Saturday August 31, 2013 – Bumbershoot is a unique festival with many stages featuring; lots of children’s events, comedians, movie showings and of course music. The annual arts and music festival takes place in Seattle Centre during Labour day weekend and didn’t shy away from a healthy hip-hop line up for 2013. Originally, the Festival was resistant to hip-hop due to its controversial nature, Bumbershoot now boasts a robust line up. This was evident looking at Saturday’s performances with Kendrick Lamar, Joey Bada$$, Grynch, The Physics, Dave B, Watsky, and Nacho Picasso all on the bill.
Early on in the day, Seattle’s very own Nacho Picasso started things off with his style of psychedlic rap as the festivities started to get going. Bumbershoot is known for showcasing up and comingtalent from the Pacific Northwest, so of course, they would feature some of the best Hip-Hop Seattle has to offer.
Another Seattle native, from Ballard to be exact, Grynch went on early afternoon and played to a large and responsive crowd. As the sun beamed down on the hot Saturday afternoon, Grynch went through songs such as ‘Perspective’ and ‘No Sunshine’ with the local crowd hanging on with every word. “Do you guys like partying?” Grynch asked, as another Seattle local, Sol, came on to do their party anthem “All I Wanna Do” to the crowd’s excitement. The energy was high and the audience was in party mode, when Grynch dropped his boisterous hit ‘My Volvo’, a ubiquitous track about his mother’s old whip.
The Key Arena, situated in Seattle centre, home to the old Supersonics, served as the main stage for this particular music festival. On Saturday, the Key Arena played host to the afternoon headliners, Joey Bada$$ and Kendrick Lamar. Another difference between your regular music festival and Bumbershoot is that the main stage is on a first come, first served basis, so if you weren’t on time, you woud miss out. No doubt young Joey and Kendrick would, you could say, sell out the arena even before they had played a single song.
Joey came out playing cuts from his solo album, mixtapes and work with the noticeably absent Pro Era. Though eighteen years old, Joey did showed the prowess of a seasoned emcee. With beats sounding like they came from early 90’s Brooklyn, Bada$$ managed to win people over in an arena setting. A chant of “fuck the police!” started from a member of Joey’s entourage as some of Seattle’s finest were patrolling the crowded arena. Joey ended his set off with ‘Like Water’, his collaboration with the late Capital $teez, whom he paid tribute to by playing his whole verse.
The festival was in full swing and the Key Arena was buzzing when Kendrick walked on stage. Kendrick Lamar, one of the most talked about, hyped up rappers in the last two years, was no doubt the headliner of the festival on Saturday; the floor portion of the festival was full within minutes of doors opening. One of the biggest draws of the weekend, Kendrick comes on stage with the intro from his debut album ‘Good Kid MAAD City’ right into a ferocious rendition of Backseat Freestyle.
With two albums under his belt, it was interesting to see Kendrick play not only a headlining festival set, but to a sold out arena. Being fully aware of this, Kendrick did mention how thankful he was for all the people who came out to his show. Playing most of debut album, he did not shy away from playing ‘ADHD’ and a part of ‘Hold Up’ from his Section 80 LP. Kendrick’s crowd participation was on point, as the crowd hung on to every word as he got the “right side”, the “left side” and the “middle” going. As ‘Bitch Don’t Kill My Vibe’ came to an end, Kendrick left the stage and the crowd started pouring out. As the packed arena started to disperse, the opening beat of Swimming Pools got everyone rushing back to their seats as Kendrick took the stage again for an encore, a rarity for a festival.
The hip-hop on Saturday did not stop as the crowd rushed outside. It started to cool down a bit, and South Seattle’s very own Physics came on stage playing songs from their decade plus long career. Many critics compare The Physics to a warm summer Seattle day, which was evident in their set. Playing laid-back tunes such as ‘Back Track’, ‘So Funky’ and ‘Take A Win’, their lyrics didn’t fail to mention Seattle and it’s scenery. MC’s Thig Natural and Monk kept the banter going between their song about their fair city, not to mention tons of crowd participation to keep the crowd happy and proud of their hometown.
As the evening wound down and the sun started to set, Watsky hit the stage. The San Francisco native, known for his witty lyrics and unique style of rapping, started things off with ‘Moral of the Story’ from his newest record ‘Cardboard Cutout’. Many of his loyal fans were in attendance, as they sang and rapped along to every word. Though many fans were sun kissed and tired from the days events, the crowd was high energy and loving every minute of his set. Along with many fast freestyles, Watsky jammed as many songs as he could into his hour set, mentioning how much he loved Seattle and he shouted out prolific Seattle natives, Blu Scholars and earlier performers The Physics (who made a brief cameo during his set). His love for Seattle was true and genuine. His fans love for the San Franciscan was true and genuine as well.
From smaller Northwest hip-hop acts to big National superstars, this non-profit music festival definitely delivered for every kind of Hip-Hop fan. From young to old, from people who don’t listen to that much hip-hop, to people who listen to it religiously. And that was only day one of Bumbershoot.