Rock The Bells @ Merriweather

For the past several years Merriweather has hosted the biggest hip hop festival/tour out there, Rock The Bells. 2010's monster of a bill rolls through these parts on Sunday.





This year Columbia, Maryland will play host to A Tribe Called Quest, Wu Tang Clan, Snoop Dogg, KRS One, Rakim, Lauryn Hill, Slick Rick and much more. Staples of our youth - chances are that one of the albums that pissed off your mother years ago will be played in it's entirety on Sunday. Enter The 36 Chambers, Doggystyle, Midnight Marauders, The Great Adventures of Slick Rick, Paid in Full, and Criminal Minded will all be performed in full by their respective artists.



I'm pretty sure you at least know someone or others sister who once got caught smoking a blunt while listening to Doggystyle in her bedroom back in high school. Regardless, spend your Sunday afternoon at Merriweather getting schooled on hip hop classics.

Review: Rock the Bells 2009

Please welcome special guest reviewer and avid hip hop fan, Jason Tomassini, for his take on Sunday's Rock the Bells.

If there was one thing to take away from Rock the Bells at Merriweather yesterday, it's that Wu Tang Clan is, indeed, not something to fuck with. And for that matter, neither is the slew of early 90s rap veterans that joined Wu members in the name of "real hip-hop" at the annual summer rap smorgasbord.

If you're not sure what real hip hop actually is, almost everyone at RTB would like you to believe it's them. Talib Kweli, Common, Big Boi, The Roots, Busta Rhymes, Nas -- one-by-one on the main stage, they all extolled the virtues of their own authenticity, as opposed to the new school of half-singing, half-rapping, always-Polo-sweatering, post Kanye Auto-tuners who the OGs believe are ruining the game.

It's a rift that's been growing in hip-hop for a minute now, but Jay-Z's recent "D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)" track has seemingly given old-school rappers the go-ahead to bash the new whippersnappers in broad daylight.

KRS-One called out Lil Wayne and Soulja Boy and laughed when he asked the crowd if they wanted to see Kanye West on next year's Rock the Bells and they all booed.

And in possibly the most overt defense of "real hip hop," Wu Tang member Inspectah Deck -- during a cameo on the second stage to join Raekwon for riot-inciting versions of Wu classics "C.R.E.A.M." and "Triumph" -- absolutely punked Joe Budden, who had played on the same stage just minutes before. Budden, a part Slaughterhouse, a new rap "super" group (as super as you consider talented, but B-list rappers, Royce Da 5-9, Joell Ortiz and Crooked I to be), has been in a minor feud with fellow Wu Tang-er Method Man. So from the original rap supergroup to one that surely doesn't belong, Inspectah told Budden in no uncertain terms, to go fuck himself. And the crowd, even though they had given a nice ovation to Slaughterhouse when they played the second stage minutes before, ate it up.

Raekwon's set, despite being relegated to the second stage, was the best of the day, but few tunes you've heard on the radio in the past three months... or years.

Common played an amazing set, including classics like "I Used to Love H.E.R." and a killer freestyle over Be closer "It's Your World," but played one song from his past two albums, thankfully so because they are atrocious. Busta Rhymes ran through abbreviated versions of at least 15 of his hits with veteran swagger that had a sun/weed/beer soaked crowd hyped, but only one off an album that he released last month. Headliner Nas, in absence of last-minute cancellation Damian Marley, played about half of his masterpiece, Illmatic, even enlisting surprise appearances from AZ, Styles P and Pharoah Monche. But he too pandered to the nostalgic crowd, playing only one song each from his past two albums.

And in one of most exhilirating moments I've ever seen at a rap concert, M.O.P. played their firestarter "Ante Up" causing an actual mosh pit of about 20 amped dudes at 4 p.m. outside the second stage. But, the 2001 hit was the most recent song they played.

Not that I'm complaining, the day featured at least 20 bona fide, all-time hip hop classics, but judging by RTB, "real hip hop" may just be a code term for "old hip hop." And with it becoming harder and harder for rappers not named Lil Wayne or Kanye to make any actual money from record sales, you also have to wonder if these hip hop legends don't stop living off their 90s classics, whether RTB will become a sort of touring hip-hop museum. A place where fans can go to wile out to the hits from their childhood and where "real hip hop" artists are insulated from the "real hip hop" industry. But only until the haze of smoke clears and everyone is bumping T-Pain in the parking lot.

Ticket Giveaway: Rock the Bells at Merriweather

I have a pair of tickets to give away to Rock the Bells at Merriweather next month. Rock the Bells has quickly become the biggest hip hop tour each year, and it goes down Sunday July 12 in Columbia.

This year the tour boasts The Roots, Big Boi, Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek, Rza, Nas, Busta Rhymes, Raekwon, and a ton more.

Probably a bit more hip hop than James Rouse had ever planned for Symphony Woods, attendees will be sure to get their fix of late 90's rap gems. Spanning the genre's past to present, the legend that is KRS-One is hosting the affair.

A bunch of these artist help to reminisce of a time when the Orioles had a chance. I want to know what your favorite rap song of the 90's was. To submit your contest entry, send an email to bmoremusicallyinformed@gmail.com and let me know. The contest ends July 6th. Be sure to sample some of the festival's goods below.

Bells Will Be Rocked

Rock the Bells hits Merriweather this summer on July 27th. Headliners include Tribe Called Quest, Spank Rock, De La Soul, Pharycyde, Mos Def, and Santogold. There probably has not been this much hip hop in Howard County since MC Hammer wore pants like this.