BY ROXANA HADADI

“If you don’t feel this shit, go the fuck home,” hip-hop trio De La Soul told hordes of fans at Sunday’s Rock the Bells festival stop at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland. Yet the nearly 17,000 hip-hop heads that packed the pavilion and the outside lawn – despite the numerous rainshowers that poured throughout the day – refused to pack up and leave, instead staying through an all-day show that brought hip-hop veterans such as A Tribe Called Quest and Rakim together with more modern classics such as Nas and members of the Wu-Tang Clan.

But while some (like Supernatural and Immortal Technique) amazed, others (such as Mos Def) didn’t fare so well. In the words of LL Cool J’s “Rock the Bells,” the festival’s namesake, “there’s no delayin’ what we’re sayin’” – so here’s the official BLURT list of the day’s five most enjoyable and five most disappointing.

MOST ENJOYABLE

5. Immortal Technique

Scheduled immediately after a set by Dead Prez, Immortal Technique hit the stage at 2:15 p.m., complete with a large entourage of fellow rappers, including Poison Pen and Da Circle, and a cadre of songs from 2003’s Revolutionary Vol. 2 and this year’s The 3^rd World. “We the Middle East right here,” Immortal said. “We in the East, but we in the middle.” While the crowd, who had just gone crazy for Dead Prez, didn’t seem too enthralled by Immortal, that didn’t keep the Harlem rapper from delivering a solid set, with some of his best tracks – “Industrial Revolution,” “The 3^rd World,” “Bin Laden” and “Rebel Arms” – in rapid succession. The majority of concertgoers may not have lapped up Immortal’s anti-government, anti-police, anti-anything-authoritative rhymes, but that didn’t lower his intensity – in fact, it was that righteous, determined anger that made Immortal one of the best of the bunch Sunday.

4. Rakim

It’s a testament to Rakim’s legacy that two of his fellow performers Sunday – Raekwon and Nas – both have songs in his honor, with the former’s “U.B.R. (Unauthorized Biography of Rakim)” and the latter’s “Rakim Tribute.” And it’s even more fitting that when the New York rapper hit the stage a little before 3 p.m. Sunday, the crowd was louder and more rambunctious than it had been all day up to that point. They cheered as Rakim breezed through classics he recorded with Eric B. in the ‘80s, such as “I Know You Got Soul,” “In the Ghetto,” “Paid in Full” and “Microphone Fiend,” but only politely tolerated “I’m Back,” the new single which leaked earlier this year from Rakim’s (long-awaited) upcoming release, The Seventh Seal. Despite the persistent rumor that the album would drop July 7 of last year, it’s now slated for the fourth quarter of this year. More importantly, though, do you think Rakim likes Ingmar Bergman?

3. De La Soul

Though De La Soul has been making hip-hop history for more than 20 years, the trio garnered a new audience in 2005 when they collaborated with cartoon band Gorillaz on “Feel Good Inc.” In fact, member Kelvin Mercer – better known as Posdnuous – cracked to the audience that “some of y’all weren’t even born” during the trio’s early years. But regardless of how you know about De La Soul, if you were there Sunday, chances are you were pleased. The most energetic of the day’s performers (well, before Nas hit the stage), De La Soul played a wide array of tracks, pleasing the crowd with “Whatever Happened to the MC?,” “Pass the Plugs” and “Potholes in My Lawn,” among others. If you wanted to dance, this was the time to do it – and the crowd definitely did.

2. Supernatural

Even among the best of emcees, freestyling is a tough art to master (see: Eminem’s numerous choking scenes in 8 Mile) [How about just seeing Eminem choking? Preferably on a neckbone. – Eminem-unenthused Copy Ed.] But Supernatural, one of the hosts of the day’s festivities, proved his stellar skills on a variety of occasions as he entertained the crowd between Wale’s and Dead Prez’s sets early in the afternoon. Encouraging crowd members to pass him items to freestyle about, Supernatural built rhymes around hats, Nikes, CDs and cameras, as well as commanding security to pick a condom up from the pit’s floor and hijacking a concertgoer’s phone, while they were still on it, and rapping to the person on the other end of the call. Later on, he also freestyled about people in the audience, calling concertgoers out one by one – a woman dressed all in white, a white boy wearing a Bob Marley t-shirt. Though Supernatural didn’t come close to attempting his own record for longest freestyle – set at 2006’s Rock the Bells festival in San Bernardino, California, during which he rapped for more than nine hours – every second he spent onstage was one the audience clearly loved.

1. Nas

Oh, Nasir. The man who once claimed hip-hop is dead brought the place to life Sunday, performing more than a dozen songs plucked from his 14-year career, from the staggering genius that is Illmatic to his latest release, the chart-topping Untitled. From “Hip Hop is Dead” to “Sly Fox” to “N.Y. State of Mind” to “The World is Yours,” Nas ripped through hit after hit, spending little time bantering with the crowd – unless it was to reaffirm his support of Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential bid or criticize Jesse Jackson, that is (“I love Jesse Jackson, but it’s a new fucking day,” Nas said to resounding fanfare). “I Want to Talk to You,” the quintessential “Hate Me Now” and “One Mic,” followed, as Nas, aided by a dramatic, seizure-inducing lightshow, commanded the stage and the adoring public. Take that, Bill O’Reilly. [Choke on a neckbone, Bill. – Bill Reilly-unenthused Copy Ed.]

MOST DISAPPOINTING

5. The Pharcyde

There was nothing spectacularly wrong with The Pharcyde’s set Sunday, but there was nothing spectacular, either. One of the group’s most energetic performances wasn't even a Pharcyde song: Bootie Brown’s guest verses from "Dirty Harry" by Gorillaz. After more than a decade apart, the group simply sounded … average. And there's nothing exciting about average. 

4. Redman and Method Man

Yes, it’s a hip-hop festival with Redman and Method Man on the bill, so obviously, an ode to pot is going to make an appearance. But did that have to be the Wu-Tang Clan members’ entire set? Did every single aside to the audience have to be about how “all the motherfucking weed smokers in here” should “make some noise?” Did every single person have to choose that exact 45-minute span to toke up? And honestly, is a sequel to How High, as Redman and Method Man announced will be filming later this year, really necessary? We think not. Props to the duo for performing a well-received Ol’ Dirty Bastard tribute and bringing out local legend DJ Kool to help perform mega-hit “Let Me Clear My Throat,” but other than that, this set went up in smoke.

3. Dead Prez

In 2000, Dead Prez perfected their particular brand of politically conscious, socialist ideology with the album Let’s Get Free and its classic single, “Hip-Hop.” “Would you rather have a Lexus or justice?/ A dream or some substance? A Beemer, a necklace or freedom?” duo stic.man and M-1 asked. But eight years later, those immortal questions seem somewhat disingenuous when coming from a pair now dressed in what could be construed as a hipster uniforms (see: a tight purple T-shirt and a silver Lamé baseball cap). Sure, you shouldn’t judge a book – or rapper, in this case – by its cover, but when M-1 looks like he fell out of an American Apparel, things seem a little iffy. Thankfully, the pair performed “Hip-Hop,” but that was the only song they played in full – among others, “Turn Off the Radio,” “We Need a Revolution,” “Mind Sex” and “W-4” were all abruptly condensed. Add that to the fact that they performed approximately three seconds of “Walk Like a Warrior” before deciding they didn’t want to sing it, after all, and it was a shockingly underwhelming performance from the would-be revolutionaries.

2. Mos Def

It’s a sad day when Mos Def is more excited and energetic when acting as a hype-man for Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest than he is during his own set. Formerly of Black Star, the Brooklyn rapper is known for his eccentric style, too-cool image and scathing criticism of President George W. Bush, seen in songs such as “The Rape Over” and “Katrina Clap (Dollar Days).” As the third headliner, Mos Def should have delivered a rousing selection of his best and brightest tracks; however, it was only the eccentric part of his persona that showed itself during his set. While he did perform something awesome in layering “Close Edge” over Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s “The Message,” Mos Def – who came onstage draped in a woven rug and refused to take off his white Ray Ban wayfarers – spent most of his set meandering around, barely performing any other tracks, instead choosing to sway lackadaisically while brief samples of different reggae and soul songs played. During this time, Merriweather’s huge monitors displayed overhead shots of trains, automobiles and barren landscapes (which only added to the weirdness) and although the instrumentals for “The Rape Over” were on loop before Mos Def actually hit the stage, he never performed the song. Fast-forward a few hours later to Q-Tip’s set, though, and it’s like an entirely different Mos Def – he’s rapping energetically, jumping around the stage and dancing like Morris Day. What gives?

1. The wait for A Tribe Called Quest!!!!!!!!!!! (Kanye West, watch yr back…)

Sure, it takes time to set up between performers, and maybe 15 minutes – the time allotted between each Sunday performance – isn’t always enough. But considering that Nas walked off the stage promptly at 9:20 p.m., making way for A Tribe Called Quest to hit the stage at 9:35 p.m. for their 75-minute set, it was to be expected that Q-Tip and Co. would start on time. But 9:35 p.m. became 9:45 p.m., which became 9:50 p.m., which became 9:55 p.m., until finally, at 10:05 p.m., Q-Tip and Mos Def took the stage to perform a few songs without the rest of the group. No reason for the delay was given to the anxious, annoyed crowd, but there was apparently some sort of issue with the number of working microphones available, forcing sound crew technicians to scramble after Nas’ set. As the crowd started getting antsy, Q-Tip and Mos Def were ushered onstage to entertain – but the fact that they had to share a mic put a damper on things, and hearing the two perform Tribe songs (such as the classic “Excursions,” the lyrics to which Q-Tip had printed on his T-shirt) without fellow members Phife Dawg and Ali Shaheed Muhammad didn’t make much sense, as the rest of the group was barely 10 feet away.

The two eventually joined Q-Tip onstage for “Bonita Applebum,” “Check the Rhime” and others, but keeping paying concertgoers waiting and not telling them the reason is never cool – have we learned nothing from Kanye West’s nearly two-hour delay at Bonnaroo in June?

The show must go on – and should be on-time. [Word up.  – Ed. etc. etc.]

[Awesome Photo Credits: Adam Fried]