Words By: Racquel Villagante
Photos By: David Dalley
(July 9, 2017)
Surrey, BC – It was another talent-stacked FVDED In The Park out at Holland Park in Surrey, British Columbia this past weekend. In its third year running, this 2-day urban music festival promoted by Blueprint & Live Nation, boasted 40,000 people in attendance.
Day 1 of the festival brought out several hip-hop and R&B acts such as: 24HRS, Live Evil, MadeinTYO, BADBADNOTGOOD, So Loki, Boogie, Ty Dolla $ign, Russ, Wiz Khalifa, and Kyle.
MadeinTYO’s ‘Uber Everywhere’ had the crowd hyped when we arrived in the late afternoon.
Live Evil were at the FVDED Lab treating people as they poured in through the gates. JayKin made an appearance during their set to rock a few songs.
Despite coming on an hour later for their set, So Loki delivered a solid, high-energy performance. The Vancouver-based hip-hop duo engaged the audience, won over some new fans and put on as one of the few local hip-hop artists on the bill.
At the Northwest stage later that evening, up and coming Atlanta-based rapper, singer, songwriter & producer Russ was taken aback by the whole crowd knowing all his lyrics & singing along to all his songs. The undeniable crowd-favourites included: “Pull The Trigger”, “What They Want”, and “Psycho, Pt. 2”. He inspiringly expressed to the audience that if he could fulfill his dreams, that maybe someone out there in the audience could fulfill their dreams too–whatever those dreams may be. Russ pointed out his mama and sister watching from the side of the stage and mentioned it was their first time in Canada. By the end of his set, Russ promised to come back to Vancouver for his own show.
Ty Dolla $ign got the audience going wild off tracks from his Campaign album. It was clear from the crowd drawn that he was one of the most highly-anticipated acts of Day 1.
Wiz Khalifa headlined Day 1 performing all of the hits. Wiz asked the audience who else was smoking weed and who wanted to smoke weed with him on stage, to which the crowd replied in resounding cheers and billowing clouds of smoke. Wiz indulged in some infamous B.C. Kush and halfway through the set brought out Ty Dolla Sign and 24hrs to join him on stage.
Day 2 was more EDM-heavy than hip-hop but there were still a couple hip-hop acts of note to see including: Zaytoven, Night Lovell, Nebu Kiniza, Harrison Brome, and PARTYNEXTDOOR.
Canadian rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and OVO signee PARTYNEXTDOOR (also goes by “Party”) was the second & final night’s hip-hop headliner and got the FVDED festival-goers moving, and swaying to his trap instrumental-infused modern R&B tracks. Songs that got the fvded crowd going the most included: “Come and See Me”, “Rendezvous”, and “Not Nice”. What was nice to see was PND going raw into the mic without any support from any backing vocals and with a full band: drummer, keyboardist, and guitar. PARTYNEXTDOOR added more unbound excitement to his performance by walking into the audience and back around the front of the stage for the audience to reach out to touch him as he sang and rapped. Despite heavy security and having no media permitted in the front stage area, our Hip Hop Vancouver photographer was lucky enough to capture an up-close shot of PARTYNEXTDOOR coming back onto stage.
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Words By: Racquel Villagante
Photos By: David Dalley