Bad Bunny; Tyler, the Creator; and 10 other acts to see at Made in America 2022

Made in America will return to Philadelphia for the 10th time this year, with Jay-Z’s music festival again taking over the Benjamin Franklin Parkway for two days on Labor Day weekend.

This year, the festival that debuted in 2012 — and took 2020 off because of the COVID-19 pandemic — will go off on Sept. 3 and 4 with a pair of compelling, heavy-hitting headliners playing the Rocky Stage in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Saturday night’s bill is topped by Tyler, the Creator, the California rapper and producer who won a best rap album Grammy for his 2021 Call Me If You Get Lost.

» READ MORE: Made in America performer set times

The artist, whose given name is Tyler Okonma, and whose latest alias is Tyler Baudelaire, is returning to Made In America for the first time in a decade.

In 2012 he played the first incarnation of the fest as the leader of Odd Future, the talented ensemble that included Frank Ocean, Earl Sweatshirt, and Syd. Tyler, the Creator’s Saturday night set is likely to demonstrate how much he’s grown musically since then.

Sunday night’s festival closer is an even bigger deal. It’s Bad Bunny, the Puerto Rican reggaeton and trap music rapper and singer whose new Un Verano Sin Ti is the most streamed album of 2022.

He’s also a movie star. Bad Bunny has a featured role alongside Brad Pitt in the action-comedy Bullet Train, and, credited under his full name of Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, will play the title character — a wrestler with superhuman strength — in the Spider-Man related Marvel movie El Muerto, due out in 2024.

Bad Bunny’s presence ensures that MIA22 — which has a capacity of 50,000 per day — will be a box office success. Before he arrives in Philadelphia on what is being billed as “The World’s Hottest Tour,” he’s playing two shows each at Yankee Stadium in New York and Minute Maid Park in Houston, venues whose capacity is roughly the same as Made in America’s.

On Sunday, he will top a bill with strong international representation. Acts on the undercard that day include Nigerian pop star Burna Boy, Persian-Swedish R&B singer Snoh Aalegra and Dominican rapper Chimbala.

Here are my 10 acts to see on the Rocky, Liberty, and Freedom stages at MIA22 who aren’t named Tyler or Bad Bunny. And of course, keep an eye out for Jay-Z and Beyoncé. It’s her birthday on Sunday, and where better to spend it than Philadelphia?

Philly soul and R&B singer Jazmine Sullivan, who was raised in Strawberry Mansion, is taking a deserved victory lap. Last year, her album Heaux Tales was among the year’s best, topping critics polls at Pitchfork and NPR. The virtuoso vocalist played a sold-out show at the Met this year, was a showstopper at Roots Picnic, and now will command the stage on Saturday night at Made In America.

» READ MORE: Jazmine Sullivan brings ‘Heaux Tales’ home to the Met Philly

If you think Philadelphia’s most popular rapper is Meek Mill, think again. Made In America regular Lil Uzi Vert — whose 2017 hit “XO Tour Llif3″ has been streamed on Spotify 1.7 billion times — holds that title. The emo-mumble rapper impressed mightily with the 2020 album Eternal Atake, and his 2016 MIA performance took place more in the crowd than on stage. He also played a surprise guest set with Nicki Minaj in 2018.

The former coleader of Virginia rap duo The Clipse is another MIA frequent flier. He played the festival in 2017 and 2018. The rapper’s rapper is again on top of this game on his new album It’s Almost Dry, which, intriguingly for those who might want to speculate about unannounced guest appearances, features cameos by Kanye West and Jay-Z.

Made in America used to have a significant indie-rock component. Japanese Breakfast, Alex G, and Strand of Oaks once played this festival. Artsy and strange exists at MIA 2022 in the form of Toro Y Moi, the stage name of the producer and singer born Chaz Bundick, now Chaz Bear. The artist poses on the cover of his new album Mahal with a Jeepney, a vehicle that nods to his Filipino heritage, and the album is fashioned as a woozy, trippy, melodically inviting road trip.

The 22-year-old Memphis rapper born Gloria Woods rocketed from obscurity to the top of the charts with “F.N.F. (Let’s Go).” Her hit song with producer Hitkidd puts a Southern rap spin on the drill style of hip-hop while letting a series of boys know how useless they are. The young Made in America crowd is sure to be locked in and keyed up for her Philadelphia debut.

Burna Boy is a global pop star moving closer to household name recognition in the U.S. In 2020, the pop star born Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu was a standout at Lady Gaga’s One World: Together at Home COVID benefit. This year, he became the first Nigerian act to sell out Madison Square Garden. Made in America is the natural next step for the star who calls his blend of African rhythms, Western pop, and hip-hop Afro-fusion. His confessional new album, Love, Damini is easing the way.

Los Angeles-based singer Snoh Aalegra is Swedish and of Persian descent, and makes music that reflects her status as a citizen of the world. She was mentored by Prince in the last years of his life, and her slinky, smoky music has earned comparisons to Sade. Last year’s Temporary Highs in the Violet Skies includes two featured performances by Tyler, the Creator.

This quartet from the Sinaloa region of Mexico is now based in Los Angeles. They’re at the forefront of the urban corrida movement. Fronted by singer Jesus Oritz Paz, the band updating Mexican corridos with a high energy approach that sticks to traditional instrumentation, including tuba and a 12-string requinto guitar.

This four man hip-hop crew from Los Angeles has a throwback style that looks back to Golden Age of ‘90s acts like Eric B. & Rakim and A Tribe Called Quest. Ras and Taj Austin — twin sons of West Coast rapper Ras Kass — are joined by Colombia-born Rio Loz and Eric Jamal, a Philly transplant. The group made their first splash with the title song to the 2020 movie Queen & Slim and their album Apt. 505, came out this spring.

West Philly rapper Armani White played Made in America in 2018, the summer he scored a hit with “Public School,” a song about trying to avoid the mistakes his father made. Now he’s back and has a another hit, this time with “Billie Eilish,” a celebration of the alt-pop star’s “big T-shirt” fashion sense. The track samples N.O.R.E.’s 2002 hit “Nothin’” and has attained such a level of virality that Eagles enemy Tom Brady used it for the soundtrack of an Instagram post this month.