New York is the birthplace of hip-hop, but the Brooklyn-based rapper-producer Mike noticed there were precious few outlets for rap’s rising stars to perform away from the clutches of big labels and pricey venues, and fewer still that showcased hip-hop performers from a range of generations.
His observation gave rise to Young World, a yearly festival held in collaboration with the City Parks Foundation’s SummerStage whose name references a foundational Slick Rick tune (“Hey young world / the world is yours.”) The fifth iteration of the daylong event that spotlights up-and-coming independent artists alongside the older hip-hop guard took place Saturday at Herbert Von King Park in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn.
“The goal of Young World is to champion rap music,” Mike, 28, said in a phone interview before the event. He added: “It’s all reminiscent of my childhood where I would end up at shows where you’d see your favorite musicians for free.”
Born in Livingston, N.J., Mike spent his early childhood in London before moving to Philadelphia with his father at 12. By the time he was 16, they’d relocated to New York, where he pursued rap in earnest as part of the underground collective sLUms, which sold its form-bending, often free-associative verses via Bandcamp.
His sound, a warped rendition of sample-based Afrocentric hip-hop bordering on the psychedelic, took shape in 2017 when he released his breakout project “May God Bless Your Hustle” and evolved through increasingly assured releases like “Disco!,” “Burning Desire” and “Showbiz!” With 10k, the independent label he founded in 2017 with his manager and creative partner Naavin Karimbux, Mike has become the fulcrum of the current alternative rap scene, collaborating with musicians and visual artists on releases like “Pompeii // Utility,” a double album with Earl Sweatshirt produced entirely by the avant-garde New York collective Surf Gang.
Young World was born in 2019 as a showcase for his artists and a way for fans of experimental pockets of hip-hop to come together. By 2022, it was time to expand to the park, which could accommodate a crowd for breakout regional artists like D.C.’s Sideshow, London’s Jadasea and Orlando’s 454 along with headliners like Noname, Earl Sweatshirt, Pete Rock and Georgia Anne Muldrow. The festival has grown into something altogether removed from the corporate sterility of bigger music festivals that make up the touring circuit for mainstream rap.
“We’ve been doing this kind of model with other cultural tastemakers who actually live in the neighborhoods presented,” said Erika Elliot, the executive artistic director at SummerStage, who nodded to the “organic” connection between their aims, although there has been occasional friction. After SummerStage shuttered a separate performance by Kehlani under pressure from Mayor Eric Adams’s administration over “security concerns” raised by the singer’s vocal support of the Palestinian cause, Young World canceled its 2025 event out of solidarity with her. “We weren’t down with that,” Mike said. “We were trying to figure out ways to do it, but it just didn’t make sense.” (Elliot and SummerStage declined to comment.)
On Saturday, Young World returned with Niontay, a 10k artist, who yelped through a Central Florida drawl on “Thank Allah,” a drum-free track with looped synth tones, before Salimata hit the stage in a gold bikini to perform her laconic track “Foil.” They were followed by Thirteendegrees, a stalwart of the alternative New Chicago movement recognized for the R&B and trap fusion of songs like “Da Problem Solva”; and Eristheplanet, a Washington, D.C., artist whose 2025 single “Geezer” cemented her leap from YouTuber to bedroom rapper co-signed by SZA and Drake. By the time Mike and his Band of the Century took the stage for their first performance of cuts from recent albums like “Showbiz!” and “Beware of the Monkey” — albums that sound like MF Doom and Sister Nancy records left to melt in the sun — the audience was a mass stretching to the back of the park.
“Young World brings out the soul and heart of the community in New York, from creatives to young minds and beyond,” said Thomas Thomas, a Washington Heights resident who is active in the New York underground scene and raps under the name Lifeofthom.
Without warning or introduction, Yasiin Bey (the Brooklyn-bred rapper formerly known as Mos Def) took the stage for “Life in Marvelous Times” from his 2009 album “The Ecstatic,” which was recently reissued on some physical and digital formats after being absent from streaming platforms for nearly a decade. It was his first performance in the United States in nearly the same span. “What’s happenin’, Brooklyn?” he said to a crowd that roared back at him. Through renditions of tracks like “Casa Bey” and an electro-house rendition of his classic “Umi Says” — not to mention a spirited chant of “Free Gaza! Free Sudan! Free Congo! Free WiFi!,” — Bey electrified an audience braced to see the return of one New York icon, never mind two.
The day ended with a headlining performance from Max B, a hero of swaggering Harlem rap who was released from prison in 2025 after serving a 16-year sentence for aggravated manslaughter. Backed by a large entourage and security team, he strutted the stage while crooning hits like “Why You Do That,” “I Gotta Habit” and “Picture Me Rollin’,” while fans of the 48-year old rapper uncorked bottles of wine and later shouted along with some of his sweetly raunchy sexual lyrics.
“It might sound corny or whatever,” Mike said, “but with hip-hop, my goal with the people I work with is to be a positive addition to this thing I love.”
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