Face The East
Lil Brown’s Bar
Tulsa
June 18 – 19, 2024
Everybody thinks of the north side when they think about Tulsa hip-hop. But it’s a little known fact that some of the city’s best rappers come from the east. Many landmarks of east Tulsa (Eastland Mall, Ryan’s Buffet, the Dollar Movie, Casa Bonita) have become distant memories. But the hip-hop being created there has never faded — and new memories are being built there every day.
Da’juan Dupri is hoping to create the next eastside landmark with his Juneteenth festival called Face The East. In its first year, the event took shape as a jam-packed two-day music festival, ending on the actual day of Juneteenth, at Lil Brown’s Bar, about two miles east of the Admiral Twin Drive-In. Nestled between a biker’s club and a car wash, nothing immediately announced this as the site of a hip-hop festival, but the vendor booths, the tall standing speakers, and the crowd of people surrounding the stage let you know you were in the right place. Three DJs kicked off the event: DJ Indigo, bravely spinning records through the hottest parts of the day, then local favorite dj noname., and lastly DJ Kut Lee, who scratched and blended actual vinyl records as if he were Bruce Lee cutting through water.
Leading an event like this comes easily for festival creator Dupri, who has been rocking local shows lately as a performer. He’s created connections with many local artists and was able to pull in some amazing acts for this inaugural event, from Tulsans like Parris Chariz (who took the stage with an all-too-cool persona) to Arkansas artists LeaKe and Avian Alia, who drove almost two hours to perform in front of a new crowd. “31st and Garnett where I learned how to walk, yeah I was in the Creek when the Meadows had parks” — lines like these are sprinkled throughout Dupri’s catalog of music, with details only a true east Tulsan would know. He’s been an avid champion of this part of town, along with Yung Qwan and JediahKO: three eastside Kings who have helped change the narrative that there was no hip-hop coming out of east Tulsa.
Face the East continued Yung Qwan’s resurgence — this time with longer hair and a cockiness that let you know that he’s back — building on his performance at Eastie Boyz, another recent event that turned attention to this side of town. As for JediahKO, he’s the wildcard of the east side. His performances draw you in as if he’s rapping directly to you: sometimes there’s a lesson, and other times it’s his perspective. Then there’s Dupri himself, who had the tall order of managing the acts as well as being the MC. He performed on two guest verses, but I wish he would have given himself a set. Dupri’s performances are second to none and it was the small exclamation point missing from the festival. It’s like J. Cole not performing at Dreamville. Of course, we love seeing the other acts on the bill, but we’re also here to see J. Cole. It’s the same with Dupri.
Avian Alia. Remember this name. Remember I told you first. This amazing female rapper from Arkansas had a flow and delivery so commanding that she could’ve said that the sky was purple when it wasn’t and we would’ve believed her. The crowd devoured every line. Her words made Plato’s Republic seem like a nursery rhyme.
Alia was only one of the women who blew the Face The East audience away, reflecting female artists’ growing dominance in hip-hop. Kendra Mars closed out the night with a live band; her set included multiple covers, and although The Beatles’ “Come Together” is a great song, I was kind of disappointed because I feel like we came to hear original music. But then Bambi performed a crowd-pleasing remix to Jay‑Z’s “Big Pimpin’” and I gave up all objections. Madame Zeroni isn’t a rapper, but she stood on her own. During her performance her voice rose to a crescendo that was executed so effortlessly and unfairly — as if Angel Reese were defending a third-grader’s shot.
Face The East: A festival that’s bringing back hip-hop pride to the east side of Tulsa. For the first year to be this good, with over 20 artists performing, I can only imagine what it will grow into in the next three to four years. Maybe they’ll bring in a Ferris wheel, maybe there’ll be multiple locations, or maybe big acts from out of town. The only sure thing is that it will draw all eyes to the east.
