LIVE: Soundset 2014

Soundset was nothing short of spectacular this year, the weather even happened to agree. Canterbury Park smelled like Colfax Ave in Denver on 420 for most of the day and obviously into the evening. For the most part a very easy going, friendly and good looking crowd of people sold out this year’s Soundset which had talent to spare.

Three stages of fantastic hip hop, a halfpipe with crazy kids doing crazy shit, food, beer and all the necessary herbal supplies were on tap along with another badass lineup including (but not limited to): Nas, Atmosphere, Wiz Khalifa (fresh out of jail), 2 Chainz and many, many more.

I spent most of my time wandering between the main stage pit, the graffiti setup, and the various Element stages, doing my best to photograph as many acts as possible. The temperature a perfect 80-something degrees, there was only a couple of hints of rain throughout the day.

The music was unreal. Some of these artists I have been listening to since I started listening to music, basically. I couldn’t turn my head for a minute without missing someone I didn’t want to. In order, my overall favorites three artists on the day would have to be Nas, Atmosphere and Brother Ali, who held down the Fifth Element stage like a boss to end all bosses. Very up close and personal with the fans back there, which is rare in today’s music industry of email and twitter.

Nas was also fantastic. Guy has more beats than Dre and is still out doing it, rather than selling it. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Nas as artist and lyricist, he was one of the main reasons I wanted to attend. Every other song brought me back to my teen years, regardless of the fact that I’m a little short white dude from Wisconsin.

Slug and Ant brought their A-game to wrap everything up right around sunset. An absolutely picturesque finale mixing very early with very recent samples of their playlist.

We were supposed to have interviews lined up with an assortment of artists, but absolutely everything possible fell through. Started out: we were going to get to sit with Nas for 10 minutes. Then Wiz, then he was arrested in Texas, and then we lost a guy to illness and yeah. So in the way of interviews, we did none.

I eagerly await next year – we should be a much more rounded publication by that time and will bring a lot more in-depth coverage, versus what I could accomplish solo.

Here are some albums for you to buy: