What do you get when you mix a buncha weed, Barack Obama t-shirts, obnoxious fans and fantastic hip-hop? Only one of the best concerts of the year. Me and my boy Squid, formally known as Funk D arrive at Jones Beach at around 11:15, right before the doors open.

We first walk through the food and merch section which was extremely wack this year. Not one fly shirt imo. The main stage didn’t open until around two so we headed over to the second stage where DJ Blaqstarr was holding things down. I saw him a few weeks ago at Summerstage so that was cool. Kidz In The Hall were due up next but they were no where to be found. Wale jumped in, bringing out Skyzoo (who had a little trouble getting in) who did a breif set after him. Then came MURS, who always puts on an excellent show. He brought his mom with him. Jay Electronica was supposed to perform at said stage as well, but he was also MIA which was wizack.

We then wondered over to the main stage in which we saw Method Man hanging out with his kids. By this time we are in our seats next to two “chill bro’s”. Kidz In The Hall will be performing here first which was good because I was looking forward to seeing them. Double O comes on stage rocking an eyepatch and leg cast for obvious reasons. He then gets the crowd hype and heads over to his setup to get things going. Technical difficulties ensue which was terrible to watch. The soundman fucked some shit up and left Double O on stage alone extremely awkward, playing around with the music trying to get the skipping to stop. He tries to keep the audience cool by asking them if they’ve heard any funny jokes, but sadly booing begins to start. Just Blaze comes out and helps Double O and finally things get going. KITH set was nice, definitley enjoyable. Dead Prez is up next. Of course the sound is still messed up, causing DP to perform a few songs a capella and then walking off stage until the sound people get things working. Luckily that happened and DP came back out and put on the rest of their set. We then made our way back to the second stage to watch The Cool Kids put on an excellent show. Mikey and Chuck’s stage presence is fantastic, I hope to catch them live again.

Back to the main stage we go, catching the second half of De La Soul’s set, bringing out Dres of Black Sheep and Biz Markie to perform a few tracks. Fantastic. One of my life goals is to meet The Biz. Next up was The Pharcyde! Very excellent performance, Fatlip is one of my favorite emcees yet I always seem to forget about him. Raekwon and Ghostface followed, despite the fact that Mos Def was supposed to be next up. They put on a dope set with about 50 people on stage ranging from 5 year old girls to middle aged men. After their performance I was expecting Method Man and Redman to come out, but Mos Def showed up. His set was great. He brought out Talib to do some Blackstar and even Pharoahe Monch to perform Simon Says, which is still one of the heaviest bangers of all time.

Around this time Supernatural makes his first real apperance, doing his classic “give me an item and i’ll freestyle about it” bit. The best part was when he took this guys joint, rapped about it, then said “if you light it i’ll hit it.” A few minutes later, still rapping, he grabs the joint, tells DJ Scratch to pause, and takes a puff, all while working it into his freestyle. Then came Meth and Red. To be honest I wasn’t super excited for them, but at the end of it I was mad impressed. Performing tons of tracks from Blackout was nice, that album sounds better live to me. They also brought out EPMD to do a few tracks. Slick Rick to say “La Di Da Di” and thats it pretty much. DJ Kool also came through to perform a bit of Let Me Clear My Throat which the crowd went nuts over. Keith Murray also came out near the end to perform some of Sugar Hill Gang’s Rappers Delight with Meth and Red.

At this point the guy next to me brough to my attention that Rakim was also not here which was defintiley a dissapointment. Luckily Nas was up next, the highlight of the show for me. He comes with a full band plus DJ Green Lantern on the turntables. Starting it off with N.I.G.G.E.R. and Hip Hop Is Dead, I could tell Nas’ set would be special. He then got into a bunch of classic tracks like It Ain’t Hard To Tell and Halftime which I loved. Hero came, a few more tracks off Untitled, then the beggining of Success comes in. Of course I was hoping Jay would come out, but little did I know that he actually would. Yes, Jay-Z and Nas on stage together. The crowd went bonkers. Jay did his verse from Success, then they got into Black Republicans. This is probably one of the most important hip-hop songs of all time. The energy the crowd gave back was monsterous. I was speechless. Jay then left Nas, and Nasir got into One Mic which was incredible. Tearing up at the end, you could tell Nas had a deep connection to that track, however many years later.

A Tribe Called Quest were the closing act which was defintiley a good choice. Out comes Q-Tip with Mos Def, which begins to worry me that the rest of Tribe wasn’t here. They performed a few of Tip’s tracks, which was cool. Q-Tip then went up to where DJ Scratch was and they did a little back and forth DJing. Luckily, the lights got low and out comes the rest of Tribe. Phife held it down like crazy. Consequence came out and brought even more energy. They performed a bunch of classic tracks, but the highlight was Scenario. Busta Rhymes coming out to perform that is crazy to see. He gets so hype its insane. He also performed Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See. The show ended around this time, and I have to say it was more enjoyable than last years. I did prefer the General Admission and venue of Randalls Island, but Jones Beach was still a great time. Hopefully by this time next year, illRoots will have press passes and stuff. That’d be dope.

Hannibal whattup.

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