20 Years of Bass for Your Face: Public Enemy Reunites to Rock the Bells!

Listen up all you Hip Hop heads, the people who brought the world the Rock the Bells Festival have announced their full talent lineup that includes Cypress Hill, The Roots, Mos Def, EPMD, MF Doom with headliners RATM and the Wu-Tang Clan with a special guests: a newly re-united Public Enemy...I was going to let this one pass but who could give up the chance to see PE rockin' wild one last time?...Finally, all the younger heads have the opportunity to go witness Chuck D and co. throw down the gauntlet in a live context-- it ain't like listening to a record, son...

As the notification I got sent maintains, "the festival has expanded it's itinerary and added 15 additional dates...further down it mentions that Nassir "Hip Hop is Dead" Jones (or Nas) will also headline some of the gigs...here's the rest of it...


"Guerilla Union--the presenters of the 2007 ROCK THE BELLS critically acclaimed hip-hop experiences July 28 at Randall’s Island, New York; August 11 at the NOS Events Center in San Bernardino, CA; and August 18 at McCovey Cove Parking Lot (near AT&T Park) in San Francisco with headliners The Wu-Tang Clan and Rage Against The Machine--have announced further details about their 2007 North American festival series.

Artists confirmed for exclusive live performances on these three ROCK THE BELLS summer shows include: Rage Against The Machine, The Wu-Tang Clan, Nas*, Cypress Hill, The Roots, Mos Def, EPMD, MF Doom*, Pharoahe Monch, FELT *, Sage Francis, Hieroglyphics*, Immortal Technique, Living Legends*, Blackalicious*, The Coup*, Murs*, Jedi Mind Tricks, Brother Ali*, Cage*, Mr. Lif*, Grouch & Eligh*, Hangar 18*, Blueprint* and Lucky I AM*, plus very special guests Public Enemy who celebrate their monumental 20-year anniversary. DJs on all dates are Mike Realm, C-Minus, Icy Ice and Rocky Rock. The ROCK THE BELLS festivals will be hosted by Supernatural, Rahzel and Hi-Tek. (*Performing select cities.)



























In addition to the New York and California dates, ROCK THE BELLS will expand with 15 additional dates where the Wu-Tang Clan will be joined by Nas as the co-headliner. (Rage Against The Machine will appear at the three aforementioned dates only.) The historic tour will begin July 28 in New York City and wrap-up on the west coast in late August. The Paid Dues Independent Hip Hop Festival--which sold-out the Orange Pavilion in San Bernardino, CA this past weekend--will also hit the road this summer on a 10-city run across the continent joining up with two ROCK THE BELLS dates in New York City and San Bernardino, CA. The cities and venues, final line-up for each date and ticket information will be announced in the coming weeks.



“ROCK THE BELLS represents, respects and recognizes the very best and brightest talent who create social, political and conscious hip-hop music. We are attempting to make a statement as well as history. I have been blessed to be a part of a lot of big shows, but this year’s festivals aren’t just the biggest or best shows in hip-hop, they are some of the most important musical experiences overall,” states Chang Weisberg from Guerilla Union. “It has never been more critical to the success of quality music. The live hip-hop experience is so special because there are just so few happening. I can’t remember the last time this many quality emcees and musicians have ever been gathered to showcase their talents. Mass media has a blurred perception of what’s popular. ROCK THE BELLS exists to be the ultimate artist support platform for the genre. We will prove that over 150,000 fans can spark a movement and a shift in the music and culture of America. The summer of 2007 will be remembered as the year that quality hip-hop came back.”

...Party for your right to fight when tickets go on-sale this Saturday, March 31... Fans can sign up for pre-sale ticket information at the official Rock the Bells website

Hip Hop: Rests in Pieces...?

...So is Hip Hop really dead?... go ahead, ask yourself, if you listen to the music at all...I mean really think about it, don't just blurt an answer...I'll wait...well, is it? In some ways it is to me...I lost touch with it totally right around the time Biggie Smalls and Tupac got smoked...I was disgusted with where the whole genre had been taken to by forces that said genre was created to in order to work-around in the first place...people love drama, I guess..

I know it's been spoken about before but an article I read last night made me revisit the enigma that's permeating the mainstream media brain trust...it was written by DavyD who sheds a little insight on why Nas said HHID and then put out an album with that declarative as it's title...too, in the article, ?uestlove is quoted.

"During a separate conversation, Questlove of the Roots supported Porter's allegation with his own story about the process behind the group's Grammy-winning hit with Erykah Badu, "You Got Me.'' He said the Roots had to pony up close to "a million dollars'' to a middle man who "worked his magic'' at radio stations."



I don't know if all of the culprits listed are equally to blame but I do know that the only thing I listen to Hip Hop-related was cut back in the early days, a decade-and-change before a lot of the "Hip Hop Nation" got here but I'm not going to totally give up on it, I believe in the cyclical nature of things and in music, especially the more popular genres, when a format reaches critical mass; it's saturation point, along comes a bunch of trail blazers to bring the masses back to the basics

...I've written about examples of the latter many times before like when Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie niced-it-up when dancified, watered down big bands started over-simplifying jazz to keep the club crowd happy, they created be-bop...or James Brown, when the record companies told him to cut love ballads, he redirected the proceeds from his first hit single to cutting more funktified (albeit scratchily recorded) stuff on his own dime to show them what he was thinking of..they soon wised up and you know the rest...Artist innovations like that last one gives me hope for Hip Hop and though it seems to wear thin when I see those ass-on-the-glass, Cristal-fests getting beamed by cathode rays out of the nearest TV, I know there are a few artists out there working it on the low, biding their time-- just be prepared for the new when the bum rush jumps off and fresh, new ciphers start coming at you in a bigger and deffer format...it'll be soon, yo...remember how boring Rock had gotten just before Nirvana marched forward? Here's DavyD's article