Hip-Hop Heaven: Rock the Bells Kicks Off in Chicago (Review)
Rock The Bells Chicago was one of the most unbelievable musical experiences I’ve ever had. From freestyling with Mickey Factz backstage to rejoicing with crazed moshers as M.O.P. finally ended the suspense and blasted “Ante Up,” I can say that Rock the Bells could easily be equated to hip-hop heaven. In this review, I’ll try my best to cover all of the performances there, however understand that I attended as many as I could, and was forced to make impossible decisions like, The Roots or Raekwon? Or, Reflection Eternal or Slum Village? In the end, I regretted missing every show that I did. Fortunately, I had some friends with me who went to the shows I didn’t go to, and were able to fill me in on nearly every performance of the day. I’ll try to go chronologically first, and then wrap up with the highlights, lowlights and surprises.
My day started at 2:00, when Murs finally stopped making fun of people in the audience (though he was funny) and yielded the stage to Mickey Factz, who was undoubtedly the artist with the smallest
following at the festival (besides Tabi Booney). Mickey delivered his hits very well, and his stage presence was fantastic, surpassing the expectations of most, and drawing a substantial number of people to his stage over the course of his performance. It was definitely a win for Mickey; performing his most popular songs “Rockin ‘n’ Rollin,” “Incredible,” and “Sensibility,” the last of which is to be featured on a new Honda Accord commercial. Overall, the festival had a good beginning.
Psycho Realm followed Mickey, and the intensity of the small stage picked up tremendously. Tatoo-covered, bandana sporting giants crazed with the passion of Psycho Realm’s grim and violent style infiltrated the crowd, screaming and flailing about like they belonged in a room with padded walls. Realm’s show was very high energy; unfortunately I departed half way in to catch the beginning of The Knux on the big stage. The big problem with the amphitheater staging was that if you were far from the performers, the acoustics were decent at best, often making the performances a lot less captivating than those on stage two, where the audience was literally on top of the stage, constantly reaching up to touch the artists they worshipped. The Knux did decently, however they missed the mark in terms of onstage intensity and this greatly detracted form their show.
A little more than half way though The Knux, I went back to the small stage, where I caught the second half of Eyedea and Abilities, quite possibly the most emotionally charged show at Rock The Bells. I wasn’t the only one in the audience wincing as I watched Eyedea, an emaciated, stringy-haired white man, writhe and profusely sweat on the stage, lyrically packing more punch than a lot of the bigger name artists, but all the while looking as though he was going through heroine withdrawal. Abilities’ technical prowess with the turntables, computer software and mixing equipment brought an electro feel to the set, broadening the spectrum of genres at Rock the Bells quite nicely. As the show ended, I was torn between being thankful that Eyedea had survived the seemingly traumatic event and wishing that there had been more. Overall, it one of the most effective performances of the day.
Deciding to forego watching Necro, I went back to the large stage, where I was able to catch Chali 2Na’s final minute of performing. I was informed that he had been very good, but again, if you weren’t right next to the stage, the acoustics were not the greatest, and the sound didn’t travel as effectively as it did from the small stage. I watched the very beginning of K’Naan’s set, and was then told that Evidence & Alchemist missed their flight, and that Buckshot would be on the small stage next as a result of this. I literally sprinted to the small stage.
I can say with confidence that this was a very good decision. Possibly the best show I’ve seen all year, Buckshot was absolutely transcendent, throwin’ it back to all the Black Moon singles of the nineties that brought the streets and the clubs to life. “This isn’t a rap show… this is a hip-hop gathering” he exclaimed at one point. Truer words haven’t been spoken. From his old material with Black Moon and Boot Camp Clik, he progressed to his new singles, where he continued to pound the audience with lyrical explosion after lyrical explosion, never letting the crowd rest for a second. And then, out of nowhere, Naledge of Kidz in the Hall came out, performing “Drivin’ Down the Block,” which shocked and energized the audience while Buckshot took advantage of the opportunity to rest. After his hiatus, he came right back to the forefront, jumping, posing, screaming and dancing to his productions form 9th Wonder and others. As if the show couldn’t get better, KRS-One, who was supposed to be hosting the main stage, came unannounced into Buckshot’s set, performing a lot of his old material, including songs he recorded with Marley Marl. The show culminated with the two performing the single “Robot” from the forthcoming album Survival Skills, collaboration between Buckshot and KRS. “This is the OFFICIAL death of auto-tune” KRS thunders, and the audience thunders right back, pushing so close to the stage that KRS begins slapping and shaking hands. Between the music, the energy and the guest appearances, the Buckshot set was one for the ages.
Next came M.O.P., and they need no introduction. The duo, looking a little aged but never tired, came out hard, creating much suspense surrounding “Ante Up” before finally letting it play for a finale, during which a mosh pit broke out in front of me, and a guy got punched in the chest and carried away. It was completely worth it.
Faced with yet another impossible decision, I decided to skip Sage Francis & B. Dolan, only because Reflection Eternal was on the big stage, their forthcoming album the first release of the duo since Train of Thought, one of my all time favorite hip-hop albums. Before the duo, I caught some of Tech N9ne’s show, which was quite well done. The man himself appears insane, always performing in face paint, his head movement always perfectly synchronized with the cocked shotgun sound effect from his DJ. The following Reflection Eternal show went above and beyond my expectations, however; Hi-Tek was fine with seamlessly meshing joint after joint from the DJ booth, allowing Tabil Kweli to endlessly flow over his entire career. Hi-Tek kept Kweli on his feet, hitting him with solo singles like “Hot Thing” and “Get By” before spinning Blackstar classics “Definition,” “RE: Definition” and “Respiration.” The duo then switched rolls, Hi-Tek taking the mic and performing tracks from “Hi-Teknology” and “Hi-Teknology 2.” The set concluded with Reflection Eternal material, starting with the old, and ending with the new. Their upcoming album Revolutions per Minute is set to release sometime this summer.
From there, I got carried away in Big Boi’s set, performing mainly Outkast music, and didn’t have a chance to catch Slum Village, which I heard was debatably one of the best shows of the day. I did have a chance to catch Slaughterhouse, the four members bringing equally high energy to a lively crowd. I was able to catch “Ice Cream” by Raekwon, which was a solid event, before forcing myself to ‘exit’ the Wu-Tang and enter the main stage for The Roots. Oh man.
Black Thought was the only man using a microphone. The seven-part band included the obviously legendary Questlove, keyboard, hand percussion, bass, guitar, and Damon “Tuba Gooding Jr.” Bryson playing the Sousaphone. Every song meshed, every sound was perfect; it wasn’t a performance as much as it was a long jam session. In fact, it was fairly difficult to decipher where songs ended and where they began, or if indeed they were actual songs at all. The audience present was pleased, but in my mind wasn’t nearly enthusiastic enough. The Roots brought it all, and absolutely destroyed their set.
From there, the second stage was shut down, and the two remaining acts had every person at the festival. The first was Busta Rhymes, whose highlights included a larger scale version of “Ante Up,” with M.O.P., as well as a lot of his career singles, e.g. “Touch It,” “Arab Money,” “Break Yo Neck,” and so on. I wasn’t really impressed by the musical intensity of the Rhymes show; had he been on the small stage, he would have been easily out-performed by M.O.P., Buckshot and KRS, or Eyedea and Abilities. I kept this in mind while I watched his performance. The scale was certainly misleading in terms of the quality of the act.
The closing act of Rock The Bells was a well-executed Nas & Damien Marley set. Designed as promotion for their collaborative album “Distant Cousins,” which was supposed to be released in the Spring of 2009 and has yet to be dropped, Damien Marley started the act with a lot of his music, both new and old. Though Marley’s musical quality was high, he energy wasn’t quite where it needed to be, and since a lot of the hip-hop obsessed crowd wasn’t familiar with a his reggae, the audience’s attention slackened during the period. When Nas came out, the mood changed completely. The two performed their collaboration “Road to Zion” before embarking on what could possibly have been the most musically interesting portion of any set at Rock The Bells. The two began trading instrumentals in essence… First, Damien’s acoustic band would play a track from The Halfway Tree, or Welcome to Jamrock, and Nas would spit a verse from Stillmatic, or It Was Written. Then, Nas’s DJ would spin an instrumental from Illmatic, and Damien would perform a verse from one of his older songs over it. The effect was sensational, bringing the crowd to life. My personal favorite was Damien’s freestyle rapping over “N.Y. State of Mind.”
From there, Nas took the stage alone, performing his typical cycle of “One Mic,” “Hip Hop Is Dead,” “Got Yourself a Gun,” and so on, which was fine. When Damien came back onto the stage, the two performed “Welcome to Jamrock,” and then went into some of the material from the “Distant Cousins” album, which was a questionable call, since no one was familiar with the new songs at all. The set as a whole was executed according to plan, but as expectations were so high, the only portion of the performance that exceeded them was the culture clash in the middle of the set.
I think I’ve covered nearly every performance there, and most definitely the performances I saw. When I asked Mickey Factz what he thinks of hip-hop, he smiled, responding “Hip-hop is the greatest music in the world.” When I pressed him, asking how he liked the direction that hip-hop was taking, he smiled again, “I love the direction hip-hop is taking. I mean, look what we’re doing here. As long as we’re allowed to celebrate like this, I couldn’t care less about the radio.” Upon reflection, I couldn’t agree more.
Best Performance: It was a really close call between Buckshot and The Roots, but I have to give it to Buckshot, simply because the show kept a high level of energy and kept the audience on its toes, with the guest appearances and the plethora of music that was performed from multiple generations.
Worst Performance: I hate to be mean, but it’s gotta happen to someone… and that someone has to be K’Naan. Unpopular as it may seem, and being a huge K’Naan fan myself, I was startled at how uncoordinated and lacking in energy his show was. He would go on long acapella stints, trying to make the crowd sing difficult melodic passages that he could handle with ease only because he is a really good singer. Overall, he just didn’t put it together at all as a performer.
I hate to say it, but because no one knew who he was and he was early in the day, I’ll have to give it to Tabi Booney.
Surprisingly Good: Tie between Eyedea and Abilities and Mickey Factz. Both had high energy and solid performances, though a lot of the people in the crowd didn’t necessarily know the music. Both performances kept the audience in step, and both were very effective.
Surprisingly Bad: The Knux. Good music, but it was just not a very well thought-out show in general. K’Naan had a bit of the same problem, but he dragged even more than them.
Best Performance Presence: Undoubtedly KRS-One. If you came to Rock The Bells without understanding how much of a legend KRS was, you certainly left with a full understanding of why great rappers call him their teacher. I mean, the man freestyled about how the only democracy in the history of the world happened in 408 BC in Athens… in between shows.
Craziest Show: Three-way tie between Psycho Realm, M.O.P. and Eyedea & Abilities. All three made a good number of people uncomfortable, and for different reasons. Eyedea is insane, Psycho Realm’s fans are insane, and M.O.P. went so hard that a lot of the fans couldn’t handle it.
Festival Overall: Like I said, if hip-hop heaven existed, this would be it. Only with Tupac, Biggie, and a few others.
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