8.31.2020
Rolling Loud Enters First-of-its-Kind Exclusive Partnership with Twitch, Announces Virtual Festival to Take Place on September 12th-13th
The Biggest Festival Brand In Rap Launches Twitch Channel, Complete with Live and Community-Driven Hip Hop Lifestyle Programming
Offering Fans an Opportunity to Engage with Rap’s Biggest Names as they Perform Live for the First Time in Months, Rolling Loud’s Official Twitch Channel Will Also Bring Scheduled Programming Across Music Commentary, Gaming, Freestyles, and More
The Announcement:
Building a reputation as an unbeatable festival and a respected tastemaker, the Rolling Loud brand is synonymous with hip-hop. Today, the genre’s biggest festival brand announces an innovative new partnership with Twitch, bringing the energy and irreverence of Rolling Loud to Twitch’s passionate global community of millions of fans.
Twitch and Rolling Loud worked closely together to build out live festival and regular weekly programming that will bring the best of hip hop music and culture to life for the Twitch community. The new partnership includes three upcoming digital Rolling Loud festivals, complete with state-of-the-art production value and the star-studded lineups for which Rolling Loud is known. Each digital festival will present over 5 hours of live performances every day of the event. Giving music fans the opportunity to see rap’s biggest stars perform for the first time in months, Rolling Loud’s first livestream festival – titled Loud Stream – is scheduled for the weekend of September 12th-13th, exclusively on Twitch.
“Streaming on Twitch transports viewers into a live concert atmosphere and creates an experience for artists to interact with fans in ways only possible on Twitch,” said Will Farrell-Green, Head of Music Content at Twitch. “As in-person concerts are put on hold, we’re working to create an incredible backstage environment that fans can access from anywhere in the world. Rolling Loud has a powerful community of hip-hop fans, and we’re thrilled to partner with them for a first of its kind event that will bring their incredible live music brand to life.”
“At Rolling Loud, our core business lies in exchanging energy with fans. The artist puts out the energy, the fans give it right back to the artist – it’s a complete power exchange. That’s what a concert, and more specifically Rolling Loud, is. We trap energy and the trap is boomin’. When we planned to bring Rolling Loud to the virtual experience, we needed to find a partner that could help create that energy exchange and understand the core DNA of Rolling Loud. It only made sense to partner with Twitch – a service that thrives off of live engagement with fans and champions a diverse collection of creators. The Twitch team has been incredibly supportive in meeting our creative goals and we’re thrilled to be partnering with them.” – Tariq Cherif, Co-Founder/Co-CEO at Rolling Loud
“Partnering with Twitch, we also saw the opportunity to further connect fans with the Rolling Loud brand beyond our flagship live events. Over the years, Rolling Loud has become a pillar in hip-hop culture, from booking emerging artists before they pop off to creating some of the most fire merch drops in the game, and we wanted to further our position in the culture through weekly programming on our Twitch channel. We’ve always had our eyes on content creation; it felt like the natural next step for the brand, but it wasn’t until the pandemic hit that we had the bandwidth to execute these ideas to the fullest. Twitch gave us the creative control to produce unique shows that hold true to our ‘ahead-of-the-curve’ mentality and play to Twitch’s strengths as the leading live stream platform out there. Expect Rolling Loud to do in the live stream world just as we have done in the festival space…” – Matt Zingler, Co-Founder/Co-CEO at Rolling Loud
Along with the upcoming festivals, Rolling Loud will broadcast hip hop-driven weekly content on the official Rolling Loud Twitch channel, featuring content that intersects hip hop with other cultural pillars like fashion, food, art, and gaming. Monthly showcases will also be created around fashion and a hip hop spin on cooking. The channel will livestream regular themed programming, including:
- “The Leak“: Hosted by Rolling Loud co-founder Tariq Cherif, “The Leak” offers an opportunity for hip hop fans to hear new music the night before its official release. Known for presenting rap’s top emerging artists, “The Leak” will focus on spotlighting up-and-coming artists, with exclusive interviews and performances.
- “Got Bars?“: A six-month long freestyle competition series, offering weekly battles between rising lyricists. Channel subscribers will be able to pick the freestyle topic, and all viewers will be able to vote along with three judges from the Rolling Loud team. The winner of “Got Bars?” will earn the opportunity to perform onstage at a future Rolling Loud festival.
- “Loud Gaming“: Inspired by Twitch’s focus on gaming content, “Loud Gaming” pits artists, athletes, influencers, and Rolling Loud staff against gamers for exclusive prizes.
- “The Founders“: A livestream podcast hosted by Rolling Loud co-founders Matt Zingler and Tariq Cherif, in which they discuss a variety of lifestyle and current events topics that intersect with hip hop.
- “Live From The Studio”: An exclusive look into the Rolling Loud recording studio where producers, artists, and song writers will create music and collaborate while staying engaged with the Twitch community.
Founded as a one-day festival in 2015, Rolling Loud has evolved into a global behemoth, with annual festivals in Miami, Los Angeles, New York, and the Bay Area. Postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Rolling Loud Miami is scheduled for February 2021, and Rolling Loud Portugal, the brand’s first European festival, recently announced the lineup for next Summer. The company’s new Twitch partnership speaks to the strength of its brand, allowing Rolling Loud to maintain its vital cultural role during an impossibly difficult time for festivals and live music.
Stay tuned for more announcements about the upcoming “Loud Stream” festival and about Rolling Loud’s Twitch partnership and programming.
Critical Praise:
“In four and a half years — beginning small in Miami, and now promoting Coachella-sized events around the country — Rolling Loud has established itself as a playground for the young…This time last year, many of the rappers now drawing crowds of several thousand were barely known.” – The New York Times
“Rolling Loud is the be-all of hip-hop festivals.” – Billboard
“The Rolling Loud New York experiment was a success—one which will likely earn it a return trip to the city in future years. Far from a traditional NYC rap experience, it was a two-day event that catered to the genre’s youngest fans, with an eye squarely focused on the future.” – Complex
“In only its fifth year with four major destinations and more in the pipeline overseas, athletes, celebrities and others are forking over as much as $20,000 for VIP packages. Of course, imitators are cropping up.” – Pollstar
For more info, please contact:
Rolling Loud: Michelle, Kerry, or Kevin
Twitch: Samantha
The Background:
About Rolling Loud
Founded in 2015 by Matt Zingler and Tariq Cherif as a one-day festival in Miami, Rolling Loud evolved into a global behemoth, with massive festivals on both American coasts and international events in Europe and Australia. In October 2019, Rolling Loud hosted the first annual Rolling Loud New York, which boasted one of the brand’s most impressive lineups yet, and in December, it drew 65,000 fans per day to Banc of California Stadium for Rolling Loud Los Angeles.
About Twitch
Launched in 2011, Twitch is a global community that comes together each day to create multiplayer entertainment: unique, live, unpredictable experiences created by the interactions of millions. It brings the joy of co-op to everything, from casual gaming and world-class esports to anime marathons, music, and art streams. Twitch also hosts TwitchCon, the biggest community event of the year, where tens of thousands of people come together to celebrate and connect with others who share their interests and passions. We’re always live at Twitch. Stay up to date on all things Twitch on Twitter and on our Blog.
Links:
website | facebook | twitter | instagram
Check out RollingLoud.com for more information.