Hip-Hop 918 is returning for the sixth year to Guthrie Green on Sept. 14 with a lineup of local legends, a showcase of all women emcees and national hip-hop sensation The Pharcyde headlining the event.
Founder Steph Simon is eager to bring Tulsa talent back to the stage, including a live-band backed performance, “Tulsa Diamonds” with the Chris Combs Trio, featuring Earl Hazard, Dialtone and Damion Shade.
“The Tulsa Diamond set is something we came up with two years ago, and it’s like a compilation medley set, but this year it has a band backing it up instead of a DJ,” Simon says. “We haven’t really brought a live music element to Hip-Hop 918 before, so it’s gonna be pretty cool to see that.”
It’s the first year Simon isn’t performing and is fully stopping into his role as a producer. “This year, I just delegated more opportunity to the other artists to get up there to share the stage,” he says.
Some of Tulsa’s freshest emcees will take the mic for the first time at Hip-Hop 918. Simon’s students from McLain High School who make up TMC records will embark on their first performance of the year at the festival.
Steph Simon
Another first for the familiar festival: The all-woman performance, dubbed the Female Cypher, performed by Ali Shaw and the Female Spittas. The group features Jerica Dionne, Bambi, Lily Auset, Kendra Mars, Avian Alia and Changing Frequencies, all hailing from Tulsa with the exception of Arkansas artist Alia.
Shaw is also hosting Hip-Hop 918. Simon approached Shaw, a local radio music director and lifelong hip-hop fan, to host the event partly because she put together the Female Spittas in 2020 for a music video project. This set with the Female Spittas, though featuring different artists than the original video, packs the same energy highlighting talented women in Tulsa and the surrounding area.
“My goal is to have a variety … older artists to who may be very well seasoned, but in the game for a minute, but then somebody who’s kind of a rookie, but really hungry and very passionate,” Shaw says. “It’s been very rewarding, even just putting it all together.”
Shaw notes the talents of the Female Cypher span the gamut in style, from free flowing cadence of Mars to the high-energy experience that is Auset. “She is just a little firecracker,” Shaw says. “She has such great energy.”
The hardest part about booking the Female Cypher for the festival was “only choosing five or six artists,” Simon says. “If you look at hip-hop today, it is dominated by women, and even if you look at the scale of hip-hop locally here in Tulsa, (women) are leading the way.”
