So… yesterday was an eventful day for a lotta hip-hop aficionados such as myself at the Merriweather Post Pavillion in DC. I’d never been to a Rock The Bells Festival, but I made it a point to make it there this year, callin’ around since way back in May to see who was ready to roll. We made it there, and it was well worth the admission. I didn’t catch much on the second stage, mostly because the main stage was MAJOR this year- with Snoop, Wu-Tang, A Tribe Called Quest, Lauryn Hill, Rakim, KRS-One, and Slick Rick all touchin’ the stage. I was amped when I woke up, amped when we got there, and still amped when we left. In between all that, here’s the shit that stood out- for better or worse. Here we go…
WHAT ROCKED THE BELLS:
Tribe’s House!: I’ve seen A Tribe Called Quest on stage before, but this one here was the best I’ve seen them, and possibly the best of the whole show. They mostly performed tracks from Midnight Marauders (my fav. ATCQ album), with tracks from the other albums thrown in here and there. From beginning to end, they owned it… and when Busta Rhymes came out performing “Stop The Party” and his classic “Scenario” verse, shit went crazy.
Wu-Tang Is On Ya Brain: Prob’ly a no-brainer here, as Wu has always come correct every time I’ve seen them. It’s basically the same performance every time, but it’s still powerful. This one had a few new things though- particularly Nas making an appearance to do “Verbal Intercourse” with Raekwon & Ghost, and the inclusion of ODB‘s first-born son Boy Jones- who acts and definitely looks exactly like Dirty. Big respect to Inspectah Deck, who came out and performed even though he’d lost his mother earlier that day.
DJ Ra: Who knew Rakim wasn’t half-bad on the wheels too? In the middle of his solid set, in which he mostly did tracks from Paid In Full, he hopped behind the set and did a lil’ work there too. Makes one wonder what Eric B‘s role was… ha!
Supernat’s Item Check: As the crowd got restless (and more restless), highly-respected freestyle MC Supernatural would come out and rhyme off the head about all types of shit. I first heard of him in ’93 and seen him do this before, but this was the first time seein’ it live. The best of the day was when he dropped lines relating to random items that people in the crowd held up. Favorite quote? “Oh, that’s cute- a man with magic markers”. Hey, it made me laugh.
WHAT SUCKED THE BALLS:
Slick Rick phones it in: I’ve seen Rick the Ruler before… he’s had better days, and he probably will again. But uh, yeah. Eh.
The looooooong wait in between sets: To paraphrase the great Bernie Mac, when they had a break… they broke. Not that I don’t understand, with things havin’ to be checked and whatnot, but good got-damn- they’ve gotta figure out how to make that shit less irritating. The longest interval was plain unreasonable- almost two hours between DJ Premier‘s set and ATCQ, held up because Lauryn wasn’t physically ready to do her performance yet.
Most of Lauryn’s performance: I dunno… I wanted to like it more than I did. Toward the end, it got better with Nas poppin’ up for “If I Ruled The World” and her closing out strong with “Ready Or Not”. But uh, yeah… performance-wise, I’d rank Ms. Hill closer to this than this.
Having to leave early: Not on my watch, but didn’t get to see Snoop n’nem perform the Doggystyle album, which was one of the sets I was most lookin’ forward to. I might just be an a-hole for not considerin’ others’ time constraints, but if I pay $70 to see a show, I wanna see the whole shit, and especially the headliner. You don’t go to a Prince concert and leave after The Time performs.
All in all, good show… days like that remind me of why I still love this shit, and how I came to love it in the first place. Stay tuned and hold tight for a few days, as I’ll be back on Friday to kick off Labor Day weekend with Da Dirty 30: DanjLovesThe80sToo. If you’re relatively new to DLT90s and don’t know what Da Dirty 30 is, this should give you an idea. I gotta get on my job so I can make this happen by Friday, so I’ll catch y’all then. Be easy…
-D!
Man…seeing Ra and ATCQ perform alone would have been worth the $70 price point for me. Sounds like you had a good time.
Definitely that… alcohol also helps, haha
-D!
Danj, you fucking up dude. You really fucking up. You was suppose to be my eyes and ears nigga. You know how I feel about Doggystyle. You fucking up is all I got to say.
Anywhoo….well I guess I can speak for folks when I say that Ms. Hill has left the building. I dont think we will see her like she was on Miseducation. I think Im just gonna hang that shit up. I was expecting for her not to show up for real. But I did hear that someone was MIA for the show, but I never got the answer to who. Is it me or do Ghostface look sick? I dont know. He just didnt look right to me.
Well, glad you had fun. Dont leave until you see everybody next time? I guess I will have to catch them next year.
Ayyyy, like I said… wasn’t on my watch. I’da def. hung around and saw it. Guess I’ll catch it on Youtube or somethin’, lol.
And yeah, L still has the energy, and she seems more interested in music/performing than she’s been in years… but yeah, she’s been subpar thus far with the stage shows. She’s gotten some pretty weak reviews across the board.
Nobody was MIA for the show tho’… unless it was someone on the other stage. All the main artists were there.
-D!
I seen that clip of lauren bringing out all the celebs, they looked like they didnt want to come out lol…she sounded a hot damn mess. Whats up with the super fast flow? And the weird beats? I think she knows she lost a step so she tryna build some bridges, which im not mad at.
Oh yeah… the NY performance…
She said she’s switched her stuff up because she’s just interested in keeping it fresh instead of just running through the same stuff she’s been doing for 10-15 years. She says that’s how she always did it, and always tried to do it different for the stage shows, even with the Fugees. BUT… different doesn’t always = better, so yeah.
-D!
Soooooo vexed that “rock the bells” didn’t make it out to toronto again. I went the last two times and saw ATCQ and De La Soul tear it down. I guess the promoters were worried that half of them wouldn’t make it across the border.
Watching Lauryn like this hurts my heart. I guess we know now that she’s never gonna be like see was in ’98. I’m better off listening to Miseducation or even Unplugged than watching her ruin my memories on stage.
She seems a lil’ erratic, lol.
But yeah, the Quest joint… they still do their thing onstage, heavy. Speakin’ of which, have I ever told you that your pic reminds me of the red/black/green ATCQ woman? LOL
-D!
NO MENTION OF HOW KRS SHUT IT DOWN OR DECK’S PERFORMING EVEN AFTER LEARNING ONLY A FEW HRS EARLIER DAT HIS MOMS PASSED…AND OH YEAH NONE OF THE PRECEDING ACTS WERE THE TIME THEY WERE ALL HEADLINERS!!! C’MON MAN…I WANTED 2 C SNOOP 2 BUT U CAN BLAME DA MOTHER OF ZION 4 HOLDING UP DA SHOW
I’d actually forgot about the Deck thing as I was typing this, but true! That says a lot, for such a major loss to happen and for him to still be able to go out and do that… I’ma have to do some edit work, lol.
But yeah, you’re right about the holdup… and true, I guess I can’t really equate Wu-Tang or ATCQ or KRS (who did rock) or Rakim to The Time… Ms. Hill IS ultimately the culprit behind all the time that was lost. Yet another strike against her, haha
-D!
AND OH YEAH DA SHOW WAS BILLED AS DA D.C. SHOW BUT MERRIWEATHER IS ACTUALLY IN COLUMBIA,MD..LOL
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I was there at Merriweather also. Unfortunately, with this kind of lineup I was disappointed with how the entire venue was held compared to last year. I missed out on Snoop, too. Being there for 12 hours was taking its toll.