For some, the journey to one of the biggest music and arts festival in America was done with ease. But for the rest of us it may have became a wearisome trip to Coachella that almost didn’t happen. Being a journalist has many perks including the honor of being able to connect your readers to what you’re seeing. But remember we’re still human, so sometimes we get put on the back burner too and things don’t turn out right. Imagine getting tickets to a huge celebration not to mention both legendary acts, Nas and Outkast celebrating 20 years of their debut albums, Illmatic and Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik having no form of transportation nor money to get there. Well that happened. A lost credit card halted the car rental from Arizona to Coachella, California. Fortunately, a temporary card provided a 45 minute plane ride from Phoenix to Los Angeles. From there it was a cruise in a Dodge Challenger to you guessed it, Roscoe’s Chicken & Waffles. The Obama is ordered and the cypher is complete…almost.
Next thing you know it was time for The 2014 Coachella Day One, Weekend Two. You could feel the positivity in the air. But the main event that had everyone wearing their favorite graphic HipHop t-shirts was Outkast. It’s been forever since we’ve seen the Big Boi and Three Stacks (Andre 3000) perform together, well just the previous weekend and the the reviews weren’t so good. But we got to witness the excitement of fans from across the world. Seeing fans from Ireland sing-a-long word by word every verse to Hootie Hoo was quite amazing. The dynamic duo began the show with a full on light show and the bass to B.O.B. We got everyone’s favorite Hey Ya, Roses and of course Playa’s Anthem. The sound was on point, the energy was amazing and both Big Boi and Andre 3000 gave their all. We got surprises from Killer Mike and Sleepy Brown. Dancing off beat, sweating and smells of burning earth were all around. It was a good run and with the announcement them headlining the BET Live Experience we can expect even more.
So the dirty south was able to get a good celebration of 20 years but what about the gritty, grimy like feel that New York possess? April 19, 1994 birthed an iconic album that was even more monumental because Nas, was performing the album in its entirety 20 years later on the exact date at Coachella. The show started with Illmatic running across the screen. Suddenly Nas came through and gave us ILLMATIC in full frontal fashion. Black skully, baggy black pants and a presence that commanded attention; he was dressed in Illmatic, It Ain’t Hard To Tell attire down to the socks. Suddenly we found ourselves going through a flashback as we saw 2014 go to 1994 within seconds, it was almost as if we were all there and we were. We all were making history, but let’s not get all gushy it was a celebration. For a minute we thought we were going to see AZ come out and perform his verse for Life’s A B*tch, but that didn’t happen and ended short. After Nas announced he had officially performed all nine songs from his debut classic, Illmatic. It was time to fast forward. We got Hate Me Now and next thing you know we were joined by Damian Marley, for Welcome to Jamrock. The vibes were peaceful as he recited some of the words to One Mic. After taking us back 20 years ago, he did forget some of the words to his newer tracks. No Puff Daddy this time but just as we were about to walk away he asked if he could do one more song.
Think, bright lights, a storm of quietness and then Miss Lauryn Hill appearing on stage performing Fug-gee-la. It was insane! Tears were coming down faces just then, the melody of If I Ruled The World played. The rest is history, you had to be there.
But we made it. Minus the mini heartbreak, the lost of credit card and no rental, we were able to see Outkast perform some of their greatest works and Nas let us celebrate the anniversary of his very first album with the world.
Happy 20 Years guys. Here’s to Forever.
