Nas goes off on this one. Fresh off the release of Distant Relatives, Nasir laces the Evil Genius with an exclusive for his new mixtape dropping tomorrow. Kinda dope how he repeats the line from “It Ain’t Hard To Tell,” which has been Green Lantern’s drop for years now.
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Fags are all lost, I’m at the Waldorf
Van Cleef under the sleeve, save your smalltalk
Yesterday, Internets Celebrity Dallas Penn sent out this tweet early in the afternoon, so I tried putting him in contact with the right people over @ Guerilla Union who would be able to get him not only inside the festival, but hopefully, close enough for him to be able to do his thing for les internets, and possibly get footage of this historic day.
Sadly, it didn’t happen, but he did manage to find his way in on his own. Below is an account of the events going on both inside and outside the concert (after the jump.) accompanied by the above video for people who aren’t into reading his long-ass blog drop.
N8,
Your homey Derek wasn’t able to put me on the list. But since I took this godforsaken ferry to this island I wasn’t about to be shut down for a lack of a credentials. Here’s my recap of the shit I did get to do at Rock The Bells…
Rock The Bells is the most gonzo retarded way to experience a rap concert. Its an all day buffet of some of Hip-Hop’s most longstanding, established acts along with some of the most notoriously obscure.
Obscure in the sense that only Dart Adams would know of all the artists on the Paid Dues stage. But even the upcoming and underground acts on the second stage of this festival had hardbody followings. I still haven’t listened to Wiz Khalifa but my homeys that caught his set tell me a star was born on Governor’s Island.
I was too busy trying to get backstage during the Lauryn Hill set. The backstage area was a zoo filled with the who’s who of (old head) Hip-Hop. If you released a record in the 1990s this was like your class reunion. Provided you were still alive of course. I was a little frightened that the A Tribe Called Quest set was going to be a Phife memorial since there was a grip of folks walking around with t-shirts with his face emblazoned on them. It turns out that the shirts were only promo for his new album. Whew. Nowadays the biggest news from my era of the culture is usually the death of an artist.
The ATCQ and Wu-Tang sets were my reason for venturing out to the festival. I can’t do these all day concert events any longer especially if I’m not using any drugs and I was going into this one completely sober. I needed to have all my wits about me since I didn’t have a press credential or even a ticket for that matter.
The third date of this year’s Rock The Bells festival tour hit the tri-state area yesterday and the stars were all out. Photographer Ernest Estimé was there to capture the events from this night that might never repeat itself.
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Cee-Lo said “Tears of Joy” almost represents a “homecoming” for him in the eyes of some fans to his soulful roots, first introduced with Outkast and his group Goodie Mob. Cee-Lo also argued that he’s actually never left those musical beginnings; he’s just simply ventured out and experimented on such projects as Gnarls Barkley’s two LPs to show his peers and the fans how far hip-hop could go and to express his different sides.
“It is a continuation of the same revolution I have always talked about,” he insisted. “It’s the fact that people don’t know me completely. I’m just now telling you more about myself. I’m a book, not a magazine.”
Cee-Lo’s next album, Lady Killer, comes out later this year, and he’s also working on the next album from Goodie Mob.
“The solo album is something completely different. I got that mixtape out there, Stray Bullets, which is a prequel to the album Lady Killer. That’s got nothing to do with what I do with Goodie, besides quality. But Goodie, man, that’s what ‘Tears of Joy’ represents. I hope people can see the bigger picture. None of that is lost in me. I ain’t got so rich and famous that I separated from the soul. That’s me, that’s what I’m about. It’s on the tip of my tongue at all times. It’s people wanting that and needing that, that’s all the incentive I need. That’s what makes my life worth living, especially when I remember there was time I ain’t have nothing constructive to say. So any time I can do it, I feel like I’m further ensuring good favor in my rights of passage, being pleasing in the sight of my maker. It truly means that much to me. My pain runs deep. All of that is behind what I got to sing.”
For anyone wondering when Cee-Lo will make a full-throttle return to rapping, he said it will be on the Goodie Mob reunion LP, which doesn’t have a release date yet.
“When people be asking why I don’t rap no more, it’s not that. … It’s gotta come,” he explained. “I’mma isolate that to the Goodie Mob. That’s all I care to rap about. Rappin’ is like a contact sport. It’s an attitude. So the only thing I get angry about is the calls [about me not rapping]. That makes me wanna fight. As far as somebody stepping on my shoes, because we standing too close to each other, I don’t have that problem. Nobody does what I do. I don’t have no conflict. So I can do what eases my mind. I do believe that music is not meant to agitate; it’s meant to soothe the savage beast. I’m one of them beasts. It soothes me. I’m impressed, because I can separate myself from it and give credit to a higher power. It ain’t really me. To be able to sing is a blessing to me. But really, you hurt so bad, sometimes I can’t even rap about it. I gotta sing. That’s why it always hurts a little bit no matter what I’m singing. There’s pain in it. As far as Goodie goes, I got that. That’s all I’m trying to tell y’all.”
UPDATE 8/29: The first leak of this on Friday had a skip @ 1:35. Ye posted a newer mix over the weekend with a few musical changes but more importantly, no skips.
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DJ Premier talks to DubCNN about meeting MC Eiht during Premo’s first visit to Cali in ’89 and how he linked up with him again to executive produce his upcoming album, Which Way Iz West.
