By Yeab Woldemichael
From March 3-5, 2023, Rolling Loud returned to Los Angeles, specifically Inglewood – the heart of hip-hop/rap. Starting back in Miami in 2015, this popular music festival has brought in hundreds of thousands of fans each year and has spread to a variety of different locations, even spreading to other countries like Canada and the UK. They bring in well-known hip-hop and rap artists like Travis Scott, Playboi Carti, Future, Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar, etc. How did they manage to attract a larger crowd than the year before for eight years straight? Tariq Cherif, the co-founder of Rolling Loud, says the festival is going to deliver a major economic impact to Inglewood, CA. And it did! This year, Rolling Loud made a whopping $20.7 million on ticket sales, merch, and other deals. On that note, the location they chose was a perfect place to hold a hip-hop/rap music festival, since Inglewood has been gradually developing economically this past few years. Ten years ago, Inglewood was not the nice and attractive place it is now. Inglewood used to be a low-income area that was overlooked by people in the music business, so the fact that it now houses many popular festivals is a big win for Inglewood. Cherif knew he wanted the Rolling Loud venue to be in L.A., a booming city with an undeniable love for music, but he strategically chose Inglewood to hire people who grew up in low-income neighborhoods and give out well-paying jobs to those who needed them. He said, “Every city we go to, we do over $100 million in local sales economic impact, bringing jobs and money spenders and we’re very excited to bring that here (Inglewood).” We can’t wait to see what they will bring us hip-hop fans next year.
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