Rock The Bells Festival 2008 - My Thoughts

I saw the Rock the Bells Festival at Merriweather Post Pavilion on Sunday July 27, 2008. I arrived at the venue early @ 10:40am and there were already lots of cars in the parking lot. I sat in my car for a while before I decided to get out and walk towards the venue. To my surprise, there was a very long line to get in (more than 100 people in front of me). I decided to wait, and wait I did. I waited in line until a little past 11:30am when they started to allow the line to move. Finally, I got in. First thing I did was go and purchase a "Rock the Bells 2008" T-Shirt and a great one I got. I then walked around a bit and got me some lemonade.

Time passes by and the first artist comes on - Murs @ 12:30pm. He was okay - I'm not really a fan.
Next was Wale @ 1pm - He's a DC native, but he only did his thing for 15 minutes saying that he's going to be performing later (he had 30 minutes scheduled).
Next was Supernatural - and he killed it - lyrically he reminded me of KRS-One - grabbing things from people in the audience and adding those things to his lyrics - the man has skills - Freestyling skills.
Next was Dead Prez @ 1:40pm - They did their thing.
Next was Supernatural again - doing what he does best.
Next was Immortal Technique @ 2:20pm - didn't really like him too much as he was a bit too harsh for me except for one song.
Supernatural came on again. I forgot to add that during one of the times that Supernatural was on stage, he brought along DJ Scratch who was a staight up human beatboxer - the best I have ever seen and heard. wow.
Next was Rakim @ 3pm - he was good - took me back to my college days and I enjoyed the songs he did.
Next was Wale that came on for only 5 minutes (3:35pm to 3:40pm) - what was the purpose of that - I have no idea.
Next was Raekwon & Ghostface @ 3:40pm - I'm not a fan of their music but I could tell the crowd was really feeling them as they are part of the Wu-Tang Clan.
Next was De La Soul @ 4:30pm - I liked De La Soul especially when they did "Me, Myself & I".
Next was Jay Electronica @ 5:15pm - I had no idea what he was doing on the stage - didn't sound like hip hop and I couldn't tell what else it really was - He was only on stage for 5 minutes because he missed his 20 minutes scheduled time back at 12 noon - Oh Well.
Next was Method Man & Redman @ 5:25pm - I have to say that these two guys DEFINITELY STOLE THE ENTIRE SHOW - Oh Yes, they did - they got the crowd jumping up and down, waving their hands, they threw water at the crowd, several times, and Method Man even went WALKING ON THE CROWD - and I mean that LITERALLY. There was a time when Method Man was being carried on his back by the crowd and then Redman came running by the area where I was sitting in and walked right next to me giving the people that were seated further up - a better view of the Method Man/Redman Show - Oh it was all good. That was a performance and I would pay to see just those 2 guys (Method Man and Redman) again. Oh Yes I would.
Next was The Pharcyde @ 6:55pm (est.) - now some of their songs I remember from back when I was in college, but their performance on the stage now - kinda sucked - at least one or two of the group members were doing some strange things onstage that I spent more time watching the screen playing their videos than watching their performance.
Next was Mos Def @ 7:35pm - now I didn't really get a chance to see Mos Def performance as I was not in the pavilion at the time. However I did hear him play a few reggae selections that I was jamming to as I listened in. By the time I made it back to my seat, he was doing his last song - Oh Well.
Next was Nas @ 8:35pm (est.) - I am a big fan of Nas and have almost all of his CD's especially the last one he just came out with. It was just Nas by himself and DJ Green Lantern who definitely rocked it. Nas was definitely killing it - I love listening to his lyrics - he's a deep brother. He definitely smashed his performance.
Next was........yes, we waited.......waited for a loooong time......wondering when the next artist was coming on.......everyone for the day took about 10 minutes to get their set together......we waited for about 35 minutes for the next set.....still waiting....who comes out....Q-Tip from ATCQ @ 10pm - he did a few songs that we know but then he also did a few songs from his album that is not coming out until this Fall 2008 - wrong place to be playing a lot of your new songs - this is an old school hip hop concert, not future school. Anyways, he did okay. I sat through most of his performance because I was looking forward to hearing the entire group and not just 1 in the group. Suddenly we hear the famous Midnight Marauders voice and I knew that A Tribe Called Quest - the rest of the group was coming out next and they did. It brought me back to my college days. I remember my first ever ATCQ song "I left my wallet in El Segundo" which I heard many years ago and I have been a fan them ever since. A Tribe Called Quest closed out the show and a GREAT SHOW it was. People are now calling it the HIP HOP WOODSTOCK. Won't you agree?