J. Cole‘s Dreamville Festival will end in 2025.
The 39-year-old rapper has confirmed his music extravaganza in Raleigh, N.C., will be no more following one last weekender on April 5 and 6 at Dorothea Dix Park. The festival has consistently drawn crowds of over 50,000 attendees annually since its inception.
“What a ride it’s been … We can’t thank y’all enough for all the memories we’ve shared,” a statement read. “From the very beginning, the idea behind the fest was creating a place where our fans, the Dreamville community, could spend time together, a place where they could see themselves reflected, a place to share in experiences. Let’s run it back one more time in April!”
The lineup is yet to be confirmed. Previous festivals have featured some of hip-hop’s biggest names, contributing to an estimated economic impact of $6.7 million for the Raleigh region.
Dreamville was launched by Cole in 2018, but the inaugural event was postponed to April 2019 due to Hurricane Florence. The festival has since become a cultural landmark, attracting music fans from across the country.
This year, the musician was joined by the likes of SZA, Chris Brown, and Nicki Minaj. The 2024 edition broke attendance records with over 100,000 festival-goers across the two-day event.
At this year’s Dreamville, Cole apologised to Kendrick Lamar after dissing him on the track “7 Minute Drill” from his surprise mixtape “Might Delete Later,” branding it the “lamest s— I ever did”. The mixtape garnered over 500,000 streams within its first 24 hours of release.
“I’m so proud of that project except for one part. It’s one part of that s— that make me feel like, man, that’s the lamest s— I ever did in my f—— life, right? And I know that this is not what a lot of people want to hear. I could hear my n—– up there now, like, ‘Nah, don’t do that.’ But I gotta keep it 100 with y’all, right?” he said in a lengthy speech onstage.
Cole insisted he has a lot of love for his rap rival and regretted the diss, which came after Lamar took aim at Cole and his “First Person Shooter” collaborator Drake on Future and Metro Boomin’s hit “Like That.” The track reached number one on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart.
Currently, Drake and Lamar are locked in a feud and have fired shots at each other on a series of diss tracks. The ongoing rivalry has generated significant social media engagement, with related topics trending worldwide.
The former even filed a legal petition against Universal Music Group over Lamar’s hit song “Not Like Us.” The legal battle has become one of the most talked-about conflicts in recent hip-hop history.
Drake accused the major label and publisher of “artificially inflated” streams for the record-breaking tune. Industry experts estimate the streaming numbers in question could impact millions in revenue.
Released in May, the track marked Kendrick’s fifth diss track aimed at his rap rival and came out less than 24 hours after his previous single, “Meet the Grahams.” Both tracks accumulated over 10 million streams within their first week.
Drake submitted a pre-filing in Texas after his previous filing in New York and accused UMG of defamation and “falsely accusing him of being a sex offender, engaging in pedophilic acts, harboring sex offenders, and committing other criminal sexual acts.”
This is in reference to the lyrics: “Certified Lover Boy? Certified pedophile” and “Tryna strike a chord and it’s probably A minor.” The controversial lyrics sparked intense debate across social media platforms.
Drake swiftly fired back on his retaliation track “The Heart Part 6,” denying Lamar’s accusations he is a pedophile. The track has become one of the most discussed hip-hop releases of the year, with music critics analyzing its implications for the genre’s future.
