Rock the Bells was yesterday. It's the third time I've gone, and there were a few new treats this year. They started doing some full albums last year, and continuing that trend this year with more legendary albums was exciting. Here's a chronological run-down of the performances I watched:
Souls of Mischief performing '93 Till Infinity: We got to the show about halfway through the album, but fortunately the last three songs, '93 Till Infinity, Limitations, and Anything Can Happen are my three favorite songs on the album. Good stuff.
Common performing Be: Ok. I like Common. I recognize that he's talented. There are even songs of his that I love. But watching him for over an hour, especially when there are other acts I'm more excited to see, can be rough. His lyrics sometimes make me feel like I'm watching a Dr. Phil episode with beats. I'm not saying that I'm against rap with positive lyrics, but the production often mirrors the lyrics, and sometimes there's just not a lot of bite to it. I'm posting an old song of his I do love. Sadly he didn't play it.
Black Star (Mos Def and Talib Kweli) performing Black Star: Well this proves that I'm not biased against "positive rap," cause Black Star discuss similar themes, but the lyrics are better, the production is better, and Mos Def in particular just has a very distinctive voice and flow. "Respiration" is one of my favorite songs (I actually use it to open poetry units sometimes, cause the lyrics are so good), and it sounded great.
Cypress Hill performing Black Sunday: At first I was really bummed to hear that they weren't performing their first album, because that's a better album. Black Sunday is good, but their self-titled is great. Thankfully they opened with my three favorite songs from their first album! B-Real is another MC with a very distinctive voice (DJ Muggs does too, actually), and Cypress Hill's songs came off really good live. After two consecutive hours of positivity, it was good to get grimy again. I'm posting "Real Estate," a great song with a filthy sample from their first album.
Mobb Deep performing The Infamous: Speaking of grime, this might be the ultimate grime album. Prodigy and Havoc have always been two of the best MCs, and they haven't lost it. "Survival of the Fittest" and Shook Ones, Part II" sounded especially great.
Genius/Gza performing "Liquid Swords": I've been waiting to see this album performed live for a long time, and it was great. It's not the kind of album that is gonna get people jumping around; the beats are great, but they're slightly more down-tempo than the ones on 36 Chambers and Cuban Linx. They're more of a showcase for Gza's ridiculous lyrics and flow. The stage got really packed as people started filtering over from Nas (who we skipped cause we'd seen before), and everyone was loving it.
Lauryn Hill: Meh. Forty-five minutes late at the end of a long day. We'd seen her before, so we listened to a couple of songs then beat the crowd out. She was the queen of the world for a while, but unfortunately (mostly due to her own choices, it seems) she's not anymore. Please tone down the diva. Thanks!
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