ESPN to Host ScHoolboy Q, YG Concert and Fan Experience in New York for Game 1 of the NBA Finals

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To celebrate the tipoff of the NBA Finals presented by YouTube TV, ESPN will host a bespoke experience on Thursday, May 30, beginning at 6:30 p.m. ET that will transform The Rooftop at Pier 17 – above ESPN’s South Street Seaport studio in New York City – into the ESPN House.

The event will include a live headlining concert from platinum selling, five-time Grammy nominated Top Dawg Entertainment recording artist, ScHoolboy Q, and will also feature multi-platinum selling Def Jam recording artist YG, followed by fan experiences during Game 1 of the NBA Finals live on ABC.

“The NBA thrives at the intersection of sports and culture, and this iteration of ESPN House will bring those elements to life for Game 1,” said Laura Gentile, SVP of Marketing, ESPN. “It’s going to be a special experience hosting our first live concert and watching the Finals on the rooftop of Pier 17.”

ESPN and ABC coverage for Game 1 will include live look-ins during the concert and fan experience, capturing all the excitement and energy at the ESPN House. A limited number of free tickets to ESPN House: New York will be available through 1iota here. The concert will also be available free to stream on the ESPN app and on Twitter.

ESPN House: New York will take over Pier 17 and include fan activations, in addition to the concert and live game. ESPN introduced the ESPN House franchise in Nashville at the 2019 NFL Draft. ESPN is exploring opportunities to bring the ESPN House experience to fans across the country, across key events.

One of the most compelling artists in hip-hop today, ScHoolboy Q has found widespread critical acclaim and earned multiple Grammy Award nominations since joining the ranks of Top Dawg Entertainment. Otherwise known as Quincy Matthew Hanley, he was born on a military base in Germany but grew up in South Central Los Angeles, eventually forming the hip-hop supergroup Black Hippy with Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul, and Jay Rock. Soon after signing to Interscope Records, ScHoolboy Q delivered his platinum-certified breakthrough album Oxymoron: a 2014 release that garnered a Grammy Award nomination for Best Rap Album and landed three hit singles on the Billboard Hot 100 (including the platinum-selling “Studio” ft. BJ the Chicago Kid, a Grammy Award nominee for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration).

Arriving in 2016, ScHoolboy Q’s sophomore album Blank Face LP scored a Best Rap Album nomination at the 2017 Grammy Awards, with lead single “THat Part” (ft. Kanye West) nominated for Best Rap Performance. In 2018, ScHoolboy Q teamed up with 2 Chainz and Saudi for “X,” a track from Black Panther: The Album that went on to amass over 146 million Spotify streams to date. Released in April 2019, his most recent full-length CrasH Talk debuted at #3 on the Billboard 200, marking the third consecutive ScHoolboy Q album to hit the top three on the chart. With appearances by artists like Kid Cudi, Ty Dolla $ign, and 21 Savage, CrasH Talk features the single “Numb Numb Juice”—hailed by Vulture as a “reminder why he’s one of the best rappers we’ve got.”

YG is looking at one of the biggest records of his career with his highly anticipated fourth album 4REAL 4REAL. His smash single “Go Loko” featuring Tyga and Jon Z has topped over 40 million streams in its first two weeks out. The viral “Go Loko” video has over 20 million views to date.

The arrival of 4REAL 4REAL on May 24 via Def Jam Recordings builds on the extraordinary year that YG experienced in 2018, centering on the August release of his third album, Stay Dangerous, Top 5 follow-up to his critically acclaimed Still Brazy (2016), hailed by the New York Times as  “an artisanal, proletarian Los Angeles gangster rap record.” The certified gold album Stay Dangerous was preceded by its first official single release in June, the triple-platinum #1 smash “Big Bank” featuring Nicki Minaj, 2 Chainz and Big Sean, one of the biggest single successes of YG’s entire career.

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