While hip hop isn’t as geographically divided as it once was, certain cities can still be territorial in terms of ownership of sounds and styles. For years now, Milwaukee and Detroit have shared similar, yet different ideologies, but when one of their biggest current rap stars came to Summerfest on Saturday night, he felt right at home.
On the final night of Summerfest 2025, Tee Grizzley took to the Generac Power Stage, capping off a day full of buzzworthy Midwest rap that also featured Milwaukee’s own 414BigFrank and SteveDaStoner. There was high humidity and rain in the forecast, but the elements didn’t stop a massive crowd from congregating all the way to the main stretch of the festival grounds, akin to some of the most notorious shows in recent Summerfest history.
WIth fans packed into the barricades as much as physically possible, they were hyped from the moment that opening tracks dropped from DJ Ace. By the time the main attraction made his way to the stage, things were at a fever pitch. He quickly went into a few bars of “First Day Out,” the song that broke him and his most successful track, with the crowd screaming along every bar. It was just a temperature check, though, with the full song coming later on in the night…