Thursday, April 2, 2009
SXSW Music 2009
A CultureLab Recollection by Aden Fissihaie
I was sort of skeptical of SXSW this year due to the economy. I thought it would not be as great as last year but I was wrong it was way better than last year. At this year's festival, I discovered Janelle Monae is a rock star.
Monae and her band are the sickest band ever: she dances, spins, crowd surfs, jumps, screams, I think you get what I am saying. It was pure excitement watching her and her band. She was also very down to earth talking to all her fans and walking around like she was nobody when her outfit and hair-do alone lets you know she is definitely somebody out of the ordinary.
Theophilus London was also very impressive. He really reminds me of Dwayne Wayne from A Different World because of his style, but his performance is legendary for a hip-hop artist as its never been done the way he does it. He dances and walks around like Michael Jackson at times I cant even put it into words, but he definitely has his own swag. Look at the Youtube posted.
Also caught the Bun B. show and he rocked it with all the UGK songs and some of his solo songs. Dead Prez also performed they are always dope and good people. Then there was the most talked about show at SXSW, Kanye West at the The Fader/Levi’s Fort, with his G.O.O.D. Family of artists. There were so many artist sharing that stage: KiD CuDi performed, Kanye West did all his new songs and some of the old songs, Common performed with a surprise guest which was Erykah Badu and they freestyled with Kanye which was ridiculous!!! Gotta love Erykah.
GLC, Big Sean, Really Doe, Bentley Fonsworth, Mr. Hudson, Tony Williams, Consequence were the G.O.O.D. Family label performers who shared the stage, the only one missing was John Legend.
Then, there was the last show I went to which was the Perez Hilton show and Perez always picks the artist that will be the hitmakers of the new year. Last year I went to the Perez Hilton show and Katy Perry, Chester French and N.E.R.D. performed and next thing you know Katy Perry was the "it" girl for 2008. So at the Perez Hilton One Night In Austin show, Perez had the same hat Aretha Franklin had on at The Inaugration but his was pink and that was hilarious.
KiD CuDi performed with this girl named Lil Boots watch out for her she is gonna be big. Then, Kanye West took the stage and performed a few songs. The one thing that really stands out from that night was being able to go backstage after Kanye's set. Kanye hugged every single person in the room and afterwards the people backstage all collectively began to hug and show love to each other as if they were celebrating all things G.O.O.D. It felt like the part in mass where the priest tells you to wish everyone sitting beside you "peace be with you" and you are randomly hugging and shaking hands with strangers. I think Kanye is a great guy especially after witnessing the Kanye hugfest, I mean, what rockstar does that?
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