One Love. One Music. One people. One Movement. One Heart. One Spark. One way. One day.

(this is one of the pics i took on my phone of wiz. we were so close to him!)

Well…Rock the Bells is over with and I am officially depressed. You knew the post was coming. Yesterday I got home after one of the most ridiculous weekends of my life. It was amazing, exhausting, and completely worth everything. Imagine being on an island with some of the greatest names in hip hop for a full day. That was my life on Saturday…why is it over?

I figure I’ll give you a little review of the show from my perspective. My friend and I didn’t get to Rock The Bells until about 4 due to not understanding the NYC subway system and having to come from Queens. We missed a few of the earlier acts, but were able to see everyone we wanted. After taking the ferry over to Governors Island, you had to walk about a mile to get to where the show was. When you first go through the gates, you basically walk into what’s most likely a giant field. There was a huge merchandise booth in the center and behind that is the paid dues stage. Further to the right are multiple food and drink vendors and then the main stage. There were other vendors set up throughout the middle of the show too; Soterik (a new company that I’ll be writing about tomorrow), multiple clothing booths, etc.

When we first got there, we saw the end of Jedi Mind Tricks and what we saw from them was great. Then Brother Ali was performing on the paid dues stage. My favorite song by him is Uncle Sam Goddamn and he did it in the beginning which was nice. We kind of wandered from one stage to another earlier in the day because we wanted to make sure we saw as many people as possible. After Brother Ali, we walked over to the main stage and waited for Lauryn Hill. My opinion is that the whole show was running behind which is kind of expected when you have so many artists performing throughout the day. She came out at least a half an hour late which pissed off a lot of people. I didn’t really mind, but a lot of people were booing her. Anyway, she still has it. She sounded amazing and kept telling the crowd, “I miss you. I miss you.” I felt kind of bad for her because people weren’t really giving her a chance. I would say the best part of her performance was the reggae version of Fugee La, one of my favorite songs by The Fugees. She ended up calling some of the audience on stage and by audience I mean Jay Z, Alicia Keys, Swizz Beatz, John Legend, Beyonce, etc.

We didn’t stay for all of Lauryn because my friend and I wanted to make sure we saw all of Wiz Khalifa. He more than lived up to my expectations. I fell in love with him during those 45 minutes (ha ha…but seriously). Anna and I pushed our way really close to the stage and posted up for the show. When Wiz came out, my heart melted. He has this presence that makes you so happy; the way he laughs, his movements, his voice. He started off his performance with his verse of “Super High,” which was definitely a hit. The entire playlist was awesome. I feel like Wiz sort of kicked off the show because he was so enthusiastic and amazing. Halfway through his setlist, he took a smoke break and came back on stage. The crowd was wild and definitely digging him. I think I am biased because I love Wiz so much, but he was seriously one of my favorite artists of the day. I’m glad I got to see him before he gets big because my prediction is that he is going to blow up with his Waken Baken tour.

 So after Wiz (and feeling extremely depressed), we went back to the main stage and pretty much posted up here for the rest of the night. Tribe Called Quest was a huge hit and killed it. They sounded like they had never disbanded and had the crowd loving them. The Large Professor and Busta Rymes also made surprise appearances. After Tribe, Wu Tang came out. They were unreal. By this point, the entire crowd was at the main stage and in front of me, hundreds of people were throwing up the W. I don’t think anyone wanted them to end (even though we were excited for Snoop). But Wu just had this energy (and everyone from Wiz Khalifa on) that drew you in and made you want to break it down to some real hip hop.

At this point in the show, we had been standing for about 8 hours. As I’d said, the show was running behind. Snoop Dogg was originally scheduled to be done by 11:45 PM, but I don’t think he even came on until after 11:00 I’m not positive of the time because I fell asleep sitting up while I was waiting for him to come on. I was so exhausted from all the traveling and standing and dancing, but I didn’t want to miss him. I woke up with a jolt as the music started bumping and Snoop came on. He killed it too (obviously).

As soon as that old school Snoop started, the crowd went wild. I personally feel that Snoop was kind of cheated. Being at the end of the show means that a lot of people will leave early (myself included). I know you’re probably thinking “Why wouldn’t you stay until the end?,” but as I said, we were on an island. My friend and I were staying in Queens so we left after about five Snoop songs (with multiple other people). If we stayed until the end, we would have been waiting with however many other thousands of people to catch a ferry back to the city. As it was, we didn’t get back to Queens until 2:30 AM. I think if we stayed, we wouldn’t have gotten back until 5 AM. I love the idea of having a hip hop show on an island, but in some ways it was inconvenient. I probably would have stayed a lot longer if the show was right in the city but I was stressed thinking about getting home.

Anyway, Rock The Bells NYC 2010 was not a disappointment. The main reason I had even discovered the show was because I was looking for Wiz Khalifa tickets and he alone would have been worth it to me. My other favorites were Wu Tang, Tribe Called Quest, Immortal Technique, and Snoop. I wish I could have stayed until the end, but maybe next year. I fully intend to buy tickets to this festival from now on because it is without a doubt worth the money. Where else can you find the BEST hip hop artists in the world, all in one location? Thanks RTB, see ya in 2011.

Rock The Bells…countdown: 2 days.

I’ve been going back and forth about what I should write about today. Part of me wanted to stick with the “Back to School” theme, but it ‘s really depressing me. As if it’s not sad enough that I’m already receiving Marist Alumni mail, emails, etc., I think I might burst into tears if I see one more person who has, “Back to Po-town today” or, “Moving into Marist this weekend!!!” as a Facebook status. Instead, I’m going to talk about something that is making me excited. I’ve already touched upon the subject a few times in other posts…

So what am I talking about? Rock The Bells (RTB) of course. This Saturday, I’ll be attending the 7^th Annual Rock The Bells music festival at Governors Island, New York City. At this point, I can no longer contain my excitement. Over the past few years, I’ve definitely heard people mention RTB, but I never really gave it much thought. I knew it was some type of festival but wasn’t sure what kind of music was featured. Since then, I’ve started doing some research and this is what I found…

RTB is an annual hip hop festival that was originated in Southern California. Since the first festival, which was held in 2004, it has grown in size and traveled the world and other parts of the United States. The concert features a ridiculous too-good-to-be-true lineup of well-known alternative hip hop artists and is usually headlined by someone more mainstream. The first festival featured a reunited Wu-Tang Clan who performed four months prior to Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s death.

As I had mentioned in a previous post, Wiz Khalifa has really grown on me. I’ve been dying to see him in concert since last summer, so I started intensely looking for tickets to any show close to me this year. I was disappointed when I first saw that Wiz wasn’t going to have a summer tour (fortunately he kicks off his Waken Baken tour this September), but was pleasantly surprised when I saw he would be performing at Rock The Bells in California. I actually started looking up plane tickets when I saw this. But then I saw that the show would also be in New York City on Governor’s Island this year. I purchased my tickets immediately.

So who performs at the epic show this year? Let me give you a taste of this year’s lineup: Snoop Dogg, A Tribe Called Quest, Wu-Tang Clan, Slick Rick, DJ Premier, Rakim, KRS-One, Wiz Khalifa, Immortal Technique, Brother Ali, Jedi Mind Trick, Big Sean, Yelawolf, and multiple others. Also, this year’s special guest is Lauryn Hill, who was apparently killing it out in Cali (refer to Lauryn Hill blog post). And tickets are only $100…at least at the NYC show. Though this is probably more than you would pay for a normal concert, I believe it’s well worth the money because you are spending a full day (2 pm until approximately midnight) seeing amazing hip hop artists perform. Sounds pretty phenomenal to me.

I follow Rock the Bells on Twitter and on Facebook to get updates of the previous shows and just to hear about the artists in general. From what I hear, both shows have been amazing. I obviously follow Snoop, Wiz, RZA, etc. on Twitter too and they’re giving all positive feedback. Here’s a review I found from Rolling Stone Magazine on the show: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/17386/193673 . Check it out! Next week I assume I’ll be writing some type of review on the show and hopefully including pictures. If you’re looking for something to do this weekend, I suggest you buy tickets because RTB sounds like it is quite the show! And if you’re going, see ya there. CAN’T WAIT.