Two shirts slanged by this here site pretty much summed up the Southeast’s largest Hip Hop festival, A3C, with taglines that read “Hip Hop is NOT dead” and “Independent as Fuck” (the old Def Jux Records mantra). This weekend, Atlanta was served up a robust helping of all the elements of this culture: deejaying, B-Boying, graffiti bombing, emceeing, beat-boxing and fashion. And if Hip Hop was a mind-altering substance, after this high, the city of Atlanta could be found prostrate on the floor of CW Midtown (the venue) simultaneously shaking and doing the wop. Yeah, it went down like that. I’m sorry some of you couldn’t be there but buck up lil’ guy, you can experience the memorable moments through the eyes of thou.

Senor Kaos, backed on the turn tables by Public Enemy's DJ Lord, deftly warmed up the crowd for the first performer who happened to be none other then Interscope’s newest signee and D.C.’s own, Wale. Over the live instrumentation of the U.C.B., he’d go on to perform his hits “Ice Cream Girl,” “Nike Boots,” “Back in the Go Go” and a few of his freestyles from 100 Miles and Running. The live band was incredible and sent a few fans into spastic dance-like movements. Backstage, I chopped it up with him and the band. Wale was mad confident but still humble enough to ask me my thoughts on the show. It’s funny because I didn’t hear him the first time he asked me and him and the band thought I just ignored the question because I disliked the performance but we cleared that right up and I told him the performance was dope and we laughed about it. Afterwards, we joked about him getting Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) on his upcoming project the Mixtape About Nothing, which is scheduled to drop at the end of this month, and another mixtape he has in the works with 9th Wonder. He also spoke about his reasoning for joining Jimmy Iovine’s label saying, “Interscope just seemed like they got it all the way. The whole building understood what we’re trying to do…which is the restoration of good music no pun intended.”

Fresh off of that interview, I sprinted back to the main stage to catch Jeru the Damaja, whose performance embodied how an emcee should control the stage. His vocals were clear, he ran through his catalogue of classics and newer heaters and he entertained the crowd in between tracks occasionally cracking on innocent bystanders Def Comedy style. He performed like only a vet could with no hype man just a mic, a cup of brown liquor and a deejay.

The highlight of day one for me was seeing Little Brother perform. I’ve seen LB perform probably four or five times and I’m never disappointed afterwards. They ran through about 15-20 tracks—maybe more—damn near doing all of Get Back, dipping into The Minstrel Show and taking it back to The Listening. And the crowd was spazzing. LB responded giving the crowd more energy with singer, Darien Brockington, and Phonte two-stepping hard more vigorously as the night went on.

Despite the different types of people A3C drew out—rockers with Mohawks, backpackers with Jansports, nerds, sneaker heads, etc—the crowd’s head nod was in unison when LB was doing their thing. I caught up with the duo backstage where Pooh and Tigallo humorously interacted with the media talking about Phonte’s whipping up Steak-Ums, Pooh’s signature barbecue chicken, Phonte’s playing God of War, why you should never drink tour bus water as well as their feelings on this upcoming election with Pooh emphasizing, “every vote counts, even if it don’t count (a nod to the fiasco in Florida last election),” and finishing with “it’s important you go out and express yourself by voting and if you don’t, don’t complain about nothing.” They also talked about their upcoming projects including some solo work from Pooh, Sleepers 2, and a sequel to Foreign Exchange coming soon.

Day one ended with me checking out the mellow west coast vibes of Del the Funkee Homosapien [click here to read review...]. Before let out, all the artists who performed were in the halls of the venue dapping up fans, signing CDs, swooping on groupies and pretty much kicking it which is the difference between an independent Hip Hop festival and a major concert. Cats really got to interact with the artists at A3C. Continued on page 2 »