Guerilla Union, the mastermind behind The Paid Dues, Spring Gathering and Cypress Hill SmokeOut Festivals announced the line up of their flagship festival, Rock The Bells. In front of a smattering of journalists and bloggers, and for some reason Yours Truly, Supernatural freestyled the lineup the way that only he can.
The theme for this year’s festival seems to be “albums in their entirety,” as head Guerilla Chang Weisberg has somehow convinced Hip Hop legends The Wu-Tang Clan to perform their game-changing album Enter The 36 Chambers, KRS-One to perform Criminal Minded, lyrical mastermind Rakim to perform Paid In Full and even Slick Rick to perform The Great Adventures Of, all in their entirety. Front to back. Holy shit.
Also on the lineup are some personal favs of mine, Minneapolis MC Brother Ali, Ill bill of Non-Phixion/La Coka Nostra w/ DJ Muggs from Cypress Hill/Soul Assassins, Wiz Khalifa and Jedi Mind Tricks. Murs and 9th Wonder are also slated, but honestly, that’s to be expected at a Guerilla Union show now, and I would be more surprised, and not just a little bummed, if Murs stopped popping up at these things.
While Immortal Technique may be a bigger name, Big Sean and Yelawolf may be drawing fans of their own as well. Not to mention Supernatural. Honestly, go to YouTube and search out some of his freestyling, it’s fucking intense. I admit that I’m particularly interested in seeing Street Sweeper Social Club. Boots Riley (Also the lead vocalist of the Coup) informed me directly that they have a new EP coming up, so I’m pretty stoked to see how he and Tom Morello have continued to adapt to each other.
Dates announced include August 21st in San Bernardino, CA, August 22nd at the Shoreline Amphitheater in San Fransisco, August 28th at Governor’s Island in New York City, and August 29th at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Washington, DC.
While the headlining artists’ albums won’t take up the entire set time, Weisberg promises that the artists will be performing some of their other jams after that. While we all have albums we’d like to see performed as a whole, Weisberg stated that we could all “talk shop” about our favorite albums, but in the end, this is not a bad crop to be left with. Which albums would YOU like to see in their entirety?
-Jonathan “The Emperor” Yost