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 7th 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.
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