Mo Pop Festival Lineup: A Who’s Who of Emerging Artists
For every young artist at the precipice of mainstream notoriety, there is a closet-produced prodigious newcomer who is completely liquidating SoundCloud verging on stardom.
Detroit’s Mo Pop Festival is celebrating their 6th birthday with a tenacious lineup of budding artists under 25 years old. In fact, a third of the class are greenhorns making their mark at Mo Pop in July. Check out the list below for an inside on the next generation of illustrious heavyweights and how they are making their mark in the industry.
Billie Eilish is a singer and songwriter, who, at 16 years old, is signed with Interscope Records and is making waves in the Electropop world on streaming sites such as Spotify and Apple Music. She debuted her EP Don’t Smile at Me in August 2017, and in just one month, her single, “Ocean Eyes,” went viral, toting 35 million streams on Spotify.
Clairo is a 19-year-old artist from the suburbs of Boston who makes her music in the four walls of her bedroom. She has stated that it was never her intention to make “bedroom pop” music and that she wants to expand into lo-fi. Until then, she continues to utilize the resources at hand. She considers herself awkward, and she suffers from juvenile arthritis. Just a year ago, she was in high school, making music in her bedroom. Now, she is a traveling artist who’s opened for artists like Tyler the Creator, is a prodigious YouTube star with over 18 million views, and is managed by the same person who helped to supplant Chance the Rapper into fame.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byGeEw9tRh8
Rex Orange County is the alias of English musician Alex O’Connor. He is another silver-tongued, young blood, singer/songwriter on the lineup at just 19 years old. He is an adept force by fusing hip hop, jazz, electronica, and soul fundamentals into articulation. This year, he placed second in the BBC Sound of 2018 competition. He has collaborated with Tyler the Creator and has been referred to as “the songwriter his generation needs” by NME. His sophomore album, Apricot Princess, debuted in April 2017 and already has over 50 million streams with Spotify.
Shortly is the solo artist and Detroit native Alexandria Maniak. In just over a year, the 21-year-old has already shared stages with an assortment of artists like The Decemberists, Title Fight, Mom Jeans, and Jeff Rosenstock. She is currently signed to New York-based label Triple Crown Records and has noted on her social media pages to be working on new material.
Daniel Caesar is a rising soul singer/songwriter at the age of 22. Independently, he released two EPs before releasing his debut album, Freudian, last August. Freudian, where Caesar exhibits his musical capacity by also playing the piano and the guitar, led to two Grammy nominations: best R&B album (alongside Bruno Mars, SZA and Kehlani) and best R&B performance for album single “Get You” featuring Kali Uchis, which peaked at No. 11 on Billboard’s Hot R&B Songs chart. This month, he will take off on his first solo headlining tour overseas, starting in Asia.
Vince Staples is a 24-year-old American rapper from North Long Beach CA whose music is influenced by experimental dance and electronic. He grew up in poverty and gang involvement but now spends his spare time in his community discussing the dangers of the gang lifestyle with youth. He made his debut as a feature on Earl Sweatshirt’s first album. Fast-forward to a couple of mixtapes and EPs and two albums later, and he is lore in a brand of his own making. You may also recognize Staples for his role in the movie Dope.
Brockhampton is an American hip hop collective made up of 15 male members, all of whom are under the age of 25. A majority of the members connected through the Kanye West fan forum KanyeToThe and are already making waves to reinvent what it means to be in a boy band. Together their creative talents range for rapper to web developer to producer. The group spent about a year living in Texas working on a lot of music and building on their chemistry before moving to Los Angeles. In a six-month span last year, Brockhampton released the Saturation trilogy. Within 24 hours of releasing Saturation III, they announced they were already working on their fourth studio album, Team Effort. However, this past week they announced that Team Effort would be postponed indefinitely, and instead they are working to release the album Puppy this coming summer.
Mo Pop 2018 will take place July 28-29 at the gorgeous West Riverfront Park on the edge of downtown Detroit, with views of both Detroit and Canada cityscapes.
Acts include headliners Bon Iver and the National, alongside St. Vincent, Vince Staples, Portugal. The Man and 18 others. Unlike other festivals, Mo Pop is known for having a full exhibit of amazing Detroit restaurants and food trucks, a beer garden featuring a plethora of local crafts beers, a retro arcade featuring video games, and no overlapping performances, separated by two stages. Daily ineups are out for Detroit’s Mo Pop Festival. As the flyer indicated, Saturday artists are denoted in orange and Sunday in blue.
Tier 1 prices for general admission tickets ($99.50 two-day pass, $75 single-day) can be purchased at the festival website, but hurry! Tier 1 ends on April 2nd. Children 12 and under will be admitted free when accompanied by a ticket holder.