This here sign was in the parking lot at Randall’s Island during the Rock The Bells Festival, and I found it to be effin’ hilarious. The good folks who planned the event could have just said parking for everybody is $10. Instead, they took special time to specify that if you’re disabled, yo’ ass shouldn’t expect any kind of special treatment. Coooold blooded.

One of several piles of goodies to be found outside of the entrance gate. Why are perfectly good bottles of Jim Bean, Tropical Fantasy and bags of Fritos laying here to waste? One word: capitalism. Since you couldn’t take your own refreshments in, you’ll be delighted to know that you could purchase water at 6445985 dollars, per drop, once inside.

K~Swift & I were outside on line, heated, because we could hear (but not see) EPMD performing “Headbanger.” We got in in time to catch Kweli though. He came out freestyling, hopped into “I Try”, and blazed through a couple Blackstar joints when Mos joined him on stage, as well as the uber ill “Say Something.”

My camera couldn’t zoom out far enough to capture all of the speakers. Even if it did, it would still account for only about 1/4 of the total system. Crazy.

Quick shot of the crowd

While I was only able to catch about 5 of the acts, The Roots performance was definitely my favorite of what I saw. They performed “Everybody Is A Star”, “Thought @ Work” (I think), “Don’t Say Nuthin” and most interestingly, closed out their set with Black Thought invoking James Brown and then some. The crowd wasn’t with him at all (or with many of the hip-hop acts for that matter – I’ve come to the realization that the very fratty crowd was mostly there to see Rage Against The Machine), but regardless, the soul/funk miniset by The Roots was hellafied dope. One, because they even had the cajones to do that, and two, Black Thought is like, actually, a talented vocalist. Granted, he’s given us hints of this on past Roots records, but seeing a full 20 minute set live was a whole other level. Very dope indeed.

Special thanks to Jay from Ballerstatus for hooking your boy up with the tix, much appreciated. I had a good ass time, but had to break out during the Cypress Hill set. I was all the way at the front, and something about “How I Could Just Kill A Man” and “Insane In The Brain” didn’t exactly inspire the crowd to sit peacefully upon the grass and break out games of scrabble.