Backpacks On Packs On Packs: PropsOverHere's Rock The Bells Recap

    Normally I'm not into seeing concerts, but when I heard about the all-star cast of 90's rappers performing at Rock The Bells in New York City, I decided it would be worth it to make the trip. I was planning on documenting the events in real-time but I clearly overestimated mobile blogging technology. So instead, two and a half weeks later, here's a brief recap of what I saw in nine hot, exhausting hours at Governors Island.

Black Star
Rating: 4.5/5
Breakdown: Black Star was the first performance on the event's main stage and lived up to the top billing. After pleasing the huge crowd with "Astronomy (8th Light)" shit got real when "RE: DEFinition" dropped. My favorite moment had to be when they did "Children's Story" to the Slick Rick beat, because that's how lame I am. It can't be easy being the first big performer at a highly anticipated event like this but Black Star set the tone for the rest of day.

Black Moon
Rating: 4/5
Breakdown: Black Moon was also fucking great, doing Enta Da Stage with a live band and a guest appearance by Tek & Steele. After teaming up with Black Moon for "Black Smif-N-Wessun", the duo performed their own classic, "Bucktown", which might have actually been the fan favorite. I remember being impressed by Buckshot who still kills it live despite his advanced age.

Mobb Deep
Rating: 5/5
Breakdown: Havoc and P rocked the crowd with The Infamous plus just about every other Mobb Deep song you'd want to hear, including "Quiet Storm", "It's Mine", "G.O.D. Pt. III", and "Drop A Gem On 'Em", which they entered to. The one questionable moment came when 40 Glocc did his west side dedication that only served to piss of the partisan east coast crowd. Appropriately, "Shook Ones Pt. II" as the finale received the craziest fan reaction of the day.

Raekwon & Ghostface
Rating: 4.5/5
Recap: The only negative about the entire day was that Rae and Ghost were scheduled twenty minutes before Nas, so everyone had to choose between two can't-miss performances. I got nice and close to the stage for this because no one was trying to see Childish Gambino who was on before them. Luckily, the three songs I saw before heading over to the main stage were "Criminology", "Incarcerated Scarfaces", and "Ice Cream", all of which were as great as I could have imagined.

Nas
Rating: 5/5
Recap: All of the performances I saw at Rock The Bells were incredible, but this one was historic. "New York State of Mind" was as hype as expected, then AZ came out for his legendary verse on "Life's A Bitch" and the duo did "Mo Money, Mo Murder". Then Pete Rock came out for "The World Is Yours" and faced off in a DJ battle with Premier in what was one of the coolest moments of the day/my life. In addition to Illmatic, Nas did some of his earlier joints that probably hadn't been performed live in eons. He brought out MC Serch for "Back To The Grill" and Akinyele and Fatal for "Live At The Barbecue", both of which were insane.

Overall, Rock The Bells was incredible. Scheduling fuckups caused me to miss most of Liquid Swords and Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, but what I did see was more than enough to make it a success. The venue was great, the atmosphere was awesome, and the performances couldn't have been better short of Biggie coming back and doing Ready To Die.