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  • » Name: Amanda Bassa
  • » Location: VA
  • » Member Since: 09/21/07
  • » Bio: student, future change maker, and everything you wouldn't expect me to be.
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The Undisputed Truth

Supernatural at Rock the Bells


July 31, 2008 | Tags: Rock the Bells, Supernatural

Who needs headliners when you have a guy that’s killing it with the freestyles between sets?

I already spoke a bit on the amazingness that was Nas’ performance at the Maryland Rock the Bells, but now let’s focus on another part of the day: Supernatural.

See, the word “freestyle” is a funny word these days. It is supposed to be to rap what “improv” is to comedy. Some wild, off the top of the brain type shit. But it’s not really a secret that most “freestyles” are written in advance and in actuality are nothing more than a simple acapella. I’ve watched so many “freestyles” on YouTube that are nothing more than verses off a song from an album that someone just spit live without the beat. Talk about false advertising! But it happens so often and is such a given these days, that I almost have come to accept it.

As of Sunday, fuck accepting that “written freestyle” oxymoron type shit. Sorry. Not when I’ve seen a guy like Supernatural do his thing firsthand. At one point he instructed the crowd down in the pit to hand random objects to him on stage. He ended up spitting rhymes off the top about every single object he was handed – from a whistle to a “vote Obama” pin. Not only is this great for crowd involvement, which thus increases the energy and gets a good ambience going for the next artist to perform, but it’s damn impressive. I know I couldn’t do that!

And lucky for me (and you), someone got it on video and upped part of it onto YouTube.

At another point, he started calling out random people in the crowd – the most notable of which was a girl who was standing to the side and was hooking the audience up with the sign language version of everything being said onstage. The irony in this, of course, being that she had to bust out the sign language about herself as he was blowing up her spot in front of the whole venue. I wish I could have seen her face, but I was standing off to the side and a wall was in my way. Damn! Unfortunately I can’t find a video of that (probably could but I don’t have the time to dig for it), but it was one of the only moments that had me laughing out loud as far as performances were concerned.

All comedy aside though, the true beauty in this was that it was impossible for him to have written this shit beforehand. This was true freestyling at its finest, and it refreshed my memory as to just how amazing this hip hop shit can be. And isn’t that the true essence of Rock the Bells anyway? At the end of the day, it’s very likely that you’ll go home remembering exactly why you fell in love with it in the first place. And it’s that reasoning that will make me remember Supernatural as another main highlight of the Maryland stop of the 2008 Rock the Bells.


The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the writer and not necessarily those of HipHopDX.com or Cheri Media Group.

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