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Over the weekend, the Rock The Bells IV concert was held in California. The goal of the show is to bring together the biggest names in hip hop to "Represent + Respect + Recognize," though the lineup was more like a who's who of late-90's rap: Wu-Tang, De La Soul, Redman, Lauryn Hill, Cypress Hill, Supernatural and Mos Def. A lot of interesting stuff jumped off at the concert, most of it available on YouTube. Some of the highlights:
Wu-Tang's tribute to O.D.B. interrupted by Jackass' Steve-O -- a lot of people are up in arms over this, but I have a hard time getting too worked up about it. Wu-Tang, the main act for the concert, dedicated their performance to the late, great Ol' Dirty Bastard. During the set Method Man brought Steve-O on stage, who promptly got naked and did his usual attention-grabbing antics. Though you can't see it in the clip, Raekwon eventually stops the show until Steve-O gives an apology to O.D.B.'s mother, who was in the front row. None of these dudes in Wu-Tang were around to help Dirty when he got out of jail, but now that he's dead they want to do tributes for him? Suspect.
Supernatural freestyle onstage -- after he performed on stage, he went to a club and proceeded to set a world record by freestyling for 8 hours and 45 minutes. If you don't know who Supernatural is, you can read a little more about him here.
Phife Dawg showed up on stage with De La Soul -- there have been rumors of a Tribe Called Quest reunion album in the works, so the fact that Phife is performing again is a good sign.
Immortal Technique and Akir freestyle -- for all my backpacker peoples.
Wu-Tang performing C.R.E.A.M. -- by most accounts, this was the highlight of the show. I like how they dropped the beat for the line "Sticking up White Boys" so that the predominantly white crowd can sing along to it.
And finally, Lauryn Hill made a surprise appearance at the concert. I couldn't find any video of it on youtube, but I did catch some of her performance on MTV. She came on stage looking like a skinny version of Macy Gray and proceeded to do a version of Lost Ones completely off beat. The Marleys have really done some damage to this girl. Every time I see her perform, my hopes for a new Fugees album are diminished that much more.
The website for Rock The Bells has put up a short mix of the artists that performed at the show. You can listen to it here.
8/8/2006 10:24:31 AM posted by Fresh