Exactly 150 years ago, President Abraham Lincoln delivered an address unto the American people (although it's historically accepted that Secretary of State William H. Seward wrote it) calling upon the citizens of the United States to take the last Thursday of every November as a day of reflection and gratitude.
We here at Crossfade think Honest Abe had a good point. And sure, we tend to harp about things we don't like. But today, we're going to take a step back and talk about all the awesome things that make Miami one of the best places in the world for music.
Let us give thanks.
See also: Miami's 50 Best Bands of All Time
World-Class Nightlife
Let's get the obvious out the way - we are party central, baby. The whole world is looking at us, figuratively and literally. On TV, where do people go to party? Okay, Vegas sometimes, but tropical paradise trumps constant gambling and fat Elvis. From downtown to midtown, South Beach to Wynwood, the 305 reps some of the swankiest, classiest, grittiest, hip bars and clubs in the nation. We go 24-hours up in this bitch. Whatever kinda party you want to go to, we gotchu. That is some rare shit.
See also: South Beach's Ten Best Dance Clubs
Amazing History
Where else in the world can you claim Booty Bass? Uh, that's right, nowhere. We are the damn Cradle of Bass, bro. How great is Trick Daddy? He's Miami. Mr. 305 went Worldwide. Trina. Ricky Rozay. DJ Khaled - shit, DJ Laz! Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine. 2. Live. Crew. We're not even going to keep dignifying this list, we could go on forever. We're lucky to benefit from a wide range of cultural influences as well. We've got to be the best place in the country for music lovers seeking Latin and Caribbean rhythms. You can go out and listen to jazz, folk, blues, country, rock, pop, hip-hop, dance music - literally anything almost any time of the year. We are the cornucopia of sound.
Real Miami Hip-Hop
Everyone who isn't from Miami wants to be talkin' about people like Lil Wayne, Drake and Nicki Minaj as if they're Miami rap. But they are not Miami rap. They may like to represent for us, and that's nice of you, but we have our own home-grown talent right here. We just gave Denzel Curry a shout out in our People of Miami Issue 2013. SpaceGhostPurrp and his Raider Klan been putting in werk. Robb Bank$ recently dropped his mixtape T/H/A City. Metro Zu been on that effing Boiler Room. O'Grime just released an EP on Mad Decent. We don't really need outsiders to rep us, just sayin'.
See also: Ten Best Miami Rap Anthems Ever
WMC/MMW
We talk to a lot of DJs, pretty much maybe every single one that matters at all in any way. Trust us when we say that every DJ in the world looks forward to coming to Miami at the end of the March. For decades, Winter Music Conference has made sure Miami stays on that dance music map. Ultra Music Festival has been going hard since way before dance music festivals were even conceivable in America, and now, they do their thing on a global scale. Controversial, perhaps, but we're pretty sure all the Miami Music Week events are fantastic. Everyone wants to be here in late March, and we live the dream all year long.
Special Guests is Our Middle Name
All these things are great, but it's the surprises that keep a relationship going. If you go out to a relatively big-time concert in Miami, you can almost guarantee some surprise guest is going to hop on stage. Everyone lives here, so everyone is going to show their love to the crowd. This year alone, we saw DJ Craze hop on the decks with Gaslamp Killer at Bardot; Rick Ross hop on stage to perform "FuckWithMeYouKnowIGotIt" during the Wale and J. Cole tour kick-off; Trick Daddy and the 69 Boyz show their city love for Team Basshead at the Red Bull Music Academy Culture Clash; and Lil Wayne, Birdman and Mack Mane come do their thing during Drake. With all this love going around, Miami is often home to the most memorable and exciting shows of a whole tour.
Everyone knows it, Miami is freaking amazing. Now, let's eat.
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