Words and Photos by: Brendan Lee
July 2014 – A music festival six years in the making certainly triggers an extensive amount of anticipation. The 2008 festival featured a premium line-up of All Star acts, but was also plagued by a number of issues including constant sand tornadoes to the face and a general lack of amenities. Curiosities surrounding the line-up for the 2014 festival peaked the minute the announcement was made.
Overall, the festival went off without a hitch, technically speaking there were no major problems. It is still a young festival so there could be some improvements made, but the scenery in the Pemberton valley alone gives the festival some major potential as a mainstay for many years to come.
HHV was there to catch all the action and give all the hip hop heads in Vancity a glimpse of the festival. This years lineup included an array of today’s hip hop elite in Tyler the Creator, Kendrick Lamar, Chance the Rapper, Schoolboy Q, Snoop Dogg, Frank Ocean and of course, Oukast. Check out our exclusive shots from those sets and a brief recap below!
Kendrick Lamar showed up to his set a little late, 45 minutes to be exact, but he is “King Kendrick”. Whether it was his fault or not, once he hit the stage, the restless yet adoring crowd went absolutely insane for the young Compton emcee. Fan favourites like Money Trees and Bitch Don’t Kill My Vibe obviously elicited the most energetic crowd response but he also played older songs like Hol’ Up as well. He is still not completely polished as a performer, but people love him and love to vibe out to his melodic twist on Cali gangsta rap.
Snoop is just a cool dude. Not only that, he seems to genuinely enjoy performing his music and it’s really hard to say anything bad about the dude. His set was like a backyard pool party in the summer, just chill laid back vibes. Everyone in the crowd was having a really good time and even when he questionably performed a song he did with Katy Perry, it didn’t stimulate much negative energy from the puffed out crowd. Sweet perfume was in the air and classic Cali hip hop anthems were serenading the Pemberton valley.
Chance the Rapper’s set was one of our favourites from the whole weekend. His onstage energy is contagious and he doesn’t hold anything back. His singalong hooks from almost every song on his most recent Acid Rap mixtape make for the perfect festival setting. Bringing some 90s nostalgia to the table never hurts, which the young Chicago native did when he played his rendition of the theme song from the cartoon Aurthur. This was a definite highlight and a special moment for the packed crowd of young fans.
The real reason many attendees were there was to see the headlining set in the Re-reunion of legendary Southern rap group Outkast. On the heels of horrible reviews from the group’s headlining Coachella set, many were left wondering if the two emcees Andre 3000 and Big Boi had any magic left in the Cadillac. We are here right now to tell you that yes, indeed, they do. Their set was well put together and included some key changes from aforementioned Coachella set – they played arguably their biggest hit in Ms. Jackson at the perfect moment and got into a series of older material near the end, including oldschool fan favourite Player’s Ball from Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik.
Their set had everything you would dream of in an Outkast show – awkward crowd banter including Big Boi’s misinformed ideas about Canada, chilled out smokin vibes, and the crowd went nuts when they played The Whole World, which had to be the highlight of the night as many ladies in the crowd acknowledged this with a “tops off” salute. Andre nodded to the beautiful women in the crowd and Big Boi said “I can’t see out there, it’s too bright. I wanna see some titties too.” The ATLiens definitely brought the dirty south to the true Northwest.
