID and indie electronica artist Toro Y Moi played while marijuana smoke wafted through the air among a diverse crowd made up of mostly high school and college-age fans, many of whom wore some version of the red, white, and blue Made in America uniform.

Despite the afternoon heat, many fans also accessorized with white Russian ear-flap Ushanka hats, mimicking the look Tyler, the Creator wears on his Grammy-winning “Call Me If You Get Lost” album cover.

A much larger crowd is anticipated on Sunday, when global superstar Bad Bunny is the headliner, and an international cast of acts is set to perform, including Nigerian pop star Burna Boy and Persian-Swedish R&B singer Snoh Aalegra.

» READ MORE: Everything you need to know about the 2022 Made in America Festival

Day 1 kicked off with a set by singer-songwriter Dixson, who addressed a ready-to-party crowd by announcing, “You might not know me, but you know my music.”

Dixson, who lives in Los Angeles and was born Darius Scott, has written for Chance the Rapper, Justin Bieber, and Beyoncé, with whom he cowrote “Be Alive,” the Oscar-nominated song from the Williams sisters tennis movie King Richard, as well as two songs on her new album, Renaissance.

But singing over a backing track and playing acoustic guitar, Dixson’s short, sweet, crowd-pleasing set, which closed with his risqué new single “Cherry Sorbet,” suggested he’s got a bright future in front of the mic as well as behind the scenes.

Made in America has evolved from a true multigenre festival with plenty of rock and EDM to an almost entirely hip-hop and R&B gathering. But along with the marquee acts that bring in the big crowds, there’s still room for experimentation and variation.

» READ MORE: See inside Bad Bunny's sold out El Último Tour del Mundo in Philly

Case in point on a Saturday afternoon was Toro Y Moi, the indie electronic San Francisco Bay Area band led by Chazwick Bundrick, now known as Chaz Bear. The largest crowd of the day so far gathered on the fest’s north side at the Liberty Stage, where Bundrick teamed with a guitarist and two other programmers, creating enticing psychedelic disco soundscapes that got the mellowed-out audience moving.

“All the music is in Philadelphia this weekend,” Bear said, as he eased into songs that aimed to find a balance between mind-expanding exploration and more practical concerns from his 2022 album, Mahal. “Woo woo woo,” he sang. “It’s just another world to get a grip on and hold on to.”

Performing on the Freedom Stage after Dixson was Zah Sosaa, the rising Philadelphia rapper who had a gathering crowd jumping.

» READ MORE: Philly’s Made in America festival makes the city a top Airbnb destination for Labor Day

“Of all the new North Philly rappers, he’s one of the most interesting,” said Brady Ettinger, 31, of Fishtown, leaning against a tree to get relief from the sun beating down on the Ben Franklin Parkway blacktop.

Ettinger was taking a break from working the School District of Philadelphia’s booth in Made in America’s Cause Village, where Headcount, Black Voters Matter, and Meet Milo’s criminal Justice group Reform also had booths.

“All music festivals are big, messy, chaotic events,” said Ettinger. “But the bookings at this one this year are pretty keen.”

Ettinger, who holds down a Thursday night residency in the listening room at LMNO in Kensington as DJ Sylo, cited the one-two closing punch on Sunday of Bad Bunny (“He’s the biggest act in the world”) and Nigerian pop star Burna Boy, whose song “Last Last” is “one of the songs of the summer.”

At the School District’s booth, Frank Machos, the city’s executive director of the Arts & Creative Learning, on a pair of turntables was guiding people interested in learning how to DJ. “We’re showing people some of the musical technology equipment we have in some of our newer programs,” he said, as well as taking donations for the Fund of the School District of Philadelphia.

Ettinger said he had been to MIA three or four times before, and had particularly fond memories of seeing Run-DMC in 2012. This year, he said escalating gun violence in the city and the panic that caused evacuation of the Parkway on July 4, “was in the back of my mind” as he considered attending the festival this year, but “not enough to keep me from coming.”

“The only thing that worries me was if something did happen and if all these kids would panic because they wouldn’t know what to do,” Ettinger said, gesturing to the mostly high school and college-aged festival goers hurrying by in short shorts and Sixers jerseys.

However, the event proceeded without incident.

It wouldn’t feel like a real Made in America without Pusha-T. It seems like the Virginia rapper who came to fame with his brother No Malice in the hip-hop duo Clipse, plays the Labor Day weekend festival in Philadelphia every year, though this is in fact only his fourth MIA.

On Saturday, Pusha commanded the Rocky stage in the 6 o’clock hour, just as sun was starting to sink low to the west of the west Art Museum steps. Dressed in black shorts and a yellow Hawaiian short with a silver medallion around his neck, Pusha delivered no frills precisely enunciated fundamentals suitable for fans who’ve had enough of mumble rappers.

Made in America landed the hot rapper of the minute in JID, the Atlanta MC born Destin Choice Route, who showcased his stuff at 5 o’clock at the increasingly packed Liberty stage. Working with just a DJ as he worked the crowd moving about in black pants and a white sleeveless T-shirt, the rapid-fire rhymer kept it simple and instructive, pulling from his much buzzed about new album, The Forever Story.

That collection, which came out Aug. 26, is a clear contender for hip-hop album of the year and is bringing him a large audience and seeing to it that he’ll no longer be known as an underrated rapper.

On the Liberty Stage, JID jacked up the crowd while demonstrating a variety of intricate rapid fire and stutter step flows on the mic, and showed himself to be a student of history, letting samples of classics by A Tribe Called Quest, Helen Merrill, and Aretha Franklin play before he started.

Jazmine Sullivan, who grew up in Strawberry Mansion, not far from the stage on which she performed, followed her “Bust Your Windows” by shifting her focus to Heaux Tales, with a tour de force performance that sounded terrific as September evening turned cooler. She made every soaring vocal or expertly executors swoop or trill leans hit an emotional sweet spot.

At the beginning of her set, she thanked her local fans profusely and said that the city “just gave me the Liberty Bell backstage.” Presumably it wasn’t the actual Liberty Bell, but whatever the honor, she deserved it.

At end of the night, Tyler, the Creator earned kudos for his stage patter. Early on, he introduced himself: “My name is Tyler, and I execute ideas for a living.” Sitting at the lip of the stage, he rapped: “Philly Philly, where I am from,” quoting a 1999 duet between Eve and Beanie Sigel that he said was his first exposure to Philadelphia.

“The art and the music that comes from your city is magical,” he said.