Quality gig tonight. All hip-hop gigs should be like that.
Each of the acts played 45 min sets... Run the Jewels were on first, the one I was looking forward to the most. They were fucking exceptional, hilarious and a stupid amount of fun. They came out to We Are The Champions, Killer Mike with champagne which he gave to the crowd, El-P with what looked like Belvedere Vodka. They played pretty much all of Run the Jewels as well as a few tracks from R.A.P. Music and Cancer 4 Cure. Run the Jewels sounded sick, and of the three acts had the clearest sound, which was wicked because there's a lot of neck-snapping snares on Run the Jewels which need to be heard. Killer Mike was drunk as fuck, and thought we were in Sydney before El-P was like "we're in Melbourne you fucking fat drunk bastard" and they both seemed really appreciative, laughing, playing it up with the crowd, saying funny shit, Killer Mike dancing. They had a better stage presence than Danny Brown and Earl, although they were both great too. Absolutely loved it. Pretty jealous of the Governors Ball goers, who will likely see an Outkast/Killer Mike collab at some point.
Danny Brown was up next and he was a lot of fun. I didn't recognise most of the tracks, because I only spun Old a few times. Must listen to it more. Was a largely party set, so filled mostly with his more trap-leaning stuff... I have to say though, as much as I don't really care for that sort of rap it's a hell of a lot of fun live. (Hell just before he came on the DJ played Waka Fuckhead Flame's Hard in Da Paint and even that was fun.) Dip was nuts and the dude is an absolute riot. Looks like he's having a great time, kept asking for dope and a molly, I was pretty disappointed no one handed him a joint. The place was packed during his set, I couldn't move, and out of the three acts he had the biggest crowd, there was plenty of room during Earl's set. No Grown Up, which was a shame, that's my favourite DB song, but it wouldn't really have fit the vibe anyway.
Earl was joined by Domo Genesis and Taco, who rapped and DJ'd. Again I didn't recognise most of the songs because I only spun Doris once or twice. There were some quality beats and it was a lot of fun, but you lose a bit of the subtlety live, so Earl's rapping doesn't shine through as much as it should. The three of them ad-libbed Ride Wit Me at one point, which was mad. The whitest thing ever happened during their set, when a bunch of douchenozzles created a circle pit and started throwing themselves at each other. A lot of the songs were short but it was a pretty consistently good set.