DaBaby, Saweetie and Wyclef Jean will headline free Can’t Wait Live concert at the Mann
The free concert organized by the Working Families Party will also feature Mavis Staples, Beach Bunny and DJ Jazzy Jeff.
DaBaby, Saweetie and Wyclef Jean will headline Can’t Wait Live: A Concert for Jobs, Climate and Care, a free show at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts on Aug. 13.
Gospel great Mavis Staples, indie rock band Beach Bunny, and rapper-singer Snow tha Product are also on the bill. Philadelphia will be represented by DJ Jazzy Jeff and DJ Diamond Kuts, who will warm up the crowd and spin between sets.
The show is being organized and presented by the Working Families Party in conjunction with other progressive political organizations, including MoveOn and the National Domestic Workers Alliance as well as Philadelphia groups, such as 215 People’s Alliance and the Abolitionist Law Center.
Fans can get free tickets by texting 30403 and RSVPing to a link that arrives with a message promising: “We’ll show Congress we can’t wait for jobs, climate justice and care!”
The show, which starts at 5:30 p.m. and will be live streamed for free on the Working Families Party’s YouTube and Facebook pages, aims to put pressure on Washington, urging legislators to pass a “bold infrastructure bill that matches the scale of the challenges American face.”
The Can’t Wait headliners with their names in boldest type are DaBaby, the North Carolina rapper formerly known as Baby Jesus who broke big in 2019 with the ubiquitous hit “Suge” from his album Baby on Baby, and Saweetie, the rapper born Diamonté Harper, whose career has been gathering steam since the release of her debut single “Icy Grl” in 2017. Her debut album Pretty Bitch Music is due later this year.
Founding member of the massively popular 1990s rap band The Fugees — who recorded for Conshohocken’s Ruffhouse Records — Haitian rapper and songwriter Wyclef Jean has most recently been heard from on the 2019 album Wyclef Goes Back to School, Volume 1, which featured artists he met while touring colleges in the U.S.
In the 82-year-old Mavis Staples, the Can’t Wait bill includes an artist who’s a veteran of many social justice struggles, dating back to the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Her segment singing “Precious Lord, Take My Hand” in 1969 with Mahalia Jackson is one of the highlights of Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s new Summer of Soul documentary.