We would like to start off of our recap of Soundset 2o14 with one word. Amazing. We were granted media passes to this year’s festival and we have to say it was an experience we won’t forget anytime soon. To make things even better, there was no rain during Soundest this year (only slight drizzling towards the end of the night). We were able to take in sets from rising stars like Snow Tha Product and Chance The Rapper to bonafide legends like Cypress Hill and Nas. Check out our top 8 performances along with photos below to give you a glimpse of what we witnessed this weekend. We suggest you start making plans for Soundset 2015!
Chance The Rapper
What can we say about Chance’s live show that we haven’t said before in previous recaps? The guy has had an amazing live show for years and is only getting better. Chano kicked things off with Acid Rap joints like “Everybody’s Something” and “Pusha Man.” When he went into his performance of “Smoke Again,” another Acid Rap track, we immediately though Ab-Soul would come out from backstage to spit his verse. To our surprise, he did not make an appearance during that song. He instead came out to turn up with Chance during his very energetic performance of “Juice.” This had to be the livest part of Chano’s set. Chance also found some time to take the crowd back to 10 Day with “Brain Cells” and gave them a glimpse of whats to come with a performance of a new song. All in all, we were very impressed with Chance’s set.
EarlWolf
“Y’all want to go out like some suckers?” and “Make the security work for their check” are what Earl Sweatshirt and Tyler, The Creator yelled out to the Soundset crowd 2 songs into their set. This livened up the crowd and things didn’t die down from that point on. Tyler even rapped on the West Stage for a few songs and on top of a speaker for the majority of the EarlWolf set. The Odd Future duo went through tracks like “Tron Cat,” “Molasses,” “Woah” and “Orange Juice.” The livest part of EarlWolf’s set had to be their performance of “Tamale” with a little help from none other than Ab-Soul. Soulo definitely had a great time at Soundset.
2 Chainz
2 Chainz didn’t make our Soundset artists to watch list and we were definitely proved wong. Very wrong. 2 Chainz put on one of the best performances of the day and had the crowd into his set from start to finish. I can go on for a long time going through the list of hits he performed at Soundset. To name a few, he performed hits like “All Me,” “Bandz A Make Her Dance,” “Where You Been” and “Feds Watching.” During the middle of his set, 2 Chainz went through some songs off his recently released EP, FreeBase. 2 Chainz closed out his set with two of his biggest hits in “I’m Different” and “No Lie.”
Wiz Khalifa
Wiz Khalifa is another artist that didn’t make our original artists to watch at Soundset list. Khalifa’s performances of songs like “Gang Bang,” “Roll Up,” “On My Level,” “Taylor Gang” and “Young, Wild & Free” were pretty awesome and those weren’t even the highlights of his set. Khalifa also took fans back to the Kush & Orange Juice days and also gave them a look into his new project 28 Grams, which was released online right after his set. To end his set, Wiz went into his performance of “Black and Yellow” and I thought it was great way to end an amazing set. However, I had completely forgot about Wiz’s latest hit “We Dem Boyz” and it was only right he ended his set with the new hit. It will be interesting to see if “We Dem Boyz” surpasses “Black and Yellow” as Wiz’s biggest hit. His performance of “We Dem Boyz” was one of the top performances of the entire festival. The crowd went nuts.
Cypress Hill
Not only does Soundset give up and comers an opportunity to be heard, but they also bring heavy hitters that attract just about any hip-hop head no matter the age. Cypress Hill has been around for longer than the majority of the festival attendees, but that doesn’t mean that attendees didn’t know Cypress Hill. Accompanied by the legendary Julio G on the tables and a dope Latin percussion setup, Cypress Hill brought the energy that will give any Soundset attendee the inspiration to partake in extracurricular herbal medical activities. B-Real and Sen Dog went through the classics such as “I Wanna Get High”, “Insane in the Brain”, and “Rock Superstar”. As the percussion was going in through one of the cuts, I looked up and couldn’t help but notice that there was a nice cloud of smoke throughout the center of Canterbury Park. The cloud of smoke reassured me that Cypress Hill will never be forgotten. For all Cypress Hill fans, we’ll keep you updated on their latest news because the crew announced that they are working on a project to be released real soon.
Jonwayne
I first heard Jonwayne at Stone Throw’s showcase show during SXSW 2013. Not only was I impressed from his live set, but I was left wondering when I can see another one of his sets again. Lucky for us, he was scheduled to be present at the Fifth Element stage, so I made my way through the crowd from the Main Stage area to see if he’ll be giving us something new and crazy. The Fifth Element Stage was substantially smaller than the Main Stage, but you can tell that Jonwayne’s following might of been a little too big to contain for the stage. Towards the end of his set, Jonwayne literally went inside of the crowd while performing. It’s evident that Jonwayne has a big following so don’t be surprised to to see more from him within the up and coming months. Cassette, Cassette 2, and Cassette 3 have been huge for Jonwayne, I’m predicting nothing less than amazing from his upcoming material.
Snow Tha Product
You can make a great argument that Snow Tha Product deserved a spot on this year’s XXL Freshman List. But then again, is that list even relevant after including RnB singers? Anyways, Snow was definitely on our artists to watch list. Her performance was scheduled to take place at the Fifth Element Stage and we made sure to get there early. After Brother Ali introduced Snow, I turned back to look at the crowd that had come to watch Snow and wondered why she wasn’t performing at the Main Stage. As Snow began her set, the crowd automatically caught her vibes as she went through the list of her most popular joints. We were lucky enough to catch up with the lovely West Coast native before her set and got to know her a little better, so be on the lookout for the interview within the coming days. Also, don’t be surprised if you see Snow on the bigger stage in the very near future.
Nas
So Illmatic is about 20 years old and Nas is headlining festivals. That statement alone tells you that we’re getting old and Illmatic is still relevant to today’s youth. We were extremely excited to check out Nas, even though it’s been under a year that we saw him at North Coast Music Festival. You can never say that you’ve been to too many Nas performances. The living legend went through the Illmatic hits such as “One Love” and “The World is Yours” before he performed his later classics like “One Mic” and “Bravehearts”. As Nas paused through some of his verses, he let the 30K plus fans finish his lines. Imagine 30,000 people in unison yell, “Cause sleep is the cousin of death” during his performance of “NY State of Mind”, it’s literally spine tingling. Although on paper he’s older, his live performance has the energy of an up and coming artist who is hungrier than ever to reach the top.
