GRAMMY-nominated US rapper Rick Ross will headline Durban’s second annual Youth Hip Hop Festival which, also featuring local talent, has been scheduled for the Moses Mabhida Stadium on May 2.
Ross, who performed in Cape Town in 2010 and Nelspruit in 2013, has not been to Durban before.
The festival plans to feature 20 acts this year, although none have been announced.
This is five more than featured at last year’s event, which attracted 6 000 people.
The organisers hope for 15 000 this time round.
“The festival will carry the slogan ‘I Do Right’, encouraging young people to always do the right thing.
Mayor James Nxumalo said: “Music is the best tool to reach youth. We hope to educate young people and also empower them to always make the right decision, even if nobody is watching.”
Rick Ross, 39, founded the record label Maybach Music Group in 2009 and went on to release the albums Deeper Than Rap (2009), Teflon Don (2010), the Grammy-nominated God Forgives, I Don’t (2012), Mastermind and Hood Billionaire (2014).
Named by MTV as “the hottest MC in the game” in 2012, he was the first act signed to Sean “Diddy” Combs’s management company, Ciroc Entertainment.
Ross made headlines early in 2009 for having started a feud with rapper 50 Cent because he supposedly looked at him the wrong way at the BET Awards.
Wikipedia states that Ross’s song, Mafia Music, which was leaked on to the internet, featured lines that seemed to take a swipe at 50 Cent, who then released Officer Ricky (Go Head, Try Me).
The Mercury