Photo courtesy of Jack Gobbe
In the crowded Australian festival scene, Listen Out shines bright. After years of curating lineup after lineup of superb hip-hop and electronic talent, the festival had arguably its biggest lineup yet last year with the likes of Skrillex, A$AP Rocky, Skepta and Brockhampton.
With an undoubtedly hard year to follow, Listen Out have pulled together an unbelievable 2019 lineup that ultimately succeeds 2018 as a result of its distinct diverse edge. For a one day festival, Listen Out 2019 is stacked with artists that are both cutting edge and appealing to the masses.
The Lineup
If any artist embodies this fusion, it is headliner Flume. As the indisputable king of Australian electronic music, Flume’s recent mixtape proved that he can be just as avant-garde as he was commercially appeasing on his previously acclaimed record “Skin”. Schoolboy Q headlines the heavy-hitting hip-hop lineup, with the West-Coast rapper of the famed TDE collective bound to light up the stage with his beloved discography. Schoolboy Q is joined on the higher end of the lineup by 6LACK, the rapper/songwriter whose lo-fi tunes have turned the Atlanta native into one of hip-hop’s most successfully sombre heroes.
Photo courtesy of Kalina Melrose
Where the lineup really finds its breadth is in its curation of what is the next wave of hip-hop, particularly seen in the likes of Denzel Curry, Slowthai, and JPEGMAFIA. While all three of these artists are at varying levels of success, they share a common thread of pushing new sounds into the hip-hop zeitgeist. The result? Differing styles that are set to erupt on stage in front of Australian crowds. While fans witnessed the chaos that Denzel Curry delivered at Laneway earlier in the years, Slowthai and JPEGMAFIA are yet to set foot on Australian shores and will be prepared to unleash their individually abrasive styles to a signature rowdy Australian crowd.
On the electronic side of things, Diplo leads an otherwise local contingent made up of Cosmo’s Midnight, Malaa, Riton, Set Mo, Wafia and Young Franco. Similar to the hip-hop sector, each electronic artist aligns with different tastes, ensuring that the electronic stage will be switching it up every hour with some of Australia’s finest producers. Diplo’s presence isn’t unfelt either, the high-profile producer likely to close out the electronic stage with his beloved set of summer-house tunes. All in all, Listen Out have successfully programmed a diverse lineup with what are the two dominating genres in music today.
All About Balance
And therein lies the strength of this lineup, it is split evenly between both electronic and hip-hop. Listen Out treads the line perfectly between a festival that is genre(s)-specific without bordering too far into too much of a niche. On that note, while it is relevant to only two genres, Listen Out understands and utilises the diversity of these genres by curating artists that represent every different facet of this music.
Photo courtesy of Laura Brosnan
Collaborations
One such facet of hip-hop music today is the widespread collaboration between artists. Track features are now a vital component of the genre, a fascinating trend that the Listen Out promoters definitely had in mind while curating the lineup. Take one look at the lineup and collaborations immediately come to mind, whether that be between Flume and his mixtape collaborators Slowthai and JPEGMAFIA, or between Schoolboy Q and 6LACK on Q’s latest record. Go deeper and you’ll find Denzel Curry link with JPEGMAFIA, and even a menacing unreleased track from the perfect storm of Curry and Slowthai.
The success of having A$AP Rocky and Skepta join forces last festival for 2018 hit “Praise the Lord” undoubtedly prompted an focused attempt to bring together collaborating artists this time around. It is certainly something more festivals should consider, and Listen Out 2019 will prove this point to say the least.
Listen Out kicks off in Melbourne on 27th September before hitting Brisbane, Perth, Auckland, Sydney and Adelaide. Purchase your tickets and suss out the lineup for yourself here