Rock The Bells Summer Festival Preview

My mouth is literally salivating as I’m writing this, ‘€œpreviewing’€ a festival I’ve yet to attend- In fact, I’ve yet to attend any legitimate music festival. But fear not, Tastemakers readers for this Saturday, August 28, I’ll be at Governor’s Island, NY rejoicing in the funky sounds and hazy aromas of 2010′s Rock The Bells hip-hop festival. And man, oh man am I excited.

Slick Rick!? A Tribe Called Quest!? Wu-Tang Clan? Jedi Mind Tricks!? Rakim!? And how many other invaluable pioneers of the scene!?

In an effort to simmer myself down, let’s let the evolution of Rock The Bells (or simply, RTB) put me in my place. The now four-city festival started in 2004 as an annual SoCal event, the very first of which premiered the reunion of the Wu-Tang Clan as well as one of the final performances of late member Ol’ Dirty Bastard.

Clearly hip-hop heads in the rest of the States got bitter real fast, because RTB soon grew to tour nationwide (starting in 2006), along a club circuit and, in 2008, as an international festival (I can’t believe De La Soul lugged his ass all the way to Stockholm!)

Enter August 28, 2010, when the next and third stop of RTB 2010 is set to pop off at New York’s Governor’s Island for the very first time.  Hey, didn’t Drizzy shut down a show there two months ago? Ehh, I’m not so worried.

RTB is perhaps best known for its inclusion of both popular alternative hip-hop artists (This year, Yelawolf and Street Sweeper Social Club are performing) and mainstream ones (i.e. also scheduled for 2010, Wiz Khalifa and Clipse) but this year’s theme of ‘€œclassics’€ makes things way more interesting: Each headliner will perform their most classic album all the way through. Want a taste of what to expect from that? Closer Snoop Dogg’s gonna send festival-goers off with a lesson in ‘€œDoggystyle’€ while Old School icons Rakim and KRS-One will perform ‘€œPaid In Full’€ and ‘€œCriminal Minded,’€ respectively.

So who am I looking forward to seeing most this weekend? It’s a tough call for me in all honesty, since I’m not extremely familiar with many of these acts’ work-albeit I know their names and a little about their impact. Slick Rick is definitely my number one followed by Tribe, Rakim and Wu-Tang (if only to see all original members performing with ODB’s first-born son’€¦I’m dead serious.)

I suppose the real money shot here will be the reclamation of the spotlight by hip-hop’s gospel-choir-girl-turned-Fugees-rapper-and-singer-turned-hermit Ms. Lauryn Hill, as she’s listed as the show’s ‘€œvery special guest,’€ however; I’m more looking forward to the surprise performances (Will my future husband and five-time RTB vet Mos Def come through?) Peep my tweets (@Diorshowisaboy or #RTB) and read my follow-up to find out.

Still not jealous enough to buy a ticket? Check out the full roster of ‘€œclassics’€ and newbies (which I’ll include in my review of Saturday’s show) on rockthebells.net. Or maybe just buy a ticket.