How Atlanta Falcons, Mercedes-Benz Stadium Are Producing Star-Studded Hip-Hop Concert (Exclusive)

There have been plenty of major events that have paid tribute to 50 years of hip-hop this year. With Atlanta being a destination place for hip-hop artists and fans, the Atlanta Falcons and Mercedes-Benz Stadium are hosting a concert/celebration where over 60 Atlanta-based artists will be honored during the Falcons' game against the New Orleans Saints this Sunday. PopCulture.com spoke exclusively to Tameka Rish who is the Senior Vice President of Fan and Associate Experience for AMB (Arthur M. Blank) Sports and Entertainment which oversees the Falcons and Mercedes-Benz Stadium. She explained how the Falcons put this event together which includes Ludacris, Jermaine Dupri and CeeLo Green. 

"So So Def is celebrating its 30th anniversary, and so we've kept a really close relationship with these artists, and through our highs and lows, they've been there, and whether it's celebrating a playoff run, or showing up for a home opener, or doing a pep rally, they're always there," Rish told PopCulture. "So as the 50th anniversary came about, we knew that we wanted to celebrate them in a way that they celebrated us.

"We started ideating and having conversations with the various groups of what we could do, and I knew that because our community is just different here in Atlanta, we could pull off something that hasn't been done before and bring together a show of unity across a span of time that starts in the '80s with Mojo and goes all the way to today with some of our younger artists. And so as we started making phone calls, people were excited to participate, and I began trying to target 30 to 40 artists right now. This morning, when I looked at it, we have 106 attendees. So we have groups that have four or five artists making up the group. That's totaling right now at about 78 solo or group acts."

The celebration will start at 12:30 p.m. ET and all the artists will wear black Falcons jerseys with their names on the back. Rish said there would be some surprises but as the game gets going, Ludacris, T.I. and CeeLo Green will be some of the artists who will perform. Ludacris will be the last performance of the day as he will perform from the third to the fourth quarter. 

"I'll just say, Ludacris is probably the only person Ludacris enough to do what he's agreed to do for us," Rish said. "So really excited. I've known him the longest out of any of the artists. He has been one of our most loyal supporters, and really, really excited for him to close us out with a very Ludacris way headed into that fourth quarter."

The Falcons might not be the best team in the NFL, but they make sure fans leave the stadium with a great experience as they scored No. 1 in overall gameday satisfaction in the NFL's Voice of the Fan in 2022. One of the things the Falcons have done is bring big-name artists like Jeezy to perform during a commercial break. They also brought in Bobby Brown to perform at halftime for the game against Washington Commanders in October. 

"Bobby Brown, that's one of the top-rated halftimes in the NFL right now, not just for us, but all across the NFL," Rish revealed. "It's definitely in the top five of all halftimes done this whole year across all teams. And the reason we went with Bobby, one, he has an association to Atlanta, right? He spent a lot of time here. But also, he matches our demographic. And so when you plan a party, you want to plan it for the people that are going to attend, and a lot of times, people get caught up planning a party for themselves, not the people that are attending. And our demographics for our games, Bobby Brown was an icon for them."

Sunday will be an experience Falcons fans will never forget. But if the event is successful, will the team do something like this again? "The ability to pull something at this scale together for a postseason run is really hard, and so we knew this was a really special moment to lean into this and do it as big as we possibly could," Rish explained.

"That doesn't mean that we won't try to do something crazy again. I'll just say there are a couple of things that are going to happen on Sunday that involve our roof. There's going to be surprises, there's people performing that we haven't announced. So there's still a lot to be revealed. I think it's going to be, you know, if you miss it, you're going to miss a moment that people will talk about in a decade."