Legends of hip hop at Riot Fest Chicago

While many were looking forward to the day’s hip hop acts, they were anti-climactic compared to what was happening at the reggae stage. De La Soul, one of the greatest hip hop groups of all-time, spent most of their set bantering with one another and giving the crowd directives. With only 45-minutes to perform, they were able to get through “Me, Myself and I”, “Oooh”, “The Grind Date” and “Oodles of O’s”. This set a trend for the coming hip hop acts, as Cypress Hill was all too eager to spend their sets hyping up the crowd with witty banter versus performing. Cypress Hill did, however, get through eight songs – with minimal smoke breaks – including “I Ain’t Goin’ Out Like That”, “Insane In The Membrane”, “Hand on the Pump”, and “(Rock) Superstar”.

In true Snoop fashion, Snoop Dogg showed up a half hour late for what was supposed to be an hour-long set of Snoop’s debut album, 1993’s Doggystyle. Opening for Snoop Dogg, was Chicago’s own, The Lady of Rage, who was simply a casualty, as restless fans upset about Snoop’s tardiness booed her. Because Snoop always does what Snoop wants to do, he only performed two songs from his Doggystyle album: “Gin & Juice” and “Who Am I (What’s My Name)?”. Snoop delighted the audience with classics like “Nuthin’ But A ‘G’ Thang”, “The Next Episode” (as tribute to the late Nate Dogg) and his rendition of Slick Rick’s “Lodi Dodi”. In between each song, Snoop, flanked by his hype man, DJ, and two dancers, took smoke breaks (and not the tobacco kind). After being told that he only had three minutes left to perform, the Long Beach native was on the verge of a temper tantrum, blaming festival organizers for his tardiness, even threatening to continue performing past his allotted time – which did not happen. Snoop closed his brief set with the Pharrell-produced “Drop It Like It’s Hot” and “Young, Wild & Free”.

photos by Kris Lori Fuentes Cortes