Rolled there with my homegirls Sona and Anna, as well as with the homies Dave and Atain (the Nigerian connection!). The first show I hit up was the Knux on the main stage (there were two stages, which ended up making me miss Raekwon's set...decisions decisions...). Short set, but enjoyed seeing "Capuccino" live, always enjoyed that track a lot.
The Knux - "I need a fresh capuccino with a mocha twist..."
Next was Chali2Na. J5 isn't really my cup of tea, but the dude can really rap, and he was mad funny on stage doing robot dances and looked like he was having a great time. Pete Rock was at the main stage all day DJing between sets, a true legend in the building.
Chali2Na
Watched K'Naan for a few minutes on the main stage (didn't hit the songs i really wanted to hear, but did the last cut featuring Mos Def off the last album. Then rushed over to the smaller stage to see Evidence & Alchemist, one of the sets i was looking forward to the most.
K'Naan the Dusty Foot Philosopher
Got to the outdoor stage right as the set was beginning, they opened with "Let Yourself Go". They got it poppin with both some solo Evicence material and some Alc tracks as well, including "Chase The Clouds Away". Evidence brought Fashawn on stage to peform "The Far Left" with him. Ev then closed with my personal fave, "Mr. Slow Flow - I slow flow yall'z to DEATH! Great set, great energy and crowd response was impressive.
Evidence & Alchemist - Step Brothers!
Evidence & Fashawn
Managed to make it much closer to the stage for Buckshot, who was INCREDIBLE. So much charsima, so much energy, and a hip-hop resume that few can fuck with. He did solo stuff, 9th wonder collabs, Black Moon joints (including "How Many Emcees") and even did "Crookyln Dodgers". Had heard a rumor that KRS was gonna join the set to do tracks off their upcoming collaboration (which happened in Chicago) but that didn't happen. Nevertheless, Buckshot was the real deal.
Buckshot!
Back to the main stage of the Reflection Eternal set. 5th time I've seen Talib, but the first time with Hi-Tek. Supernatural warmed up the crowd before they came out with some amazing freestyling. The performance was good, but not really any different from other Talib shows I've been to, though i was really happy to be able to finally see Tekzilla spit his flow from "The Blast".
Talib Kweli
Hi-Tek
Common was up next on the same stage, and he TORE IT UP. I saw Common open for Kanye a few years back, and i knew he was hype, but i wan't really expecting him to be jumping all over the stage the way he was. He performed the two tracks i wanted to hear most, "Be" (the intro off the album Be, my favorite Common track!) and "The People", as well as a host of classics (though i was extremely surprised that he didn't play "The Light"). He even brought out Trugoy The Dove of De La Soul and Talib Kweli to perform "Respiration". Truly great performance.
Common
Trugoy The Dove of De La Soul
Common & Trugoy
Common & Talib
I then RAN (pausing to buy a bottle of water, the only thing i purchased that day after my Ga(ha?)terade at the beggining of the day) to the other stage to catch another one of my favorites, Slaughterhouse. Slugged that sweet sweet H20 down and made it in the nick of time. They definitely did not disappoint, it was a pleasure to see Royce, Crooked I, Joell and Joey onstage together. The closed with some dope acapella verses, i liked Crook's the most, his verse off "Slaughterhouse".
"I don’t write I kill a pen leak his blood on the page
I breathe bars, like oxygen locked my lungs in a cage
Instrumentals get fucked on the stage, a pedophile
Unless i dig in the crates, and fuck with somethin’ my age"
SLAUGHTERHOUSE!
Murs
It was right back to the main stage following that, after running into the homie B-Ride and his boys, drunk as skunks, as they rode a "Kegbus" ( I'm sure no explanation is necessary) to the event. I ended up stayign there for the rest of night, missing both (Raekwon and RZA in the process...i'll catch em at the next Wu show...). The Roots were on next. As always, they were excellent live, a real band performance, including a French horn player. I couldn't help but be a little disappointed, as when I've seen The Roots in the past, they play for like 2-3 hours and show keeps gettin better and better. Prolly woulda been better if it had been longer, though it was in no way bad, just short. They did manage to hit "Proceed" and "The Seed", as well as a few tribute tracks. Black Thought is a beast on the mic.
The Roots!
Black Thought
Busta Rhymes was the next to hit the stage, he did the entire performance with his Flipmode Street Colonel Spliff Star. The opening of his set was a serious surprise, as he brought M.O.P on stage for "Ante Up Remix", which as you can imagine, made the entire crowd go bananaaaaas. The very out of shape looking (serious gut...but i guess all the diamonds distract from that, haha) Busta put on a crazy show, hitting all the classics including his verse from Tribe's "Scenario", "Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See", "Woo-Ha" and more recent tracks like "Arab Money" and "Respect My Conglomerate".
Billy Danze of M.O.P
Spliff Star & Busta Rhymes
Raekwon Da Chef!
Bussa Bussss!
Last, but DEFINITELY not least, was the main event, my favorite rapper of all time: NaS. He was supposed to have a joint performance with Damian Marley, as they have an album coming out together sometime late in the summer called Distant Relatives, but Damian couldn't make it due to some family illness. No matter, i sort of just wanted to see a long NaS set instead, but there were many surprises throughout. Before his entry, KRS-One and Supernatural warmed up the crowd with some freestyles and witty banter. After coming on and hopping straight into Illmatic joints (the show was sort of chronological actually) and It Was Written songs, he invited AZ to the stage, and they performed "Life's A Bitch" and "Affirmative Action" (one of my faaavorite tracks of all time, never thought id see it live!). Nas then brough Styles P on, who performed a few tracks ("Locked Up", "I Get High"), who was joined by Pharoahe Monch for "My Life". Pharoahe then delighted all of us with one of hypest songs of all time, "Simon Says". Prince Nasir came back on and worked his way through God's Son, played his verse off Jeezy's "My President Is Black", "Hate Me Now. He then spat some rhymes off the upcoming Damian project, and closed with "One Mic", backed by two female vocalists and two bongos.
That's The Sound of Da Police!
Supernatural
Pete Rock
"N to the A to the S I R, if I wasn't, i musta been Escobar"
DJ Green Lantern the Evil Genius
AZ
Styles P
Pharoahe Monch
N-A-S, NASSSSSSSS
All in all, GREAT FUCKING day, legs were so damn tired i slept till like 1 today. I highly recommend attending any of the upcoming stops of the Rock The Bells tour if you are able to, and i will DEFINITELY be going next year. It stops at Jones Beach in NYC next weekend, if i can i just may go again...
1 comment:
oh my body hurt so much... i "cousin of death"ed like a baby.
the day wouldn't have been the same without you!
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