Recap | HPX 2014 Day 3

Ahhhh The Forum, Halifax’s favourite concert venue. Home of over priced beers and, more often than not, great music. Last night was certainly no exception as some of the biggest names in hip hop hit the stage alongside a couple of Canada’s finest and, arguably, most talented musicians.

We loved Cam Smith so much the night before that we went back and saw him again. He’s proudly Nova Scotian and that really comes across in his performance – making shout outs to his friends in the crowd and flaunting that infamous Maritime hospitality saying “thank you” probably 200 times. Musically he put on another great performance alongside his ever-so-talented DJ Corey LeRue.

BADBADNOTGOOD WERE SO GOOD!! (Brutal joke we had to make…) They absolutely blew the roof off of that concrete box. Their musicianship truly is amazing, rivaling anything we’ve seen so far at HPX. They spent the majority of their set playing their own material and then wrapped it up with a series of covers; all of which had the crowd jammin’ incredibly hard. Mad props to the drummer, Alex, for being able to drum like an absolute animal and talk with the audience at the same time. The keys were another highlight. The lightening fast jazz melodies he played were pulled off flawlessly and with infinite swagger. Chester, the bassist was SLAPPIN' DA BASS, MON (is it weird that we always sound like leprechauns...?) They had the entire hall jumping and groovin' to the music. These formally trained musicians brought an edge to technicality.

“Keep music in your life, cuz after all what would life be without music?” – Ghostface’s prized line from last night and words to live by at that.

The only way we can think to use to describe the moment when the two Hip Hop legends Ghostface Killah and Raekwon walked on stage is: exhilarating. Immediately it was obvious that they were vets who knew how to fire up the crowd while dishing out their usual (incredible) verses. The two shared the stage perfectly – feeding off of cues from one another and engaging in some witty banter including commentary on the white washed crowd and sneaking through Canadian customs.

What really hit home for us was the genuine connection they made with fans. Towards the end of the set they performed an “Ode to Dirty” and plucked three shmeezly Nova Scotians out of the crowd to perform their first big hit “Protect Ya Neck”. Two die-hard (I have to say…white guys) and, hilariously enough, the guy who plays T in Trailer Park Boys dominated the stage, filling in for missing members Method Man and ODB. “T” nailed it as ODB. At one point Ghostface silenced the DJ so that the crowd could take in the sheer bravado and skill of this man “T”. Shout out to all of them though – it takes real balls to get up there and rap with the greats, let alone to their own song. Wouldn’t be surprised if “T” went home with a record deal.

They wrapped up their set and brought BADBADNOTGOOD back out on stage with them where they played some sick beats that ended up sending every member of the crowd over the moon. Needless to say the February release of the BBNG and Ghostface collaboration album is going to be unreal.

Hate to finish off on a bad note but we waited for an hour and a half for Raekwon and Ghostface…that’s not cool. We get it, you’re celebs but people got shizz to do boys. The fact that concert-goers had started to leave for fear that they wouldn’t be able to catch other acts they wanted to see or just because they were sick of waiting was pretty sad.

Anywhoooo, awesome night to say the least make sure to check out Zeds Dead and the WAYO tonight with secret guest: BADBADNOTGOOD (ya heard it here first!). That’s where we’ll be.