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Rock The Bells - New Legends & Disappointing Heroes

I have to apologise to regular readers - I spent an age bragging before my trip to Boston and Rock the Bells and since being back I've been pretty quiet...

Well here is the reason:I saw 30
seconds of Nas & 3 mins of AT
CQ. Gutting.

I flew 6000 miles round trip to watch 3 1/2 mins of an 11 hour show - truly horrifying.

BUT it wasn't all a disaster - alongside Lil Emma and Semtex we managed to secure interviews with everyone on the bill. So instead of giving you the lowdown on the sets it'll have to be the inside scope on some of the classic rappers that we caught up with.

A lot of the guys lower down the bill were mad cool - Wale, Cool Kids were on great form. Murs was hysterical raving about being a West Ham fan and BOB was a top guy very chatty and interesting (even though his music isn't exactly the greatest...). Highlight for me was meeting Jay Electronica - not all his music is classic but I think he is greatly talented and have to rate him for walking around all day with a sceptre in his hand!!


The middle section of the bill was as jaw dropping as you can imagine - Ghostface & Raekwon were as intense as you'd imagine. Rakim (check out GK's post here) was a frickin legend - totally cool, very relaxed he was telling us about his new album which apparently features Sinead O'Connor - god only knows what that'll sound like... The Pharcyde were in a pretty bad way - they look like the years have been hard and the infighting in the group was pretty hard. It was really sad to watch I loved their music growing up and to see them all crazy and moody was really disappointing. It was Redman who caused the biggest buzz backstage though - high as a kite and in search of some chicken...



SemtexTV - REDMAN, JAY ELECTRONICA, GREEN LANTERN, AND SUPERNATURAL from DJ SEMTEX on Vimeo.

Ready for the swagger?? Only one group got time with the headliners - Mos Def, Q- Tip and Nas who? Us. Mos was really uninterested in answering questions and ended the interview by saying "Can I go now?" hilarious!! Q-Tip had some good banter about Obama but on the whole was pretty downbeat about ATCQ - which was sad but somehow to be expected. Nas was awesome - very articulate with loads to say about the Untitled album.

Ready for the outrageous plug? If you want to hear the three specials I made out there -
August 8th Rock the Bells Special, August 15th Nas Special August 22nd Legendary Crews Special all on 1xtra.

And you know I had to find time to throw a four up for both Tribes - big up Phife ATCQ

If you want more insight on the goings on and more videos it's all about djsemtex.com.

So Tribers - ever met an idol that disappointed you?

33 comments:

Luke GK said...

OMG Illsun.

You just raised the bar for all us tribers.

I salute you.

Huge Post.

Unknown said...

Just sorry it took so long. It was chaos on the day we were there for 12 hours and all there was to eat was doritos and salsa. It was a lot of work but a really fun day

Luke GK said...

Dun' Know the ill-space.

whateveryouwantittosay said...

that sucks that you missed most of the shows :(
That's dope about the photo ops et al

clav said...

In answer to your question illsun - I really wish I never met Salma Hayek. The only woman in the public eye who ever really "did it" for me was not, shall we say, the type to be seen fraternising with mere mortals as it turned out. Maybe she was having a bad say, I don't know.

Can't look at her the same way anymore...

Pissed.

NO-BIZZI said...

massive post!

phife looks really ill...whats the story?

— Godfrey said...

Omdaysss illsun you got the tee i want :D

sick post doe !

Anonymous said...

I heard it had something to do with his diabetes. Thats why ATCQ haven't performed together for a while..

Anonymous said...

I wondered where you got to with rock the bells info lol. I was waiting to hear from other triber family who are there too.

Big post though!! It's a shame peformances were short.

Anonymous said...

Weldone, illsun. Shame no-one gives a shit about 1xtra to even bother tuning in to listen to this stuff (after 6 years, have you guys even surpassed half a million listeners yet? Official numbers, no bullshit now). The only reason artists overseas give you the time of day is because they get gassed for the "BBC" title. If they knew it's some shitty station run by out of touch quasi-homosexuals, they wouldn't bother. And Sem is a dope DJ, but how come he can't speak English properly on the radio? Other than that, nice tee-shirt. Looks like a bootleg though, or maybe that's just the way you make it look.

Unknown said...

@ Anon

lots to address in your post - some interesting thoughts and views.

Unfortunately ATCN isn't the place for me to debate anything on this subject so I hope you won't take my silence as agreement.

But on the important note - It's not a bootleg it's the way I rock em!

Shenanigan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Shenanigan said...

yeah I met Timbo he disappointed me but he was no Hero!

Phife has got diabetes and is waiting for a kidney transplant.

Anonymous said...

@illsun, was only joking regarding the bootleg tee--I'm just pissed that I never copped one! Can you still buy 'em? Holler!

Regarding 1xtra, if this isn't the right place to discuss thoughts and views, then where is? It's no disrespect to you, homeboy. From all accounts, you're a dope show producer and all around smart dude. My comment was directed at dickheads waaaay past their sell-by dates....Willber Willberforce, Ray Paul, etc. Unfortunately, it's a bunch of backward thinking out-of-touch wankers that pull the strings at your place. It's their lack of innovative thinking that's responsible for 1xtra being on no-one's radar. Hopefully brothers such as yourself will be driving the steering wheel soon and be able to jolt 1xtra to the heights it could still possibly achieve (although it may be too late now). Anyway, good luck.

Unknown said...

@ Anon - dude feel free to go to town on what you think.

I just can't get drawn into to discussing it from my side - they pay my rent etc.!!!

but I welcome any criticism, thoughts advice etc.

and about the tee I was heartbroken to say I saw almost exact copies in Urban Outfitters in the states (no Obey logos though)

Luke GK said...

Dun' Know the sun-space.

Anonymous said...

I met Harry Enfield once ..

He said that i reminded him of someone

He also said that i was nice






But ever so slightly dim


I was very dissapointed!!

Unknown said...

I saw Barry Chuckle of Chuckle Brothers fame in Waitrose

to me to you etc

Anonymous said...

^^^ RANDOM but funny! lol

Ms. Understood said...

@illsun- and did he let you down?

Unknown said...

a little bit there was:
no ladder
no pranks
no tomfoolery

just a moustached man shopping = dull

Ms. Understood said...

special points for using one of my favourite words- TOMFOOLERY

Unknown said...

I thought about using horseplay or jiggerypokery and at one point I thought about Fandango

Ms. Understood said...

you did it again- JIGGERYPOKERY. Which i normally associate with special-cuddle time so maybe best not to use it when referring to one of the Brothers Chuckle.

Fandango is good too.

I think Jay Z should call his next album The Blueprint 3:Jiggarypokery

clav said...

@yeahisaidit - you're a fool... lol Special cuddle? That's the second time in as many days! You ARE getting yours one hopes....

I'd like to add mischief-making, caper, buffoonery, shenanigans, monkey-business and sky-larking to the equation. If you don't mind.

Ahem.

s. said...

I was at rock the bells in NY and it was dopeeeee.

Jay-Z came out and did one song with Nas and Busta came out with Tribe. andd Talib joined Mos on stage.

Plus, Slick Rick and a few other people showed up.

Ms. Understood said...

@clav. I'm waiting until I'm married before I have any special cuddles.

Unknown said...

@ Samantha

I read about NY - it sounded amazing I did think about NY instead of Boston

Unknown said...

Meeting Timmy Mallet was disappointing. So was Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash.

Herc was more interested in chicks who were old enough to be his grand daughter(s) and Flash refused to speak to anyone, instead his son/hypeman did the talking.

Unknown said...

On that note - Guru - very grumpy and his 'super producer' Solar kept talking instead of him.

NO-BIZZI said...

I think blueprint 3: Jiggarypokery is the funniest thing i have ever read!

Anonymous said...

lolooooool@yeahisiaidit (as usual).
you should be writing on dis

Anonymous said...

i love yeahisaidit too lol.

u gotta blog

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