Rae Sremmurd, ILoveMakonnen, & Earl Sweatshirt Play Hype Hotel
From Spoon to ILoveMakonnen, the Hype Hotel brought a diverse lineup when it returned to SXSW for its 10th anniversary. Mississippi duo Rae Sremmurd delivered an exhilarating 45-minute set during the five-day festival, opening with “No Flex Zone” and running through their SremmLife hits including “Unlock the Swag,” “Up Like Trump,” and “Like Lit Bic.” Members of their crew held up giant cardboard cutouts of their heads as the crowd sang along to “No Type,” while Swae Lee and Slim Jimmy never turned down.
ILoveMakonnen also made his SXSW debut. The OVO Sound singer-rapper, who dropped his mixtape Drink More Water 5 last month, had Austin going up with his hits including “I Don’t Sell Molly No More” and the Grammy-nominated “Tuesday.”
Just days before the release of his album I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside, Earl Sweatshirt returned to SXSW for a series of showcases. Sporting a hoodie, the Odd Future member debuted new cuts including “Grief” and brought out Vince Staples for “Wool.”
It marked his third appearance at SXSW. “It feels the best this time around just ’cause I’m OK with being more self-centered now and not in a detrimental way,” he told NPR during an interview in Austin.
See all the action in Austin here.