This year, the Harlem music festival documented in Questlove’s directorial debut Summer Of Soul is returning and will actually be a year-long affair celebrating the history and culture of the New York neighborhood and its influence. While the Harlem Festival Of Culture will mostly take place in July, a series of related events will kick off this month with a concert at the legendary Apollo Theater headlined by rap icon Lil Kim.
The Jump Off With Lil Kim And Friends is billed for January 26, which is incidentally the Apollo’s 89th anniversary. Yvonne McNair, the Harlem Festival Of Culture’s co-founder and talent producer, said in a statement, “As we prepared to start on this road to the launch of the festival, we realized that this was also a milestone year for hip-hop and knew that our first major event out of the gate had to be special and center around hip-hop and R&B.”
“One of the tenets of HFC’s mission is to celebrate and preserve the cultural contributions of the Black Diaspora in music, media, art, fashion, and entertainment. Hip-hop culture has touched every single part of society, and there is no artist that better represents its far-reaching impact than Lil Kim. We’re so thrilled that Kim will help us curate the evening to bring a full, one-of-a-kind music experience to audiences in the city where it all began. We’re also excited to launch this event and our festival journey with our partners.”
“Apollo was like my backyard,” said Kim herself. “I played there so much and every time it was always love. The crowd is always amazing!”
Over the past year, Kim’s influence has become more apparent than ever, as successors to her raunchy rap legacy like Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion talked about collaborating with her, and even Nicki Minaj acknowledged her impact.