Summer Smash, the world’s largest hip-hop festival held in Chicago, dropped their 2026 summer lineup on April 13. Summer Smash became known to me about three years ago, since I hadn’t listened to a lot of hip-hop before. In past years, I really liked their lineup, but I think this year, Lyrical Lemonade showed a great variety of different artists.
Summer Smash gets split up into three days in June: Friday, Saturday and Sunday, from June 12 through 14. Friday starts off strong with artist Lil Uzi Vert headlining. Chicago-based artist Chief Keef will also be a headliner. Lil Uzi Vert became popular in 2016 after songs like “Money Longer” and “You Was Right” dropped. Personally, I love him. He is not only a really good artist, but he is also iconic as he was a staple in hip-hop music in 2016 and beyond. Other artists that are performing on Friday are Sexyy Red, G Herbo, Lucki, Molly Santana and a couple others. All of these artists are pretty well known among the hip-hop community and will be good performances to see. One artist that I am really surprised to see on this lineup is North West, Ye’s (Kanye West’s) daughter. There is a lot of speculation that North will be bringing out Kanye, which would be very surprising, as Kanye does not normally perform in the U.S.
The lineup on Saturday has gotten a lot of hate. When looking at this day, I wasn’t familiar with the headliners. The artists headlining for Saturday are Skrillex and Yung Lean x Bladee. After looking up both of these artists, they are more EDM than hip-hop. Skrillex is a very well-known artist, as he has been featured in songs like “Where Are Ü Now” by Justin Bieber and “Wasted Times” by The Weeknd. He has also produced some other popular songs that many know. As for the rest of the artists performing on this day, I would say I only like a couple, such as Ian and 2hollis. I would say that this lineup day does not deserve the hate it is getting. Just because Summer Smash is mostly known for hip-hop artists doesn’t mean it shouldn’t try something different and include a different genre of music in the lineup
The last day is Sunday, which has a very well-known artist headlining: Playboi Carti. Carti became popular in 2017 with his songs “Magnolia” and “Wokeuplikethis.” Personally, I really like Carti’s music, and he is very popular among the hip-hop crowd. The other headliner is Lil Baby. I’m not too happy about him also being one because I don’t remember the last time I listened to one of his songs, and personally, I don’t think he’s a very good artist in general. However, the other artists that stood out to me during this day like Esdeekid and Fetty Wap. Esdeekid has become very popular over the past year, and I enjoy some of the songs he has produced. As for Fetty Wap, his songs are nostalgic to me, like “Trap Queen” and “Time.”
Overall, Summer Smash has created a very strong lineup this year, and I think it will be a great time. I do not plan on getting the three-day pass, though, as it is 400 dollars, and that is around the same price as a four-day Lollapalooza pass. But, I do excpet this years Summer Smash to be memorable no matter what.
