“Today Die Antwoord, tomorrow Major Lazer!” By tomorrow I meant Wednesday…sorry.
I’ve only been to a handful of shows that come close to matching the energy and–for lack of a better term–pure filth of the Major Lazer show at Coachella 2010. The sun had well set that evening but the tents were steaming hot containment vessels for human body heat. I walked in, accompanied by two young ladies who were about to get their first taste of Major Lazer. Coachella 2010 had already sapped our energy for the day, but we were about to get a major boost (pun intended).
I’m doing my best to give you an idea of what exactly transpired that night, but I’m neither a competent writer nor capable of remembering. I was completely sober save for being punch-drunk at the sound of Pon De Floor and other Major Lazer songs that knocked me the efffff out…if there’s only one show as amazing as this one at Coachella every year, consider me a repeat customer.
To the best of my ability and per the video below, imagine five-thousand individual souls en-tranced by the island rhythms of Major Lazer, each one making their own best attempt to worship the music they’re hearing by gyrating their bodies compulsively, randomly, and to the beat all the while and evidenced by the video we were acting like one massive creature or a community of microorganisms more so than individual souls…Major Lazer stole our individuality and melted our brains together creating a squishy mold-able glob of people-play-doh.
I saved my favorite two Coachella 2010 shows for last. Today Die Antwoord, tomorrow Major Lazer!
For those of us who don’t care about the color, shape, or country of our hip hop there’s Die Antwoord. The quickly rising stars from South Africa blend a unique approach and obscure subject matter laced with South African slang into a rather underwhelming genre; they breath new life into the strictly Black, African-American context of rapping.
I’ve heard and read the criticism of Die Antwoord and in my humble opinion its laughable at best (I’m not going to touch the White vs. Black South African issue because I don’t have the socio-political right to, and I don’t know South African history from South African sandwiches).
Were there naysayers of Jimi Hendricks on both White and Black sides of the fence? YES INDEED! There are those about us who maintain hip hop must stay within a Black-gangster-American code. This mentality perplexes me beyond belief: first, said Black-gangster image is rather gimmicky and easily the most fake least authentic thing about hip hop…it’s overused, stereotypical, expected, and uninteresting, lets be real it’s not 1995 anymore. Second, I can scarcely take you seriously if you think that African-Americans are all gangsters, and thus African Americans outside this paradigm are less Black or not Black at all…ask yourself, do you think African Americas were born with an extra muscle that allows for Jordan-esque dunking ability? HA!
I’m reminded of Dizzee Rascal who never even had a chance in America and probably for a multitude of reasons the least of which is lyrical-rapping skill, but rather his lack of success has mostly to do with image. Put Dizzly Rascal next to 50 Cent, 2 Pac, and Nas…one of these rappers doesn’t sound or look like the others. Image is the biggest reason a non-American rapper has yet to succeed in America, IMAGE!
Lo and behold Die Antwoord (recently signed to Interscope Records) has the best opportunity to make a serious run at the American charts. Though few will recognize Ninja’s talent as a rapper it’s once again an image conscious consumer that will eat this shit up. It should be said that Ninja is a dope emcee (evidenced by the first video), but what’s going to work for them in the states is how well timed their product is. There’s a moderate swing from the gangster image to unique forms of expression in hip hop these days. Don’t believe me? Kanye, Lupe, Wale, Cudi, Drake; what these rappers have in common is flight, as in fight or flight; all these dude would turn tale and run away if it came down to it. Lol, maybe not but their image is much softer than previous rap mega-stars. Couple the trend towards a softer image in hip hop with the rise of Indie as a genre, the production style of Hi Tek, and Die Antwoord’s uniquely South African hilarious but compelling hipster image and I’m predicting a winner!
Whether this happens is truly just a guess, but I’d be bamboozled if they can’t continue to build a buzz about their music with a major label backing them now.
Coachella 2010 certainly had no shortage of amazing bands, and Dirty Projectors were quite possibly one of the best. The Brooklyn, NYC based experimental rock group got down and jiggy around dusk in the Mojave tent. This was my first real taste of Coachella 2010, as I arrived rather late Saturday afternoon. Additionally, you’ll notice I have some initial issue working the camera, but ey, nobody’s perfect.
I’m feeling dubstep more than any other form of music at the moment. So I’ll repeat my sentiment from a couple of days ago: The DJs at Coachella 2010 were by far the highlight of the weekend for me. The flavor of music was down right diabolic when I entered the Sahara tent where infamous dubstep DJ, Rusko, was performing. What I found was insanity eloquently delivered in the form of wobbly sounding, bass laced, fever inducing sine waves. Rusko, was on my bucket list, after seeing him once he made my bucket list at least three more times. Any music fanatic needs to see this man work a crowd, it’s true artistry. Oh, and don’t mind me getting a bit cute with the camera in the first video…I was feeling a bit chipper.
The legend of Johnny Cupcake continues to build steam and momentum. The one-time entrepreneur of the year stopped through San Diego while I happened to be there. Of course I made the effort to see the shenanigans first had. What I saw was both mesmerizing and inspirational, imagine hundreds of crazed graphic t-shirt enthusiast lined up en mass to see a true maestro. Doors opened at 7pm at 5&A Dime (one of my favorite boutiques on the west coast) and people had begun lining up outside days earlier. I’m not one for lines so I grabbed a brew (or two or three…) across the street and waited out the line. I was told that Johnny would see everyone that came out no matter how long it took…evidence below.
That’s me (right) and the MENG! It was well past 11:00pm by the time I actually got to do the meet and greet, lets just say he was looking kinda tired, but he didn’t dissapoint…just look at that goofy as pose!
And so, I never got to see the infamous Sly Stone, quite frankly I’m only slightly upset by that. Can you blame me? That cheap focker had no intention of playing ontime…or close to it. But, that’s neither here nor there, what’s more important is I saw perhaps one of the great music legends of our generation directly following Phoenix, and approximately one hour after. I didn’t bother running around the polo grounds in an attempt to find another fashionista to photo capture; finding another show in that hour gap was not as important as scouting out a better location (word to the wise: you want the hear the music the best at a live show? Stand as near to the sound/mixing board as possible).
I’d go on and on about seeing Thom Yorke Live at Coachella 2010, but words don’t really do the experience justice–my words anyways–so I’ll let you peruse the ridiculously long video I took of Eraser and Analyse. Oh but before I forget, Thom played the entirety of the Eraser LP from start to finish along side super bassist Flea of Red Hot Chili Peppers fame.
I have certain feelings about one Mr. Sly Stone that are less than flattering. On Sunday, the last day of Coachella, I was on my grizzly grind, shooting pictures of people and artists on a meticulously crafted schedule. The legendary Sly Stone was set to perform about thirty minutes or so before the start of the Phoenix show. My plan was to catch as much of Sly’s show before I made my over to see Phoenix.
Brief aside: I had a mentor in college who repeatedly expressed his frustration over lingering memories of the flakiest performer of all time, SLY STONE. I’m going to pick up the tempo a bit, I was chatting with nice dude about all things Coachella and music while patiently waiting for the appearance of Sly Stone. Sly’s band had already warmed up, I mean they were jamin for like five minutes…still no Sly and its about twenty some minutes after he’s supposed to have started. The conversation with said dude turns from “such and such was great did you see so and so?” to, “the last two times I’ve seen Sly he was hours late to the stage.”
Phoenix is due to perform in fucking minutes and still no Sly…his drummer approaches the stage to cheers, whistles, and applause: “Excuse me COACHELLA! HOW YOU FEELIN?? alright we feelin great. Okay Sly is not going to perform right now he’ll be back in a few hours.” HA! Sly eat me nuts I’m going to this here Phoenix show, go fuck yourself for messing with my schedule!
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