As rapper and curator MIKE’s career has grown from teenage phenom into budding label owner, so has the size of his tent. His annual Young World festival emerged from the intimate Abrons Art Center in lower Manhattan into the sprawling block party it’s become today, taking over a sizable portion of Bed-Stuy’s largest park. This year MIKE curates a line up headlined by Max B, the legendary Harlem MC who rose to prominence in the mid 2000s. Despite a 16 year incarceration from 2009-2025, he maintained a strong influence on hip-hop’s sound and a cult-like fanbase that’s global, but most pronounced in his hometown of NYC. For the first time in front of a wide audience, MIKE will be backed by “the Band of the Century” – the band he developed for his NPR Tiny Desk concert. Cutting-edge genre pioneers Thirteendegrees°, ERISTHEPLANET, SALIMATA, Niontay, and Black Noi$e will also perform.