If you read my “In Preparation” piece, you guessed how excited I was. The Chicago show was just before the Toronto show and I heard some early reviews and such. It is hard to judge that because each venue, each city, each artist brings something different every time. You could tell me it was going to be the worst show ever, but it really wouldn’t lessen my excitement for this (possible) once in a lifetime opportunity.

The names on the line up alone were enough to make you foam at the mouth; I could barely get any sleep the night before. I rolled up with my buddy to the Arrow Hall (International Center) venue in Malton at 11:50am. Keep the times in mind, because those will be the downfall of this festival. We enter and first things first, I have to check my camera. I couldn’t bring in the one thing that could provide priceless memories. Not only that, there was a ridiculously long line up to get wristbands, so that you could wait in another line up to get tickets (with the wristbands) to get booze, then wait in line again to get beer. I was feeling sick, so I just bought 2 beers, gave one to my stingy friend and chugged one myself. With that said, the set up was a little poor. As I said, lineups for anything, the shirt selection was rather weak (and expensive), and the no camera thing was brutal. Only one food source (Pizza Pizza) to feed the entire crowd over a span of 11 hours and lack of drinks to last the entire night was another downfall. Not only that, there weren’t even water fountains in the building. It was getting bad, not to mention standing for 11+ hours. With that said…on with the show.

Kidz In The Hall were in a difficult position to be in because, well, the opening act is always a tough spot. They still gave it 110% in front of a crowd that could care less if they were on, however, “Driving Down The Block” thumped hard and got the audience up. Naledge also did “A Millie” freestyle; add that on to the six others out there.

Supernatural came on next to introduce himself, but I was in one of the many lines, so this is heavily from word of mouth. Apparently people were throwing things at him and stuff was put up on screen and he was just spitting it everything relevant. I saw him later on and I mean the dude really was freestyling. It is a lost art in hip hop these days, and Supernatural demonstrates the art in its truest form.

Once again, in another line, The Cool Kids came on. I’m more or less a Cool Kids fan, but aside from the familiar material, nothing was really pumping up. They had about a 25 minute set too, but sure, they were fine.

Jay Electronica (fresh off of his Nas production credit) came on dressed like he was with the Laker practice squad. Still, I wasn’t going to be ignorant because I know he is a great lyricist. Although I’m not familiar by name with his material, he didn’t really deliver. He was yelling at the soundman harshly and seemed more concerned with getting his lyrical point across. Don’t believe me? He rapped the same verse 4 times, twice in a cappella. It was rather annoying, slow, and boring. I’m not knocking his skill, just his live show.

The show really got kicked off when Murs came on stage. No DJ because of boarder issues (Canada shows suffer a lot due to this kind of thing) but he did bring a burnt CD full of instrumentals. Opening with “Better Than the Best” was dope, but from there it was all 9th collabs. Taking requests from the crowd (and the few who knew him) he did “3:16″, “The Pain”, and surprisingly “Walk like a Man.” I even shouted out “Freak These Tales” and he responded by saying: “No, no, that’s too bad for this audience” or something along those lines. It made sense, it’s not exactly female friendly. He controlled the crowd though, really got them going and amped up. 5 people asked me about him, so there you go Murs, you got +5 album sales because of me!

This time around, when Supernat came on stage, he brought Scratch (formally of the Roots) with him. Scratch began to create beats on the spot with his recorder and human beat box skills. He redid “Put You on the Game”, “Get UR Freak On”, and “This is Why I’m Hot” to perfection while Supernat took things from the audience and rapped about them including a Vince Carter jersey (booooo), and a Tribe Called Quest shirt. It was a long break and it was probably about 3:30 by this time and Rakim was supposed to go on.

A live band starts setting up, and I’m wondering who it is. Well what do you know, introductions for Imani, Fatlip, SlimKid, and Bootie Brown are made and The Pharcyde are brought onto the stage and open with “Pharcyde.” They do classics like “Ya Mama” and “Drop” with those being two highlights. “Drop” on the live instruments was great given the backwards Dilla beat. Bootie Brown seemed pretty dull, upset, or high throughout the entire performance, but was fully charged for his verse on “Dirty Harry.’ Fatlip was blowing raspberries on stage but had the crowd hopping for “What’s Up Fatlip?” Imani was dancing in front of the camera and was way too into himself and Slimkid was extremely focused. Regardless, hearing my favourite hip hop song live, “Passing Me By,” nearly brought a tear to my eye. Rarely do you get a group with 4 outstanding and possible lead members and the Pharcyde reunited to prove that they should be mentioned with the greatest hip hop groups of all time too.

From one classic group to another, De La Soul completely tore up the stage and brought one of the more memorable performances of the night. They brought 110% to the stage even at their age, but like fine wine, they only get better. Performing “Supa Emcees” and “Stakes is High” were nice surprises, and you can still hear the anger in Trugoy’s first verse every time you hear the song. They continued to do classics, and Pos even had a chat with the audience while the sound was being fixed up. They finished on a high note with Pos doing his “Rock Co. Kane Flow” verse three times! It was so dope, but there was no surprise entrance by Doom. I’ve seen De La Soul live three times now, and they never get old. Not their act, not their music, not their style or their message. They are truly timeless.

Mos Def was up next and performed a really unsatisfying set. I’m not sure if he was trying new things or just way into himself, it was a rather upsetting performance and I know I’m not the only one who feels this way. He spent most of his set paying homage to older Reggae tracks, which was fine, but they were almost FULL tracks. He’d take a second to spit his and Kweli’s verse from “Definition” and even the chorus for “Travellin’ Man.” But much like his last show in Toronto, no “Mathematics” and a really weird and off flow performance of ‘Umi Says.” He did perform “Hip Hop” which was really dope because that is also arguably one of his best tracks, but it was just a weird performance all around. It was quite dull and boring. C’mon Mos!

That performance actually made me want to get some air, so I left to get some air and find a seat (a seat= a spot on the floor up against the wall 200 feet down the hall). When I came back, I saw the name Rakim up on the screen. He was having sound issues and was really giving it to the sound guy. He actually opened with ‘Guess Who’s Back” and proceeded to yell at the sound guy more. He actually ended up doing “Paid In Full” and threatened to leave. He was acting like a big baby and he was arguably the oldest guy in the room. He stayed and did “Ain’t No Joke”, “Microphone Fiend”, and “Juice.” All I could keep thinking about was “Why is Rakim being such a baby?” I was thinking, “I paid money to see this guy” and not only that, he’s one of the greatest ever! It was kind of unprofessional on his behalf, but it was fine, the next act was the groundbreaker.

All hell literally broke loose. I wish I knew what song Redman and Method Man opened too, it could be something off of the upcoming “Blackout 2″ , but it was the perfect set. Redman got a verse or two of his own stuff including ‘Time 4 Sum Aksion”, “Da Goodness”, “I’ll be Dat” and “Tonight’s Da Night.” Method Man certainly got his solo thing on with ‘Bring The Pain”, “M.E.T.H.O.D. M.A.N”, as well as their fair share of duo tracks like “How High” Part 1 and 2 (with an announcement that How High 2 Movie coming out soon), their verses on “4,3,2,1″ and the ever rocking, ever wild, “Da Rockwilder.” Really, it really didn’t get much better than this. I was speechless for about five minutes and they really got everyone going. What showmen, what performers, what professionals. They delivered and really raised the bar for me as far as live performances go.

As I went out to get some more air, I walked in on Nas performing “N.I.G.G.E.R”…The WHOLE song. Then “Sly Fox”…The WHOLE song. Then “Hero”…The WHOLE song. Then “Breathe”…the WHOLE song. You actually started to remember he had a new album out, it’s not like he was promoting it. Whatever, Preemo’s drums pump in and “NY State of Mind” comes in and I lose my mind. He performed another 5 songs off of “Illmatic” which was so surprising and did a bunch of his classics. Nas really isn’t the greatest live performer. He fumbles a bunch of lyrics, runs out of breath (hit the gym Nas!), and loses his voice plenty of times. The crowd (more so, myself) was rapping many of the lyrics. He is quite inspiring when he is up on stage, strictly based on his presence. The performance of “One Mic” sticks out because of how inspirational that song is. I was thinking that it was simply hearing the songs live that was so great, as opposed to seeing Nas live up on stage, but who am I kidding, to be in the presence of arguably the greatest MC ever was great. Oh, and Green Lantern was his DJ if that matters.

For only the second time of the night, a live band comes on stage. Q-Tip comes out on stage in a backpack and opens to “Feva”, the J Dilla produced heater. Mos even came on stage to drop his verse on the remix. He went on to the classic trunk thumper, “Let’s Ride” and a very dope performance of “Sucka N*gga.” He went on to do “Breathe and Stop” as well as “Vivrant Thing” before doing “Getting Up” off of his upcoming album. It was dope, it really was but everyone knew it was just a matter of time before the roof blue off.

The Tour Guide then comes on the sound system and the 6 bass guitar kicks in with the 6 string loop. I know it, the crowd knows it… “YO” and in comes Phife. “Bugging Out’ blazes and the room starts to shake. To re-list all of the tracks they did would be impossible. But yeah, they did all of their classics and even some unexpected joints like “Excursions” and “Footprints” but left out some expected tracks like “Luck of Lucian” and “We Can Get Down.” Still, it was an electric performance and just when you thought it was over, they came out to “Can I Kick It?” for an encore. Phife looked as healthy as he has in a while too. It was all around beautiful to see Jarobi, Ali Shaheed, Tip and Phife on the same stage once again. It’s always a memorable experience.

All in all, there were minor qualms, but really nothing that you wouldn’t put up with for hip hop. I shifted around in the audience a few times, had a terrible back and hip pain (and I recently had a serious hip surgery), and paid for booze that I didn’t drink. The performances by Mos Def and Rakim were somewhat salty by the end of the night, but the great performances from Red and Meth and Tribe certainly trumped any negative. It really was worth every penny paid and I urge you to buy a ticket and experience the hip hop event of a lifetime if you ever get a chance to experience it.

Pictures courtesy of my home girl Taryn. These are probably the best pictures you’ll see from the show.

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