Soundset 2010
I like rap, I grew up on it and like most of it. Not so much the newer stuff, but a lot of rap nonetheless. I have seen plenty of rap/hip-hop artists live including Snoop Dogg, Atmosphere, Brother Ali, The Pharycide, The Roots and Mos Def to name a few. Most of these acts were not good live.
Snoop was just a smoke-fest, which is fine, but I thought he would rap or free style a bit, but nothing. The Pharycide is okay, but I don’t really know their music. The Roots were good, they are a talented group, but the acoustics were not great.
Mos def, you could not hear a damn thing he was saying. It might have been good, but the sound was horrible.
This leaves me with Atmosphere and Brother Ali. These two artists are far superior live then any of these other acts. I saw Atmosphere and Brother Ali at Rothbury festival in Michigan, 2008, and it was a great show. They had 20,000 people dancing with their hands up in the air, it was unbelievable.
But that was nothing compared to 2009. At 10,000 Lakes Festival that year, Atmosphere played a show that lasted about an hour, maybe closer to 45 minutes. They were scheduled to perform for 2 hours or so, I believe. One could imagine that the fans would be pissed or upset that the set was cut short.
Sure, it wasn’t the most ideal, but we made it work.
For the first few minutes everything was fine, until it started pouring rain. I was shocked when Slug continued to play, despite the pleas from the promoters and his crew to stop. For the sake of the equipment! But he did not.
The lighting bounced around as if Slug controlled it. When he rapped about the pouring rain (which was for most of the night) it rained more! He was in firm control of the mic and mother nature.
This was the most awe inspiring performance I have ever witnessed from someone who only had a mic as an instrument.
That was the last Atmosphere performance I saw.
Yesterday, I found out about Soundset 2010. I am very pleased with this line-up.
Held last year and this year at Canterbury park in Shakopee, MN, Soudset has turned into the best hip-hop/rap festival in the country. This one day event is cheap too, only $35!
The line-up for this year:
Atmosphere
Method Man and Redman!
Brother Ali
Hieroglyphics
Del the Funky Homosapien
Souls of Mischief
Casual and Pep Love
P.O.S
Freeway and Jake One
Murs
Eyedea and Abilities
And many more.
This line-up is awesome! I will not be attending this year, because I am going to Bella Vida festival instead, but this line-up looks incredible!
Have fun!
