Somehow, people may have thought Weekend 2 of Coachella would lack surprises. But think again, with the celebration of Nas‘ 20th Year Anniversary of Illmatic, we were pretty sure Happy Camper Pharrell would have something up his sleeve. Just the thought of Pharrell performing anything from the new album Girl and some classic N.E.R.D. was a celebration itself. But let’s get right to it.
It was almost as if zombies were walking to their place of residence. Then, at 10:31 PM PST, the light went on and Pharrell appeared! Cuts from GIRL, throwbacks like “Lapdance”, and next thing you know T.I. was on stage reciting his verse from “Blurred Lines”. The crowd went nuts. If you were paying attention to who brought who last week you were relishing in the fact that there had to be more. Or, would T.I. give us “Freak Though”, “What’s Yo Name”, or “I’m Serious”?
Not exactly and before I may have got a little ungrateful, Pharrell took us down memory lane by thanking the crowd and bringing King Push (Pusha T) himself out for “Grindin'”. This also maybe the hardest video to find of this moment because everyone was astonished. I proceeded to spin in circles, cry, fight the air and sing along. Just then swag was deleted and everyone was jumping in the air. It’s like an entire energy of hyper activity came upon us. Everyone turned into Busta Rhymes, and then Busta Rhymes came to perform his verse for “Pass The Courvoisier”. Braids everywhere, chains, phones were thrown all over the place.
Pharrell knew what he was doing, his crowd control was on point. He wanted us to rest because he was far from done. The bass was beating and we were jamming to Usher‘s, “U Don’t Have To Call” and suddenly Usher appears. Now this is also a really hard video to find, at least a clear version of it. We also got word that Usher’s upcoming album is going to produce, word to Pharrell.
But stay with me, Pharrell smoothed it out for us and gave us ‘Frontin’ by this time I was still fantasizing about driving around with Usher in his drop top at 7PM. I quickly got back to reality when I thought I heard JayZ’s voice. But I was in a bit of denial, I kept thinking it can’t be, yet it was. JayZ was performing his Frontin’ verse then went into ‘Excuse Me’ followed by, the remix along with ‘Give It To Me’. Many, including myself made sure to bust the Damon Dash dance and spin with a smooth Doug E. Fresh finish.
Sound familiar? Maybe a Hot 97 Summer Jam in the Spring at Coachella is what we witnessed. If you weren’t able to make it maybe you caught it on YouTube. But it was definitely something you had to witness in person. The sweat and the finish that made everyone Happy, ‘Happy’ of course.
The sweetest and truest thing about Pharrell’s show that we’re sure would have made him HAPPY, was after all the confetti and dust settled, strangers became friends and hugs were exchanged as well as happy tears.
Stay with us, This Is The Diary Part 1. Nas gave us a lot to discuss.
Words: Tatiana Johnson (@TatianaTot)
Photos: Dylan X (@Dylanthekyd)
