Mana Wynwood is set to host Miami's favorite alternative music festival on October 21-22, and the lineup this year is long and dense as hell. Fortunately, III Points is pretty consistent about making room for some of hip-hop's most artful spitters. From the virtuosic poise of Earl Sweatshirt in 2016 to Jpegmafia's punk rock showmanship in 2019, alternative rap has found a home here. Hip-hop's forerunners have a home here, too; III Points has been a revolving door for the Wu-Tang Clan over the years.
The festival's rap selection is concise — it usually is — but it promises some notable performances. Celebrated heavyweights Freddie Gibbs and Kenny Beats are fresh off the heels of new albums, and tenured pioneers like Busta Rhymes are still revitalizing their sound in real time. Here's a detailed list of what to expect from the biggest names in III Points' concentrated hip-hop bubble.
Busta Rhymes
It's been more than 30 years since a dread-headed Busta Rhymes introduced himself to New York City's thriving boom-bap scene as part of Leaders of the New School. Hip-hop's landscape has since taken on a malleable new shape, with too many subgenres and regional overlaps to count. Still, Busta remains a cultural fixture. Decades of touted projects and collaborations are made memorable by the Brooklyn emcee's unmistakable rasp and rugged charisma. On day two of III Points, he looks to take the stage in Miami for the first time since receiving the BMI Icon Award at the BMI R&B and Hip-Hop Awards in Miami Beach last month. In 2020, he released his tenth studio album, Extinction Level Event 2: the Wrath of God, a record recorded across eight years with the help of legends like DJ Premier, Kendrick Lamar, Mariah Carey, and the late J Dilla.Freddie Gibbs
Aside from being one of the funniest rappers alive, Freddie Gibbs' legacy in modern hip-hop holds serious weight. The 40-year-old Indiana veteran boasts one the most impressive pedigrees in rap today, having released a few landmark collab albums with two of the most masterful producers hip-hop has ever seen in Madlib and the Alchemist. Alfredo with the Alchemist is a lofty gangster flick from 2020 enclosed in an angelic vignette. At the crest of their partnership, the duo earned a Grammy nomination they probably should've won. Just weeks ago, Gibbs released his latest full-length, $oul $old $eperately, a commercially tinged victory lap featuring trap stars Offset and Moneybagg Yo. Tap into his set on festival day one; this could be the best performance of the bunch.
Kenny Beats
At the intersection of chameleonic ingenuity and down-to-earth sensibility is Kenny Beats, the 31-year-old producer who has poured heart and soul into collab projects with Vince Staples, Denzel Curry, Rico Nasty, and more. The Connecticut native has grown into a mainstay of modern hip-hop after a few years of venturing into the EDM rage of the early 2010s. His hit web series The Cave depicts candid clips of him and various emcees in his studio (nicknamed "the Cave") as he cooks up a beat for them to freestyle over. The series has helped build him a dedicated community of wide-eyed producers and hip-hop heads alike, and as his following has grown, Kenny's output hasn't dropped off in the slightest. His debut solo album, Louie, pays homage to his father through warmhearted sampling, meticulous live arrangements, and an overarching concept based on a fictional radio show he feigned in his youth. It'll be exciting to see what Kenny Beats pulls from for his III Points set on festival day one.Pink Siifu
From the soil of Birmingham, Alabama, sprouts Pink Siifu, an eclectic wordsmith and pro-Black iconoclast with a deep bag of reference points. Finding commonplace in the murky alternative rap niche of the 2010s, Siifu has moved at a prolific pace under several aliases. Of the two albums he's released this year, Gumbo'! (Deluxe'!) stands out as a glowing ode to his soft spot for prototypical Southern hip-hop. Last year, Siifu tacked a deluxe version onto his 2020 opus, Negro, a record that channels hardcore punk and free jazz into a bloody-fisted tirade on militant police and systemic racism. The dude has so much range. Guest appearances from underground monoliths Armand Hammer, Boldy James, and Mavi are sprinkled across his decorated catalogue. Expect his set on festival day one to be vibrant and unapologetically raw.
Uncle Luke, Trick Daddy, and Trina
The hip-hop scene in Miami wouldn't be what it is today without the strides made by Uncle Luke, Trick Daddy, and Trina from the '90s onwards. Uncle Luke, the godfather of Miami bass, set a precedent for the sweltering, hyperbolic rhythm that took over South Florida, paving the way for Trick Daddy's rap career, which in turn paved the way for Trina's career of her own. By the turn of the century, the trio had already been solidified in the cultural lore of South Florida, with tracks like Luke's "Banned in the USA" and Trick Daddy's "Nann Nigga," featuring Trina, becoming god-level hits in clubs across the area. The storied trio is set to rock the stage together on the festival's first night.III Points 2022. 3 p.m. to 4 a.m. Friday, October 21, and Saturday, October 22, at Mana Wynwood, 318 NW 23rd St., Miami; iiipoints.com. Tickets cost $119 to $499 via iiipoints.frontgatetickets.com.
