A3C Hip-Hop Festival celebrates independent spirit on 10th anniversary

Wednesday-Sunday. Black Thought, 2 Chainz, B.o.B., Twista, Scarface, Mystikal and Juvenile, Bun B, Talib Kweli, Jermaine Dupri, Slaughterhouse, Buckshot and hundreds more. The Artist Center headquarters is at the Crowne Plaza Atlanta Midtown. Concerts will be held at various venues around downtown and Midtown including The Earl, 529, Main Stage in Old 4th Ward and Apache Café. www.a3cfestival.com or download the free A3C app for a complete schedule.

A decade ago, Brian Knott and Kevin Elphick turned an obligation into a festival.

As the founders of the now-defunct Atlanta-based ATF (ArcTheFinger) Records, they realized that they owed some of their artists a concert showcase in Atlanta.

There was no vision for a major festival. No plans to expand from a one-weekend event.

“What we wanted to accomplish was to get people not to hate us. Quite by accident it turned into something more. There was something magical that year,” Knott said, reflecting on the event of 2005.

What “something more” has morphed into is the A3C Hip-Hop Festival, a five day smorgasbord of concerts, panels, film screenings and live art that will commandeer 15 venues around downtown and Midtown beginning Wednesday and culminate in a Sunday block party at the Old Fourth Ward Main Stage with Talib Kweli and The Roots’ Black Thought.

Those two artists are among the 500-plus who will participate in this 10th anniversary of A3C. (The name, incidentally, started as an insignificant acronym, but during an interview at the event in 2007, rapper 9th Wonder announced that he was playing the “All Three Coasts” festival and A3C found its meaning.)

Joining Kweli and Black Thought on the roster are such mainstream names as 2 Chainz, B.o.B., Jermaine Dupri, 9th Wonder, Twista, Mystikal, Bun B and Juvenile.

But the deeper purpose of A3C – which drew about 25,000 attendees in 2013 and is on pace for 35-40,000 this year – is to function as sort of a South By Southwest for hip-hop, with underground artists receiving a platform in front of a wider audience and panels and workshops taking place to educate about topics such as audio performance, production and the evolution of hip-hop.

“For most people, they’re looking at hip-hop from a narrow lens and the four or five artists being pushed at any given time or whoever has recently gone to jail,” Knott said. “We’re trying to help expand the picture. So yes, 2 Chainz is here, but by the same token, there is Jermaine Dupri talking about the business of things. We’re trying to create a platform for all things to happen concurrently.”

In recent years, Knott has enlisted the assistance of Mike Walbert, who started as a volunteer coordinator with A3C in 2009 and is now general manager of the festival. Knott, who turns 40 this year, said he appreciates the fresh ears of Walbert, 29, and credits him with reinvigorating the event.

“The first year (I was involved with A3C) I did one show with J Cole and Yelawolf and B.o.B. and it was the success of that year that the light bulbs kept going off,” Walbert said. “I felt like Atlanta was the right place and we were the right people to bring a world class hip-hop event here, to embrace the culture and invite people from all over the world.”

A3C has adopted the tag line, “hip-hop’s annual pilgrimage,” and the growth of the festival points to Atlanta’s continued dominance in the hip-hop industry.

Walbert recalled that when he was in college in California, people would make hip-hop references once they found out that he hailed from Atlanta.

“I think that’s our brand. We have a lot of kids who come (to this event) from around the world because they love hip-hop,” Walbert said. “I think the U.S. and abroad have embraced everyone from Janelle (Monae) to Outkast to Jeezy. There’s so much industry here that you can break in Atlanta very quickly.”