After Rakim's set was finished, we scurried over to the Paid Dues stage to see a pale, over weight bearded man that resembled Santa Claus. The first thing that came to my mind was, "What the . . .," but I stopped . . . because I listened. The deep bass in his voice mixed with inspiring and true to life lyrics made me feel something that most radio rap artists don't give you, their heart. This artist was Brother Ali and upon hearing one verse, I knew I'd want to hear more. This man's soul can be described as nothing short of beautiful. He interacted with the crowd in a very emotional and passionate way, revealing he's an overweight, partially blind, albino man from Minnesota. He's not ashamed of who he is and who he is is a great artist.
My friend and I noticed that the Clipse, who are my favorite duo, set time was taken off and replaced by an intermission; suffice to say, I was disappointed. We rushed over to the Main stage to see KRS-ONE perform "Criminal Minded," another old school rap album that I have. During his set, he looked over to the VIP section on the side of the stage and asked, "What is this? The VIP section and shit?" He then turned to the crowd in front of the stage and emphatically said, "This is the VIP section!" The crowd went crazy and I had to smile and laugh after hearing that. After one my favorite KRS-ONE songs, "9mm," he shared the story of how him and his DJ, who was killed back in the late 80s, met. KRS was homeless and his DJ, Scott La Rock was his counselor. Scott asked KRS what he wanted to do with his life. KRS said, "I want to be an MC!" Scott looked at him and said, "Man, I'm a DJ." That's how it all got started for this famous hip hop duo that created "The Bridge is Over."
After KRS-ONE's set was over, we hurried to the Paid Dues stage to see none other than Immortal Technique. I used to listed to him a lot in high school but stopped recently. I've always liked his music, but there's so much music out there I just stopped listening. With that being said, it was great to be reintroduced. His songs, like I remember, revolved around real issues and everyday problems while being very critical of the world we live in. This makes for some really good music, but just to hear this music, we had to pack ourselves in the overcrowded hanger like sardines. When you hear people say they couldn't move . . . this was it. It got so hot in there, a girl in the front row passed out. It may have always been some pills that she popped a few hours before, but I don't know. Immortal stopped the show when he saw this, jumped off the stage, and got the girl some water. Chino XL then carried the girl outside. Immortal then proceeded to talk about protecting the people. Would any artist do this? I doubt that, they'd probably just call security.
We had the pleasure of seeing Tribe perform next, now when I say this I mean just Q-tip and Phife Dog, but that's all that was needed. They performed their first album Midnight Marauders and some of their hits. I've only heard Low End Theory but I knew a few songs off their first album. Their performance was amazing, Q-tip controlled the stage like he created it. Him and Phife were able to work the crowd perfectly. During their performance, the perform one of their hit songs, "Scenario." One of the special guests for the evening revealed themselves, none other than Busta Rhymes! Busta was able to bring his energy out there and excite the crowd to no end. It was a welcomed surprise.
My favorite part of this exciting day had to be Wu-Tang performing 36 Chambers in it's entirety. This was the one album that was performed that I knew ALL of the words too. In addition, all 9 members were there except for O.D.B. of course, who was replaced by his son. Method man is as tall as he looks, RZA is super skinny, and Raekwon is a big dude. More importantly, the album is a classic and proved so when they performed it. They even did the skit with Method Man and Raekwon where they're talking about torturing each other. During the last song of the album, "Protect Your Neck," we decided to get a drink perform everyone else rushed over there. Of course, the line was still long. After they finished the song, I heard the familiar beat to a song made by a duo that's made up of one half Method Man. Yes, I'm talking about Meth & Red and the song is "Da Rockwilder." I was stuck in line and I'm still unsure if Red Man came up, but I wouldn't doubt it.
Snoops performance was the last and one that a majority of people were waiting for. The album has a lot of skits and each was presented on a screen on-stage. The albums aggressive and high energy. The crowd responded to this and was always excited . . . except during the sometimes fairly long skits. Snoop dedicated a part of his performance to his cousin Nate Dogg who's apparently still hospitalized. A remember awhile back Nate Dogg had a heart attack, but it sounds like his condition never improved. We left before Snoop finished to avoid traffic and as we were walking to the car, he started to perform "Ain't No Fun." Ironically, after we got into the car, a couple of girls walked up to us and told us they couldn't find their car and don't remember where they parked. They were probably so high they just didn't remember, but I told them to get in and managed to help them. All in all, it was a good day.
Disclaimer: I enjoyed every moment of my trip to and my time at Rock the Bells. I was merely experimenting with a writing style. For segments that seems like I was complaining, those things weren't even a problem. I had a great time and will be going back next year.
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