Second annual Hillmatic concert to show hip-hop

It’s time for hip-hop on the Hill.

The 2nd annual Hillmatic concert will be on Saturday night at Local 506 to celebrate the hip-hop culture of Chapel Hill.

The event features headliners Camp Lo and A$AP Ty, who is a producer for A$AP Rocky, as well as artists (J) Rowdy and the NightShift, Kaze, Defacto Thezpian, FLUent, C. SHREVE FTO and many more.

Doors for the event open at 4 p.m. and will remain open until 2 a.m. In addition to showcasing prominent hip-hop artists from the area, the night will introduce up-and-coming artists as well.

Freedom J. Smith, who performs under the stage name Freedom Infinite, will be performing at Hillmatic with Dean Smiff, a fellow artist and friend. Smith said he wanted to be a part of the event as soon as he heard about it because the hip-hop culture of the city deserves to be embraced.

“It’s going to be a mixture of old school hip-hop and new school hip-hop,” Smith said. “It is going to be just like watching the Tar Heels just win the championship.”

Josh Rowsey, a UNC graduate and founder of the Pit Cypher, was the original curator of Hillmatic.

He started the event by working with Local 506 and Kaze to create a hip-hop festival on Chapel Hill’s side of the Triangle.

Under his stage name (J) Rowdy, Rowsey will be performing in Saturday’s event to help show the community the power of hip-hop.

He said he hopes the event will inspire people to understand the influential role that music can play in a person’s life.

“Understanding hip-hop culture is to understand where pop culture is,” Rowsey said. “To really figure out where the scene is, who has the voice and what people are speaking on is definitely integral to truly understanding where we’re at as a society. Hip-hop is usually the outlet that speaks the most truth and each city has its own sort of truth to be spoken.”

Last year’s Hillmatic was the first event to solely recognize the hip-hop community that exists in Chapel Hill. By laying a foundation for hip-hop in the area, the event inspired more local artists to be a part of the scene this year.

The main goal of the event this year is to prove that Chapel Hill has a strong, powerful hip-hop presence.

Another artist that will be performing is hip-hop entertainer The Real Laww, whose real name is Johnathan Lawrence Harmon. He said the event should be a fun and entertaining experience for people who appreciate the power of music and that they are expecting a great turnout.

“Music connects everything, especially in the area,” he said.

“Music is what’s trending now and what has been trending forever. It’s just a way of life.”

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