I went to the Bay Area Rock the Bells event in Mountain View this past weekend, and I thought I'd never see all four members of the Pharcyde, I'd never thought I'd see Nas do songs like 'Represent' and his verse off 'Life's a Bitch', or Tribe Called Quest performing 'Check the Rhyme'. All of those and many more were historic moments, especially for this day and age. All things considered, it was a great show.
Now for the lowlights.
Right before Nas' performance, Tribe was supposed to follow. So understandably the crown was hyped to see Tribe come on stage. In between the two acts, Freestyle emcee Supernatural came out on the stage. He did is tired act of pointing at things, then rhyming about it, or pickin up something that someone threw on stage and rhyming about that, then callin out points of reference in the Bay, then rhyming about that, etc., etc.
Then he starts rhyming about Sandisk, one of the corporate sponsors of Rock the Bells. I couldn't make out exactly what he was saying, but the part that made me sick to my stomach was when he said "SOMEBODY SAY SAAAAAN-DIIIIIISK"
I understand that bills need to be paid, and that these artists ask for astronomical performance fees, but it slapped me in the face as a harsh reality check.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
This is Hip Hop in 2008
