How Chreece it is: Hip-hop festival set to debut

By any other name, the Chreece hip-hop festival still would be a landmark event for Indianapolis.

With 60 acts performing at six Fountain Square venues on Aug. 29, Chreece is the largest festival devoted solely to hip-hop in the city’s history.

Add the idiosyncratic mind of Chreece founder Oreo Jones, and the world gets a new slang word as part of the deal.

“Chreece,” according to Jones, first slipped from his tongue by accident. While hosting a February episode of his “Let’s Do Lunch” online video series, he offered an imprecise toast to Bluebeard chef Abbi Merriss that combined the words “Cheers” and “Peace.”

So that’s how the festival’s name came about. How the word is pronounced is a separate mystery.

Jones says it’s “Treese,” which isn’t easily perceived when the word “Chreece” is seen on a telephone-pole flier or promoted in a tweet.

It makes for amusing conversation when Jones and fellow Chreece performers Ace One, Pope Adrian Bless and John Stamps visit The Star to chat about the festival, which is scheduled to run 2 p.m. to 2 a.m.

Stamps mentions that he has fielded the “How do you say it?” question from other rappers on the bill.

Pope says his grandmother congratulated him for being part of “Crease” (“As in pants,” he added).

Ace One says members of his crew wondered if “Cherise” was the way to go.

Finally, Pope asks, “Where did this magical ‘T’ come from?”

Anyway, if Chreece isn’t magical, it’s shaping up as a can’t-miss celebration of the music and its many subgenres.

Jones, who organized the festival to be a fundraiser for Musical Family Tree, a non-profit that promotes Indiana music, invited rappers who make songs about the most dangerous neighborhoods (“trap” music) as well as rappers who don’t rhyme about drugs and violence, plus acts who are newcomers and acts who have been around for years.

“I really wanted to get as many cats as I could think of in the city, from all lanes: the trappers, the art rappers, avant-garde, experimental, the new jacks and the old cats,” Jones says. “I wanted to get pretty much everyone I thought that was actually engaged in the community, that are playing shows, that are putting out music.”

Chreece has been in the works since February, when Jones bounced the idea of a festival off fellow rapper Sirius Blvck and Musical Family Tree Executive Director Jon Rogers.

“(Rogers) was gassed from the jump,” Jones says. “He said, ‘Let’s do it. Let’s get it together.’ ”

The closest thing to an Indianapolis ancestor for Chreece would be the Hip-Hop Summit, which happened at the bygone United States of Mind venue from 2005 to 2007.

Today, hip-hop festivals aren’t commonplace on a national scale. Atlanta hosts A3C (“All Three Coasts”) each October, while Minneapolis is home to the Soundset event that featured performances by J. Cole, Ice Cube and Ludacris this May. In July, the 2x2 Hip-Hop Festival debuted in Columbus, Ohio.

Pope, who will promote new release “Angel Musik IV: Revelations” during his 8:35 p.m. performance at the Joyful Noise venue, applauds the variety of styles at Chreece.

“You never know who you’re going to appeal to,” Pope says. “In some situations, you see the same type of people in the same type of field. But to have a circle of different entities and alternatives, you’ll appeal to somebody every single time. You can’t lose that way.”

Ace One says hip-hop fans should have an easy time migrating among the Chreece sites: Fountain Square Plaza (all-ages), Pizza King (all-ages), Joyful Noise (all-ages), General Public Collective (all-ages), White Rabbit Cabaret (21 and older) and the Hi-Fi (21 and older).

“You might not be able to see (an act’s) whole set, but everything is within walking distance: ‘Go, check some of this out.’ ‘Get 15 minutes of them,’ ” he says.

Ace One, who issued an album titled “Rap Monster” in 2012, is a strong candidate to be crowned “hardest-working MC” at Chreece.

His night begins in “hype man” mode supporting Stakzilla at 7:40 p.m. at Pizza King. At 8:05, he and Nevi Moon will unveil the songs of their “Vibrations and Lunar Phases” project at Joyful Noise. Ace will bounce back to Pizza King at 8:40 p.m. to participate in the Strong Roots All Stars set, followed by a 9 p.m. appearance with Cut Camp at White Rabbit Cabaret.

Ace’s commitment to Chreece reflects his admiration for Jones, who grew up in Warsaw, Indiana, before attending Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and making 2011’s “Black Fabio” mix tape with DJ Action Jackson and co-founding indie-rock band Black Moms.

“I told him some years back, when he dropped the ‘Delicious’ EP (2010), ‘I’ll get behind you, bro. You’re a good dude, and you’re really good,’ ” Ace says of Jones. “He represents Indiana to the fullest.”

Meanwhile, Chreece is not limited to Hoosier talent. Three noteworthy Chicago acts — recent Lollapalooza performer Mick Jenkins, metal-friendly MC ShowYouSuck and female rapper Psalm One — have high-profile slots on the schedule.

Jones and Stamps will perform as part of the Ghost Gun Summer show at 11:30 p.m. at the Hi-Fi. The Ghost Gun Summer collective, which began as bridge between Indianapolis camps Ghost Town (Stamps and Sirius Blvck), Heavy Gun (Grey Granite and Freddie Bunz) and Rad Summer (Jones), frequently ventures south to play nightclubs in Florida and nearby states.

Stamps says he is working on a solo project that aspires to be arena-ready with every song.

“People who hold down a whole track, be lyrically conscious and keep people hype — that’s my inspiration,” Stamps says. ‘It’s rare to say something important and also have people wanting to rock. It’s a hard balance to find.”

For the first time, Stamps is making a recording for Rad Summer, the label that will release Jones’ highly anticipated “Cash4Gold” project.

Before Jones shifts his focus to “Cash4Gold,” he predicts that Chreece will impress attendees as well as visiting acts who see Indiana’s finest for the first time.

“We have cats that are just as good who can play to anyone in the world,” Jones says. “I feel like it’s important that people see that. And you will see that on the 29th.”

Check out a 13-song playlist of Chreece acts on Spotify.

Call Star reporter David Lindquist at (317) 444-6404. Follow him on Twitter: @317Lindquist.

Chreece

WHEN: 2 p.m. Aug. 29 to 2 a.m. Aug. 30.

WHERE: Fountain Square venues the Hi-Fi, 1043 Virginia Ave. Suite 4; White Rabbit Cabaret, 1116 Prospect St.; General Public Collective, 1060 Virginia Ave.; Pizza King, 1267 Shelby St.; Joyful Noise, 1043 Virginia Ave., Suite 208; and Fountain Square Plaza, intersection of Virginia Avenue and Prospect Street.

ADMISSION: $12, $10 if bought in advance.

TICKETS: Visit Chreece.com.