This year’s Charm City Live lineup will feature some big names who first rose to fame in the 1990s.
R&B singer Monica and rap duo Method Man & Redman will headline the free festival, scheduled for Sept. 21 in downtown Baltimore.
The lineup, unveiled by Mayor Brandon Scott on Thursday, also includes R&B duo DVSN, singer Avery Wilson and singer/producer Pheelz.
Charm City Live, a city-organized festival that kicked off in 2022, has previously drawn headliners like Ari Lennox and Stokley & Joe. This year’s top-billed performers have more than a couple of blast-from-the-past hits.
Monica topped the Billboard charts and won a Grammy for “The Boy is Mine,” a 1998 duet with Brandy. (She also appears on the remix of Ariana Grande’s “The Boy is Mine,” released this summer.)
The singer’s other hit singles include “Angel of Mine” and “The First Night.” She has both an R&B album and a country album, produced by Brandi Carlile, slated to drop later this year.
Method Man, a member of the Wu-Tang Clan, and Redman, of Def Squad, joined forces on mid-90s tracks like “Freestyle” with Funkmaster Flex and “Got My Mind Made Up” with Tupac. The rappers released their first full-length album, “Blackout!,” in 1999 and followed up a decade later with “Blackout! 2,” in 2009.
“Over the past few years, we know this festival has brought out thousands of people to enjoy world-class talent,” Scott said Thursday. “This year has even more heavy hitters.”
Charm City Live, held at the War Memorial Plaza across from City Hall, also will feature local food vendors and a job fair highlighting employment opportunities with city government.
New this year will be a Charm City Live restaurant tour scheduled to take place the week before the festival. Local food, retail and art vendors can apply online to participate in the festival.
Downtown Partnership of Baltimore President Shelonda Stokes, who is helping to organize the restaurant tour, said the festival’s aim is to draw the whole city downtown and to highlight the city center’s growth, including nearly $7 billion of development in the works.
“This is everybody’s downtown,” she said. “We want them to feel that.”