Walking up to the San Manuel Amphitheatre, there are two things that are extremely apparent. The first being the fact that you are in Southern California, red bandanas and the California state outline tattooed on most patrons, and the second being it was stoner, gangster and misfit heaven.
Paid Dues Independent Hip Hop Festival is put on by Murs in tandem with Guerilla Union to celebrate artists that have paid their dues to the music industry as well as their fans, and to promote new talent within the hip hop nation. With independent hip-hop artists like Joey Bada$$, Hopsin, Nipsey Hussle, Juicy J, Macklemore, Kendrick Lamar (and the rest of Black Hippy), it was easy to see why the festival attracted the diverse crowd it did. There were even surprise performances by fellow rappers like Wiz Khalifa and Dizzy Wright.
Though the atmosphere made it hard to listen objectively, especially through the visible marijuana haze and palpable energy, there were some artists whose performances didn’t live up to expectations. Maybe it’s puberty finally setting in, or a lot of vocal editing in the studio, but Joey Bada$$’s voice was much deeper than in his recorded tracks. It was most noticeable in “Waves,” when he began it was hard to believe it was even him. In addition to that unexpected factor, his energy seemed to die of during the second part of his set on the Due’s Paid stage.
Much wasn’t expected from Trinidad James in the first place (he’s not exactly a talented lyricist), but his performance was even worse than imagined. He repeated verses and danced along with his own tracks, more than actually rapping them, he did however perform “All Gold Everything” in it’s entirety and the crowd’s welcome reaction seemed to boost the artist’s ego and, in turn, amped the energy in the audience even more.
A few people during the festival set themselves apart, despite being on the secondary Due’s Paid stage. Grieves, the 29-year-old artist out of Seattle, shared new music off of his upcoming album “Learning What Can Never Be Taught,” as well as pleasing the crowd with classic hits. He explained the atmosphere of the festival, “It’s like rap family reunion, the trailer area is like a backyard barbeque minus the little shitty kids running around, and the barbequing. So, we’re drunk in a field.” The music has always been his foundation in life, saying, ““You can take away my career, but you can never take away my music.”
Hopsin stood out the most this year while performing on the Dues Paid stage in the late afternoon. The energy exuded from that small man is astounding. With crowd surfing more than performing on stage (and not misspeaking a single lyric) to taking a crowd member’s phone and recording himself rapping, his stage presence was unparalleled by any artist at the festival. “Ill Mind of Hopsin 4,” a diss song on Tyler the Creator, got the crowd jumping and rapping along and he kept that energy up throughout the rest of his set, which included “Pans in the Kitchen” and “Am I A Psycho.”
Veteran performers The Grouch & Eligh, who have collaborated together since 2000, said in five years the hope to be headlining the festival, after their set on the main Paid Dues stage that afternoon. Eligh has been linked to the festival’s founder, Murs, since they met at Alexander Hamilton High School in Westside Los Angles in 1992 and formed the group ”3 Melancholy Gypsys.” Their set drew a crowd and kept it, and their performance clearly illustrated that they were no newcomers in the industry.
The headliners this year were Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, and Black Hippy, whose members include heavy-hitter Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy-Q, Ab-Soul and Jay Rock. Macklemore’s performance was exactly what was to be expected: high energy, stage diving and decent crowd involvement. He got political with “One Love,” a song dedicated to gay marriage, telling the audience that this was one of the most important human rights movements in our history. Though “Thrift Shop” was performed way too early in his set, and left the audience a little dry for the rest of the set, his act was a hit and the audience was left feeling impressed and in anticipation for Black Hippy.
After a long set change and rearrangement, Black Hippy began dramatically with a curtain drop and a performance of “Black Lip Bastard” and continued on to popular hit, “Say Wassup,” which instantly got the crowd even higher. Often ostracized member, Jay Rock was first to perform solo and he began with “Yola” and completed his short set with “Hood Gone Love It” to an enthusiastic crowd. Ab-Soul was out next and began with “Terrorist Threats” getting the crowd rallied up and on his side with lyrics like, “If all the gangs in the world unified/ We’d stand a chance against the military tonight.” His set ended with a collaboration on stage with Schoolboy Q, which transitioned into Schoolboy’s song “There He Go.”
Schoolboy continued with a high-energy performance of “Hands on the Wheel,” and then left the crowd awaiting Kendrick. Although almost all of Kendrick’s released tracks are hits, he began with less well-known track “Backseat Freestyle,” then in true T.D.E. style took the crowd and shook them with “Money Trees.” Black Hippy was a great choice for a headliner and proved their worthiness and appreciation for being on the main stage this year.
