Rock The Bells in San Bernadino, Skillafornia Saturday August 5th @ Orange Show

[djkoast]

Rock The Bells presented by Guerilla Union sponsored by every thugs favorite alcohol Hennessy, MySpace, and a whole shit load of small vendors selling everything under the sun. Most importantly though all the people who decided to drive down the 10 and 215 freeways to sit in 90+ degree weather to see Wu-Tang Clan, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Redman, De La Soul, Immortal Technique, Dilated Peoples, B-Real, Murs, Living Legends, Del the Funky Homosapien, Supernatural, Planet Asia, with guest apperances from Phife Dog, Dres from Black Sheep, Sen Dog, Fred Wreck, and Lauryn Hill.

I am going to do a run down of most of the westcoast acts and of course De La, Mos, Talib, Red, and Wu.

--Planet Asia was the very first REAL act that came on. Plugged his new album The Medicine and ran through his normal set of songs he likes to perform. Even throwing on some stunna shades to give props to the area a few hours north of Fresno to get hyphy. PA had a tough spot seeing as alot of people had not shown up yet including myself. Caught about the last half of his set.

--Murs came blazing on stage to warm up in his all pink Nikes (shout out to Camron) with a nice pubic service announcement to all the heads to do drugs in moderation, drink alot of water, and keep anything harder then weed for when the sun goes down. Mainly did joints off 3:16, Murrays Revenge, and a slug-less version of Dirty Girls with a the DJ throwing in random beats like 'Why We Thugs' and Too Short's 'Blow The Whistle' inbetween for Murs to rhyme over. All and all a pretty good kick off set for the begging of the show and really set the tone for the groups after.

--Visionaries came through right after and performed I Love Hip Hop, If you cant Say Love, Rock The Spot ,and a few other joints that I believe were off the new album. They did their thing, even with as hot as it was at that point the crowd was really into it.

--Right after the Visionaries jumped off the stage B-Real manned with Fred Wreck on the 1s and 2s took the stage to run through beats from Timbaland, Fat Joe's 'Incredible' and 'Lean Back', and 50 cen't 'Backdown' to rhyme over from his latest Gunslinger Mixtape. About 5 songs deep B-Real brough out Sen Dogg to perform their classic records 'How I could Just Kill A Man' 'Hand on the Pump' and capped it off with 'Insane In The Membrane' Everytime B-Real touches a stage in California the crowd goes off so no need for an explanation..

--Bay Area's own Del The Funky Homosapien was next on the line up bringing out good friend Opio for the second half of his set, which by this point was all fucked up and behind schudele, to do pretty much most of his classic material including the Gorillaz joint he always does now except he did nothing off Deltron only a small crowd teaser. One real good piece of information is that Souls Of Mischief are working on a new album with Prince Paul, although no release date or timeframe was given. Dope news regardless. Overall the set was aiight, honestly I've seen him do much better.

--Immortal Technique is that dood! The guy has alot of quotables and not in his music. Doing a little bit more talking to the crowd then rhyming IT came with memorable lines such as "I hate people who are all sympathetic towards people 'Well my dad is a cop" WELL FUCK YOU DAD!! 'Well my mom supports the immigration issue' "WELL FUCK YOUR MOM!!' and lines talking shit on guys who elbow girls at shows to get free CDs calling em pussys and cowards. Inbetween all that he did alot of joints off both volumes of his mixtapes including classics like 'Dance With The Devil' and 'Peruvian Coke'. Rounding up his set he brought out hardcore latino hip hop group Psycho Realm which brought the latinos in full force to as close as they could get. One of the most entertaining sets of the day. For a realtively unknown MC from Harlem he gets alot of love out in California especially from the hispanic population.

--The Living Legends with Murs of course making his second apperance of the day came out to do "Yeah" and "Rabbit Hole". Aesop Rock who performed earlier came on to do 'Awakining' and they rhymed over a track which samples the classic Nirvana song from In Utero. For those that don't know Living Legends is very popular at live shows out here. They don't sell alot of records but people line up to see them in droves. So forgive me if a westcoast head is bias about their set because they always put on a great show.  Really liked their set, as usual.

--Dilated Peoples rocked the stage next around 4-5 (I forget the time exactly)  bringing out Defari to help perform the set, plug his album 'Street Music' that drops tomorrow, and do the lead single off of it together. Dilated did a set mainly of newer hits (didn't do anything from The Platform!!!) including 'Worst Come To Worst' 'Back Again' and  'This Way' . With the mandatory mini solo from Beat Junkies own DJ Babu that they do at all their shows to pay homage to the backbone of hip hop the DJ.  Top notch set.  I've seen DP a few times and this was by far the best set I've seen from them.

The second part is being typed up inbetween doing real work LOL...shit will be done by this afternoon

[CRAFTY]

You are one lucky mofo'...props on the review!

[djkoast]

-Now for the group we worked 5 days a week to see Saturday night (shout out to corny song refrences HOLLA) DE LA SOUL!!  Much respect to the legends.  They ripped it and although the crowd was extremly tired by then as it was hour 8 for alot of us, we appreciated them jumping on the stage.  Some joints they ran throughn were 'Me Myself and I' ,'A Rolling Skating Jam named Saturday' and Rock Co Flow.    They brought out Dres from Black Sheep for 'This or That' and for a  few more joints.  Not to disapoint they also brough out  suprise guest Phife from ATCQ to perform his verse off 'Award Tour' and 'Check The Rhyme'.  When Phife hit the stage people went nuts shaking off the tired feeling and soreness from standing and siting on shitty 909 burning concrete all day.  It was nuts!!!  Easily the best part of the day especially for those of us who go to Rock The Bells every year.   If I paid 50 just to see De La, Immortal, B-Real, and Dilated I would have been satisified.  De La def made it a great memorable night.

One thing I do need to speak on is that De La seemed to be pissed that the crowd was not crazy the entire set.  So much so they ended their set saying "After 18 years we don't say Thank You we say You're Welcome".  Once they got off the stage the same guy who tried to keep the crowd happy last year while Redman lagged went into a mini lecture about how De La is legends and how they laid the groundwork for all the other groups we came out to see.  No to disrespect Mr. Lecture, well actually fuck him fareal, but his ass was sitting in the shade with fans in a tent with a chair all day so cut us some slack.  We were tired, it was hot all day, we were either all standing or sitting on the ground, and were giving alot of energy to all the acts before.  Just becaus the crowd was not going nuts the entire set does not mean we did not appreciate it.

--Comming off last years boo's for taking too long to get high backstage last year was Funk Doc!!  Started off his set doing a little freestyle showing love to Cali and PPP.  Then immediatly jumped into songs from the very begging of his career up to more recent jams.  Red did 'Time For Some Acksion' 'Pick It Up' 'Ill Be Dat' 'React' brought out Dj Kool for Let Me Clear My Throat something that has become a tradition at his shows out on the westcoast the past few years.  Everyone loves Red and his catalog is so extensive he can pretty much go start to finish in his career and keep the crowd moving.  Much better then last year when he was on the same stage.

--Around 10 or so Talib Kweli hit the stage to perform all the joints you want to see him perform as a fan such as 'Get By' 'I Try' and 'Move something' with dope guest apperances from local MCs Phil Da Agony and Krodon of Strong Arm Steady Crew plus earlier performer Planet Asia.  Around the mid way point of his set Talib brought out Mos to do some Blackstarr joints to finish up the set, believe they performed about 3 or 4.  Which of course led perfect into Mos Def's set who was up next.  Mos has a new album dropping this year (forget the name now but its due out this year, in Sept I believe) and did a few joints off that with fan favorites like 'Ms Booty' 'Umi Says'  and even kicked an accapella about Katrina/New Orleans.  Kind of a some what of a slower and more mellow set then I've seen from him before. 

--Finally, the Special Guest who was suppose to show up way earlier in the night ended up being none other then Lauryn Hill.  After making the crowd wait for a while with chants of WU TANG ringing, a small Jazz band came out to perform for about 15 minutes confusing the shit out of the crowd, soon after that Hill came onto stage and did a handful of songs.  Few joints off the miseducation album and other classic she has appeared on (although I don't remember hearing If I Ruled The World)  Pretty good suprise guest.  The Live band made all the difference and added a different element to her set.

--  This part I was actually gone by because of the time so this is what I heard from a few friends of mine who stayed.    Wu hit the stage at around 1 (this is almost hour 12 for alot of the people there) to do a nice tribute to ODB all filling in together when his parts came on.   They of course did all the classic joints.   Steve-O came on stage and did a little backflip naked with his nuts tucked back which really pissed of Rae.  So much to the point that he was going to get fucked up by The Chef and forced him to apologize to ODB's mom who was in attendance to see the show.

Pictures will be up soon once I get mine developed and get them from others who were at the show.  Also I will rip a few mixtapes that were handed out for free, speak on a few of the clothing vendors there, and add upcomming concert information and album information that was handed out at the show.

[djkoast]

You are one lucky mofo'...props on the review!

No doubt!  Gotta love living in Southern California because of huge events like this!

Thanks for the love.  Pics, mixtapes they handed out, and other information will be up later today or tomorrow.

[ecrazy]

Dilated Performed "No Retreat", "And "The Platform" off THE Platform.....what u talkin about willis?

[djkoast]

Dilated Performed "No Retreat", "And "The Platform" off THE Platform.....what u talkin about willis?

I wasn't up close to the stage when they came on so I probably missed songs here and there while talking to other people.  Not that I missed out, I've seen em plenty of times before lol

Check ya review about the show, I think I fucked up not getting VIP tickets