If you were brave enough to face the heat and willing to pass up the Sunset Strip Music Festival in West Hollywood, then you know by now that the eighth annual Rock The Bells festival at the San Manuel Amphitheater was the place to be on Saturday.
The festival’s lineup showcased some exceptional talent this year, among them the return of Ms. Lauryn Hill (fresh from a set at LA Rising), Erykah Badu, Common, and a stage curated by the Wu Tang’s own RZA. The real selling point, however, was the return of last year’s plan to have all of the major artists play their classic albums in their entirety.
Because of venue curfew, the festival remained on point with time, a rarity at music events in general and an added plus given the extended set times for all the artists on the main stage. Essentially, it ensured fans would get to hear all that they wanted, but it did cause some things to severely overlap. Common and Souls of Mischief were playing simultaneously after the Mos Def/Talib Kweli collaborative Black Star went M.I.A., as were Erykah Badu and Mobb Deep. Seriously, it was criminal to have to choose between the two.
But difficult decisions aside, the music was phenomenal. Common really opened up the day with Be (there was a large gap between his set and when Black Star was supposed to play), which got the still-forming crowd to rush to the main stage. Cypress Hill raged through an hour-long set, smoking copious amounts of weed on stage and getting the crowd pumped with their classic Black Sunday.
Black Star ended up playing a muted set of about four or five songs after Cypress Hill. It wasn’t a great display of Def’s or Kweli’s talent, but served as a great palate cleanser between sets.
Erykah Badu brought the day into the evening, playing Baduism almost in its entirety. She donned gold jewelry and a top hat outfitted with blue pom poms, deciding halfway that she “needed to take a break from this and play some New Amerykah sh*t,” which drew cheers from everyone. If there was one artist that exhibited the best showmanship, it was certainly her.
If you were able to pry yourself away from Badu’s set, Slaughterhouse apparently killed it on the Paid Dues stage across the field, as did Mobb Deep on the 36 Chambers Stage (curated by RZA) at about the same time.
Nas followed Badu, playing Illmatic, accompanied by a handful of collaborators and a choir, drawing by far the biggest crowd of the night and nearly overwhelming the staff guarding the main stage pit.
Ms. Lauryn Hill ran a little late but took to the stage around ten-thirty, playing a full hour-and-a-half set that not only included the entire The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill album, but a decent selection of Fugees material, a shout out to Mary J. Blige, and a Doors cover as well. People may knock her for her outspoken nature or her tendency to ignore the clock, but her performance is well worth any wait. Ms. Hill runs a tight ship live, and it was clear as she restarted some tracks “just to get them perfect” that it was all in the best interests of her fans. While there was a great deal of people leaving to see Raekwon and Ghostface work it out on the 36 Chambers Stage, Ms. Lauryn Hill gave it her all and played a killer set that reminded everyone in attendance why we missed her talent.
To put it simply, Rock the Bells knows how to hold a good, neat, and satisfying show. Sure, it didn’t come without some issues. Some fans were grumbling about the exorbitant ticket fees and the segregation of the VIP seats, but essentially you get what you pay for, and when it comes right down to it, you’re guaranteed to hear some fantastic sounds in a nice venue with other diehard fans. When it’s put that way, what’s not to love?
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