Update: The July 28 Mad Lit event has been canceled due to a forecast of inclement weather.
The Mad Lit free summer concert series, a free concert series every other Friday night in summer and early fall that features live music and highlights local artists and businesses of color, will be returning tonight for another summer of excitement and live music with Hip Hop’s 50th anniversary providing a perfect backdrop for this year’s celebrations. While the first day was supposed to be on July 14, bad weather prohibited the kickoff date and Madlit is looking to start its 2023 run tonight, 8-11 p.m., on the 100 Block of State St.
Mad Lit is hosted by the Greater Madison Music City Project and Urban Community Arts Network. Madlit organizer and local Hip Hop artist Rob “Dz” Franklin is happy to report that the event has been successful in the few past years since its inception. The hopes are that this year promises the same in getting people to give artists and a local music community they might not engage with often a chance.
“Overall, I think the experience of it is kind of cool. The whole premise is to try to make our downtown more inclusive and more diverse. I think overall the reception has been good,” Franklin told Madison365, assuring that positive feedback far outweighs the negative.
“I think people are getting a chance to see us doing our thing and thriving at it. I mean … the majority that hasn’t necessarily been exposed to different folks, you dig what I’m saying?”
Madlit also exists as a piece of the larger Greater Madison Music City movement that is looking to provide a solid foundation for a range of local artists. Although the reception for some local styles of music has been more positive in Madison, struggles with community reception to Hip Hop, specifically, have often been a product of a lack of connection. Madlit hopes to change that.
“A lot of times, the challenges come from people that aren’t necessarily open to change or trying this,” said Franklin. “For the most part, I think that even becomes minimal when you see all the people that are kicking it. When you see the college kids and they come up and start dancing or kicking it, then you see the community folk dancing and kicking in, then you walk up to a kind of melting pot thing going on. I think it’s opened up other possibilities for people that haven’t necessarily been open to it.”
Franklin stressed the importance of giving Hip Hop a fair chance as they want more spaces that provide room for it to continue to grow. Franklin is excited to hopefully draw that same energy of getting the community engaged through the concert series while also setting up a precedent for local artists to get more local opportunities.
“With Madlit, a lot of artists that we choose to play haven’t really, up to this point, received a lot of stage time at some of the main venues around town,” Franklin said. “The hope is that as we run this programming, we fulfill the need of the immediate downtown area, but we also build a bridge for the future. Say that some of these venues come down to one of these shows and see a particular act that has the following, has a great stage show … how do we get them on another stage? We are, to a certain extent, a testing ground to show that we deserve to be on these stages as much as anybody else.”
Franklin also had hopes that giving local artist exposure helps to drive the community to engage with organizations such as the Urban Community Arts Network to get people out to events. As it is Hip Hop’s 50th-anniversary celebration, Franklin is looking forward to both celebrating Hip Hop’s popularity and connectivity while also staying authentic to a culture that often pushes against respectability and social norms.
“One of the things that I really am excited about is this being the 50th anniversary of Hip Hop. We are intentional about doing a more Hip Hop-focused calendar this year,” said Franklin in closing, highlighting the 50th anniversary celebration day on Friday, Aug. 11.
“For me, one of the biggest things is making sure that Hip Hop really gets its just dues and gets its flowers while we have the opportunity to give them in so many words.”
To learn more about Madlit and see the lineups for the following weeks, check out the Madlit GMMC page here.
