Finebeats

Hip hop stars Nas, Lauryn Hill, Raekwon & Ghostface and Cypress Hill have been announced as headline acts at the Rock the Bells 2011 Festival Tour.

Lauren Hill is reported to be performing her multi-platinum album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, and Nas will showcase arguably his best album to date Illmatic.

“For years people have been asking me to do Illmatic in so many ways, from stage plays to movies to books, but the time wasn’t right,” Nas stated.” Where music is going now, the time is right. This will be my biggest production and it only makes sense to do it on the best rap tour which also happens to be a brand I’ve built and am a partner in. Can’t wait to kill it with my comrades AZ, Premo & Pete Rock!”

In addition it has been reported that Cypress Hill will perform “Black Sunday” during the series and festival viewers will also see Raekwon and Ghostface join forces to perform Raekwon’s  album “Only Built 4 Cuban Linx.”

Festival co -Founder Chang Weisber commented saying,  “I am excited that this year’s Rock The Bells will continue its rich history and tradition by presenting the best and most ambitious festival programming in Hip Hop,The bar has been set high and this year’s line-up will certainly stake its claim. With ten of the biggest records in the history of the genre and the freshest new talent bubbling from the underground, this summer’s Rock The Bells is another dream come true.”

The festival will begin in Los Angeles on August 20th at the San Manuel Amphitheater followed by  San Francisco on August 27th at the Shoreline amphitheater.

The tour then hits the east coast on September 3rd at Governors Island and will come to a close in Boston on September 10th.

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Last night (Thursday 31st March 2011) saw the return of the Queensbridge poet to the UK along with the son of the Legendary Bob Marley a certain Damian Marley.

Those who had got themselves hyped for a raw electric gig from the off may have found themselves somewhat disappointed with the early proceedings as Erykah Badu kicked off the event with a performance which could have been described as perhaps pleasant or entertaining but for us didn’t really set the mood for the Hip Hop / Reggae fest that we had come to bounce to.

Following this perhaps subdued performance David Rodigan made an admirable attempt at getting the crowd hyped but for us still slightly fell short of the mark and were left wondering if the main event was actually going to live up to the high expectations of which proceeded it.

Following Rodigan’s lively and as always slightly eccentric performance things stepped up a considerabel notch as Dj Green Lantern who had been lurking around in the background took Wembley Arena by the scruff of the neck and shook it into life. A few old school bangers and some choice words later and the crowd were jumping like the floor was hot and getting ready to receive two giants in their respective fields.

The atmosphere was starting to  resemble something close to electric by this point and as soon as Nas and Jr Gong entered the stage the crowd exploded into life and you knew that despite the slow start things were definitely on track to be a great night. The two collaborated with ease throughout the early performance and every part of their performance was received with a fantastic crowd reaction.

Towards the middle of the evening Nas vanished from the stage leaving Damian Marley to hold the attention of Wembley Arena alone, a task of which he was more than capable of with the majority of the crowd hanging off of every word that he expertly delivered.

After a reggae indulgence Nas returned as he was before unchanged apart from sporting his trademark oversized Gold rope chain  with the Pharaoh’s head attached, which symbolized that he was here to get down to some traditional hip hop business and didn’t dissapoint. Giving Jr Gong a breather he took the roof off Wembley stadium with some true Nas classics including “Hate me now”, “got ur self a gun” and “one mic” .

After the Nas fest the two brought the collaboration back together with seamless ease and had the crowd in a frenzy with a hard hitting energetic finish that kept even the weariest of bodies amongst the crowd jumping up and down in unison.

As the night drew to a close amongst a sea of lighters and mobile phones, Damian Marley asked the question of which many had been waiting for, “Who in here loves Bob Marley ?”, the crowd responded with a deafening roar and were once again bouncing in a frenzy as Jr Gong and the entire population of Wembley Arena  broke into a rendition of Bob Marley’s “Could You Be Loved”.

To sum the night up, we felt that the early support acts didn’t really set the tone that we perhaps wanted to see but did contribute enough to the atmosphere to allow a well received entrance for the main performance. Nas and Damian Marley delivered an evening to remember and definitely got the desired effect and energy levels from an excitable Wembley crowd. Dj Lantern and the backing vocals coupled with a fantastic band were brilliant throughout to cap a great evening of Hip Hop/Reggae fused collaboration at its very best.

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Following the phenomenal success of their 3 summer shows of which were acclaimed by some as “gig of the year” Nas and Damian Marley will be hitting 3 UK venues this spring. The 3 consecutive dates will run on the following dates:-

March 31st – Wembley Arena, London

April 1st – 02 Academy, Glasgow

April 2nd – Manchester Apollo .

We will update on this event nearer the kick off.

Keep it Finebeats for the freshest Hip Hop News .

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