The weather may have been wet, sticky but the music was definitely bright and lively. There was a crowd of 80,000 who enjoyed the musical styling’s of Elton John, Janelle Monae, Kanye West, Jack White, Ice Cube, Wiz Khalifa and Skrillex to name a few. The stand out performances of the festival were Elton John who performed a myriad of his hit songs and Ben Folds Five even joined him on stage for a nice surprise. Jack White played to the crowd gave the people what they wanted and that was a one-hour encore. Jack White sang every one of his hit songs including material from the White Stripes. Jack started off with material from his new album. The crowd really enjoyed his musical genius and all 80,000 people sang along to every song. Kanye West came out to his breakout hit “Black Skin Head” and had all 80,000 people excited. Kanye wore a bedazzled jeweled mask for most of his performance. Kanye stopped many times during his set to talk to the crowd and Kanye got a few boo’s from the audience. Kanye continued to run through his hits and for all the negative energy he got from the crowd he got even more positive energy. He was definitely a person that everyone loves to hate. The crowd of 80,000 people sang every word to every Kanye song. To catch Ice Cube’s performance you had to run from Kanye West’s performance to the stage called “That Stage”. Ice Cube had the crowd rocking, he has been in the rap game for twenty years but he was a gangster rapper that night. Ice Cube had his partner in crime DUB C with him and they went through all of his hits. Ice Cube had a really touching peace that paid respect to deceased Nate Dogg. Ice Cube closed off his set with his classic song “Today Was A Good Day”. Janelle Monae really knows how to electrify the crowd; she came to the stage in grand fashion being wheeled out in a stray jacket by an orderly. Janelle Monae started the one-hour set with “Suite IV Electric Overture and that had the crowd going insane. Her band all had on the same colors black and white. Janelle came out in a white and black outfit with black racecar driver gloves on. She was in rare form; the entire crowd of about 40,000 people were rocking with her from beginning to end. Janelle sung titles from her entire collection of music from “Sincerely Jane”, “Primetime”, “Queen” and she finished her one hour set with “Come Alive” (The War Of Roses). Janelle Monae is truly an “Electric Lady”, she had the place on fire with all of her energy and excitement. Incredibly she moonwalked across the entire stage and the audience went wild. The band was incredible and her guitar player Kellindo Parker had a small but awesome solo. Janelle definitely left the crowd wanting more.
*Written By Guest Columnist
Alex Boyd
