If you are a true hip-hop fan, you MUST go to one of these events I least ONCE in your life. The hip-hop Woodstock came to the bay this past weekend and it was an experience I WILL remember for the rest of my life. Now I don't have a lot of pictures or videos from the event because my Iphone was acting EXTREMELY gay and kept dying on me (time for a new phone smh). So I will just tell y'all what I remember and do the best I can to describe the performances.
When I got into the Shoreline in Mountain View it literally felt like a hip-hop convention in that bitch. SO many people wearing hip-hop clothing, booths were set up selling hip-hop nostalgic T-Shirts and hats, it felt like I died and went to heaven. This was my first time at Rock The Bells, but I KNEW that at the end of the day I was going to be EXTREMELY tired.
When me and my boys got there we went to the main stage were Souls of Mischief were just wrapping up their 93' Till Infinity set. Kinda sad I didn't get a chance to see their whole set, but from what I seen so far they were cool. After they left, a half hour later Common came out to perform his entire Be album which was cool. He also did a few other tracks from his catalogue which was pretty sick, kinda mad he didn't perform The Light, but it was cool. Oh yeah Common was also rocking a full grown Rick Ross beard, looked like a light skinned skinny version of him lol. Anyway Common pretty much got the crowd hyped and ready for the rest of the day.
After Common, me and my homies walked around and went to the Paid Dues & 36 Chambers stage. The stages were pretty much right next to each other and you pretty much had a choice on who u wanted to watch perform. Almost like you changing channels. Saw Immortal Technique & Chino XL walking around saying wassup to the fans. Immortal Tech is one small ass motherfucker, and Chino XL is one buff ass motherfucker, almost looked like he could be in the WWE. The smart ass in me had to fight EVER urge in my body not to walk by Chino XL and just say "CHINO XL FUCK YOU TOO!!"..but then I would have gotten knocked the fuck out Deebo style, so I didn't.
Went back to the main Rock The Bells stage just in time to see Talib & Mos Def perform their Black Star album. They went through their album with a mixture of their own solo cuts. They got the whole crowd hyped for real when they performed Definition and brought Common back to perform Respiration. Funniest part about that whole performance was that after they were done, Mos Def yelled out "SEXY CHOCOLATE!" and dropped the mic. Anybody who has seen Coming to America will get that joke lol.
Cypress Hill graced the stage next to perform their Black Sunday album. Too keep it real, they are really boring live, but that is just me. I am not really not that familiar with Cypress Hill's music besides their singles, so i guess that is why I wasn't really into it. When I went back to the Paid Dues stage I caught the last half of Big K.R.I.T's set, he got the crowd hyped as FUCK when he performed Country Shit.
After K.R.I.T left, the lyrical monsters of Shady records Slaughterhouse come out which in my opinion was one of the best sets I seen all day. They pretty much did a few tracks from their album while Royce and Joe Buddens did a few cuts from their albums. I found it kind of weird that Royce did an Em-less version of Fast Lane through, I would have expected him to perform Writer's Block at least. Crooked I preformed a freestyle while Joe Budden was engaging with the crowd and cracking jokes. Overall, the 2.0 Boys had a pretty enjoyable show, and made the crowd happy.
While Slaughterhouse was performing, Mobb Deep were on the other side on the 36 Chambers stage performing their Infamous album. Didn't get really get a chance to go over there, because as soon as Slaughterhouse ended their set I literally RAN to the main stage because Nas was performing the Illmatic album. With DJ Premier and Pete Rock on the ones and twos, Nas went through his classic album track for track and even did a few of his songs from other albums like Nas is Like, One Mic, & Hate Me Now. He brought out Mobb Deep and they performed Live Nigga Rap. Nas stated that it was the first time he has seen Prodigy since he served his bid in prison, so that was a good moment. Nasir ended his set with Made You Look and thanked the fans. I felt like a little kid here watching one of my favorite rappers of all time perform. Now the only 3 left left too see is Hov, Ye (in December), and Em, then I can die a happy dude.
After I saw Nas, I went back to the Paid Dues & 36 Chambers stages where GZA was performing his Liquid Swords album while Childish Gambino (Donald Glover) was performing on the Paid Dues stage. I was going back and forth on both stages but I think the person who really surprised me was Donald Glover. That dude ROCKED the stage and got the crowd HYPED as fuck.
At this point in the evening the main headliners came on all 3 stages. Immortal technique graced the Paid Dues stage, Raekwon along with Ghostface Killah graced the 36 Chambers stage to perform Only Built For Cuban Linx & Ms. Lauryn Hill grace the main stage to perform the Miseducation. So you can just IMAGINE how I felt trying to pick which stage to go to. It felt like choosing between going to my child's graduation or going to my first born's baptism. So I had to choose who I loved me. SO I caught a good potion of Raekwon's set, I was literally staring in awe seeing the Chief tear the stage up! Now this is the part where I wish my fucking Iphone wasn't dead!
I caught Ms. Hill's set and the stage set up was amazing, had the stage looking like a classroom, really playing off the theme of Miseducation.
Didn't stay for her whole set because at this point me and my homies were just exhausted but from what I saw Ms. Lauryn Hill was on point. Now all in all I had a very amazing time. EVERY true Hip-hop fan should go to Rock The Bells at least once in their life time. It is an experience you will NEVER forget, that day I saw a SHIT load of artist that I thought I would NEVER see in my life time. I hope to go next year..
~~Mr. Busby~~
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