Face The East
Lil Brown’s Bar
June 18-19, 2024
Everybody thinks of the north side when they think about Tulsa hip-hop. But it’s a little known fact that some of the city’s best rappers come from the east. Many landmarks of east Tulsa (Eastland Mall, Ryan’s Buffet, the Dollar Movie, Casa Bonita) have become distant memories. But the hip-hop being created there has never faded—and new memories are being built there every day.
Da’juan Dupri is hoping to create the next eastside landmark with his Juneteenth festival called Face The East. In its first year, the event took shape as a jam-packed two-day music festival, ending on the actual day of Juneteenth, at Lil Brown’s Bar, about two miles east of the Admiral Twin Drive-In. Nestled between a biker’s club and a car wash, nothing immediately announced this as the site of a hip-hop festival, but the vendor booths, the tall standing speakers, and the crowd of people surrounding the stage let you know you were in the right place. Three DJs kicked off the event: DJ Indigo, bravely spinning records through the hottest parts of the day, then local favorite dj noname., and lastly DJ Kut Lee, who scratched and blended actual vinyl records as if he were Bruce Lee cutting through water.
Leading an event like this comes easily for festival creator Dupri, who has been rocking local shows lately as a performer. He’s created connections with many local artists and was able to pull in some amazing acts for this inaugural event, from Tulsans like Parris Chariz (who took the stage with an all-too-cool persona) to Arkansas artists LeaKe and Avian Alia, who drove almost two hours to perform in front of a new crowd. “31st and Garnett where I learned how to walk, yeah I was in the Creek when the Meadows had parks”—lines like these are sprinkled throughout Dupri’s catalog of music, with details only a true east Tulsan would know. He’s been an avid champion of this part of town, along with Yung Qwan and JediahKO: three eastside Kings who have helped change the narrative that there was no hip-hop coming out of east Tulsa.
Face the East continued Yung Qwan’s resurgence—this time with longer hair and a cockiness that let you know that he’s back—building on his performance at Eastie Boyz, another recent event that turned attention to this side of town. As for JediahKO, he’s the wildcard of the east side. His performances draw you in as if he’s rapping directly to you: sometimes there’s a lesson, and other times it’s his perspective. Then there’s Dupri himself, who had the tall order of managing the acts as well as being the MC. He performed on two guest verses, but I wish he would have given himself a set. Dupri’s performances are second to none and it was the small exclamation point missing from the festival. It’s like J. Cole not performing at Dreamville. Of course, we love seeing the other acts on the bill, but we’re also here to see J. Cole. It’s the same with Dupri.