One-half of Juan Epstein reports (not-so) live and direct from this past Sunday’s Rock The Bells festival, with The Alchemist, Grap Luva, Raekwon, Evidence, Nikki Jean, M.O.P., Elzhi, Tech N9ne, Slaughterhouse, and Uncle Q in tow. And check out a special message from KRS-One under the cut from the T-Dot stop. What’s the general consensus people? I’ve heard more negative responses than positive ones…
I thought it was good, i havent been to rock the bells ever before though. Didn’t really have any expectations
why do they say DC? it wasnt in DC, it was in colombia,md
Am I the only one who thought this year’s show was a huge step down from last year. How do you have MOP (one of the best performances of the day in my opinion), Slum Village, Buckshot, and Raekwon/RZA on the “paid dues” second stage and then have Knaan, Charli 2na, The Knux, and Tech Nine on the main stage. Then to make matters worst they scheduled them in a way that you had to pick and choose which acts you were going to miss. Like if you saw Common’s set then you missed Slum village. The crowd was definitely thin this year!
Nas’s performance was pretty good, he messed up some lyrics and his energy was kind of ehhhh. Bringing out AZ was a huge highlight. I was VERY disapointed in The Roots performance. I don’t know if it’s seeing them so many times, maybe the fact that there last two albums were lackluster, or maybe it’s the new Jimmy Fallon gig. Whatever the reason their performance was pretty dry and rather short (although I heard that ?uestlove put in a great 2 hour MJ tribute set at a local DC spot that night).
Also KRS-One was pretty annoying (this is coming from a native from the BX); He just droned on and on. Overall I give the show a 5.5/10, with the best performances as follows:
1. Common (shocked me too writing that)- was a nice touch having trugoy come out to the do The Bizness
2. MOP- that was a damn shame they weren’t on the main stage
3. Nas – Did most of Illmatic and had AZ, Pharoah Monch, and Styles P come out during his set to replace Damien Marley.
4. Busta Rhymes- had the most energy and got the crowd AMPED up!
Overall I would give it a 5.5/10
They had better come through with a better line up next year!
07 in NY was the best one I’ve seen. this year was a big letdown and like many have said the way they picked who was on what stage was simply retarded. Oh and word to above it was in columbia i don’t even know why the site said dc, shits closer to bmore anyway