J. Cole‘s Dreamville Festival has added 50 Cent as a co-headliner amid a slight change to this year’s lineup.
On Monday (April 1), the festival announced that the G-Unit general, who toured the globe last year on his massive Final Lap Tour, will close out the opening day (Saturday, April 6) alongside SZA.
Up-and-coming Atlanta rapper Hunxho has also been added to the bill and will hit the stage on Sunday (April 7).
50 and Hunxho merely serve as replacements rather than additions, however, with R&B stars Chris Brown and Muni Long pulling out due to “unforeseen circumstances.”
“We are excited to share that 50 Cent and Hunxho have been added to the lineup! See you this weekend! [sunflower emoji],” the festival wrote on Instagram. “Due to unforeseen circumstances, Chris Brown and Muni Long are no longer performing at Dreamville Fest.”
See the post below.
Originally announced last month, the lineup for this year’s Dreamville Festival also boasts Nicki Minaj, ScHoolboy Q, Jeezy, Sexyy Red, Lil Yachty, Rae Sremmurd and many more.
There’s also a healthy dose of Dreamville with JID, EarthGang, Bas, Cozz, Lute, Omen and, of course, J. Cole himself performing.
The festival takes place at Dorothea Dix Park in Raleigh, North Carolina this weekend (April 6 and 7), while a series of free events and educational programs will be held across the city in the week leading up to it.
Drafting in 50 Cent as a last-minute headliner might not have been a tough ask for J. Cole as the pair shared the stage at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center when 50’s Final Lap Tour invaded the Big Apple.
It was during that show that Cole gave the “In Da Club” hitmaker his flowers, crowning Get Rich or Die Tryin’ the “best album of all time” — above even Michael Jackson‘s Thriller.
“Can I say this before I move off stage?” he told the crowd. “If y’all don’t make some noise for one of the greatest n-ggas to ever do this shit. 50 muthafuckin’ Cent, Curtis Jackson. Get Rich or Die Tryin’ the best album of all time. I don’t give a fuck what you talking about, n-gga!
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“It’s Get Rich or Die Tryin’ at No. 1 and it’s Thriller at No. 2, and I love Michael Jackson. But I promise y’all that, Curtis Jackson, 50 Cent, we love you my n-gga, for real.”
While the pair worked together on 2013’s “New York Times,” their collaborative relationship could have run deeper had 50 signed Cole to G-Unit before he blew up.
During an appearance on The Breakfast Club in 2022, the Queens, New York native was quizzed about snubbing the future rap star, who had visited his house and played him his music prior to his breakthrough in the late ’00s.
50 explained that he didn’t feel like there was a big enough demand at the time for a “conscious” rapper like Cole given the popularity of more street-oriented music that he and G-Unit were making.
“That was so early, bro,” he said. “To me, J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar… These artists existed early on when I fell in love with Hip Hop, but it was Talib Kweli, it was Mos Def, it was A Tribe Called Quest, it was Common Sense.
“As dope as they are, it’s smarter rap, smarter music. The logic is: ‘sit down, be humble.’ We supposed to already know to sit down and be humble. But when they put that there, it’s almost the conscious side of it.”
He added: “I’m like, Yo, it was cool, but I didn’t really know if everybody was ready for it because of how strong they were embracing what we were doing.”
