No joke, I nearly had an anxiety attack when I saw this on the Coachella stream an hour ago.

After some digging around, I’m led to believe that a company named Musion created this mind boggling “performance” of 2pac.  A bunch of “news” sources quoted Deutsche Telekom as the creator, but my guy Victor pointed out to me Deutsche Telekom is german for T-Mobile. After some more researching, DT just sponsored Musion to create a Mariah Carey concert this past Christmas, they don’t make the holographic technology. Hope that clears up some confusion. I hope some tech blog or wired can do a detailed piece on the entire thing, though.

If I was a betting man, I’d say yes. They are probably waiting for State Farm (sponsor of the stream) to discount errr cut the check. If you look at the Schedule it says 10:35pm PT, and that is the only act that hits the stage at that time on Sunday. If you recall, something similar happened with Kanye’s mind melting perfomance at Coachella last year, which got added to the stream schedule mear hours before he hit the stage (it was TBA all weekend).  Warren G let the cat out of the bag that himself, Eminem, Daz, Kendrick Lamar, Wiz Khalifa are going to join the good doctor’s set. I expect even more guests, to be honest. I also expect the Radiohead stream to be added on Saturday. Keeping all of that in mind, one other scenario that can play out is they’ll show a part of the set as ACL’s stream did with Arcade Fire’s closing set last year.

The entire stream schedule can be seen on the Coachella youtube page, which starts streaming at 3:25 PM PT today.  Also, can we talk about A$AP Rocky headlining a tent after being on the scene for like a year? Impressive.

Edit 4/15: Confirmed Dr Dre & Snoop Dogg’s set will be streaming.

Yo! I have a flight to catch in about 4 hours, yours truly is going back to SXSW.  I’m currently shaking with anxiety, as there is so much to do so much to see, that I have oodles of content from last years SXSW that I never got to share with y’all (stay tuned I’ll probably crack open the vault real soon).

Incase you are curious are/or going to be down there, here are some showcases that caught my eye/people forwarded to me:

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American Express has cut a fat check to live stream Jay-Z performing songs live from the famed Austin City Limits. Hov will perform songs as selected by twitter (HOLA HOVITO, PLEASE!!). I’ve watched a few Hov streams in my  internet life time, and all of them have been pretty noteworthy (and a lot of rappers can take note). Lastly, you’ll be able to watch the show from a choice of 3 different camera perspectives.

The live stream starts at 8pm EST at  American Express’ Youtube Page.

Catch DMX’s sure to be intriguing “Return to NYC” from the safety of your laptop where the pitbulls that  X might decide to release can’t pounce on you. The livestream can be accessed at 9PM EST via the EVR website as well as the EVR mobile app (free for all iPhone and Droid users).

DMX also released his brand new single I Don’t Dance  today, check it here.

Last night, I was in the building to Watch The Throne in Baltimore, MD. While I didn’t see any actual thrones, I did see arguably the two best live performers in hip hop. Since I never typed up my Watch The Throne album review (I wrote it on a back of an envelope, while on the metro), this is me making up for that..because no one else wrote about that album on the internet or anything. This isn’t a review as much as it is random thought/observation drop. First off, the doors opened at 6:30, and the showtime on the ticket was 7:30, so I scrambled to get down to Baltimore from the DC area. There is no opener (none is needed, AT ALL), and the duo didn’t hit the stage till 8:48. So if you are going to another tour stop, feel free to add an hour to whatever your ticket says. The arena was full a good hour before hand, which people spent hollering a girls in their best club outfits, getting concessions (nothing like some arena fries to get in the mood for The Throne!), or taking pictures with backdrops (cost: $15).

Kanye & Jay came out to ‘HAM’, which I’m not the biggest fan of but it is a great intro song, especially on the impressive sound system setup the tour uses (the building was shaking most of the night). I actually came to this realization a few months back when I heard used as an at bat intro song by a Washington Nationals player. As ‘HAM’ was rattling the arena, I noticed the mad engineer scientist Mike Dean was really into the music and was through out the whole night, which is plain neat to see. Next thing you know, Kanye & Jay were on top of LCD screened “shark tanks” 2-3 stories high, rapping. This was luxury rap in the flesh, the lighting, pyrotechnics, the soundsystem are probably as good as it gets for a rap show. When Kanye was doing ‘Diamonds are Forever’ it was dope to see Hov reemerge out from the back to do his remix verse, “Yup, I got it from here ‘Ye, damn”. That was a small example of the perfect sequencing of tracks and the rotation of both rappers having the stage to themselves, intertwined with sharing it with cuts they are both on.

Both rappers seemed really into the others songs as they would walk backstage, not just lazily giving up the spotlight. When these two guys combine their catalogs, you are almost overwhelmed at how many songs of theirs are ingrained into your memory.  Unlike many 2 hour shows, there was no lull, even when Kanye & Jay-Z, getting emotional, sitting next to each other on the stage steps for ‘New Day’. To be honest though, I did notice a lot of the “hungry fat dudes” demographic of the audience make a bee-line to the food & beer concessions during ‘Runaway’. I just hope they were back in time for ‘Stronger’ which Kanye followed with and did a good 1 minute of shifting his eyes left to right as the song opens (something you have to see in person). When Jay was running through ‘Big Pimpin’ Hov dropped a few “hold uppp (Pimp C Voice)” before doing C’s verse acapella with the crowd, great stuff.

The show wrapped up with ‘Dudes In Paris’ done… 3 times (which the crazyness of was kind of spoiled for me by the blogs/tweets since it also occurred in Atlanta), followed by Encore. A good amount of the crowd started to leave the building after the 2nd rendition of ‘Paris’, probably thinking there couldn’t be anymore left.. only to scramble to the aisles a minute later.

All in all, if you are fan of at least one of the artists in general, you would enjoy catching the tour.

Three random thoughts: Have kids start wearing Givenchy leather kilts yet? Can I retire Gold Digger? How hot must the duo’s two suit wearing security dudes (I saw Steve!) have been in the stuffy arena?

We’re accustomed to having the best of everything in New York, but the CMJ Music Marathon is basically a baby version of South by Southwest. But that’s not to say there aren’t shows to see. We’ve listed our picks below and will update with more as we find them. In fact, if you notice my swagged out visage at the Tastemakers Lounge on Thursday, greet me as KNOBBZXL the Knobbzfather and you’ll get a free Metal Lungies keychain. I look like this.

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LOLOLOL, what other platinum selling rapper hops out of a trunk to start his performance, and then goes on airlift? Only this guy nicknamed Ye.

Below, There are even more LOLs to be had at Kanye forcing a re-do during the opening of All Of The Lights when the (majority white) crowd didn’t call and respond to the “MJ Gone..” line loud enough.  A Rest In Peace shout-out to Black Eyed Peas was totally normal, too.

From the reviews ACL sounded like a swell job to wrap up the tour supporting My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

It’s time again for my new favorite day of the year. No, it’s not my birthday (I’ve already turned 21… so what is there to look forward to?) and it’s definitely not Christmas…. but it IS Virgin Mobile FreeFest! Never mind that corny introduction and focus on that festival title… FREE. I love free things, especially when it’s a day jam packed with some of my favorite artists. If you’re wondering what the hell I’m talking about, just keep reading, I promise I’ll persuade you to join me in the rain this upcoming Saturday, September 10, 2011.

This year FreeFest pulled in a pretty awesome lineup in my opinion (last year’s was pretty noteworthy as well). Starting at 11 AM, Merriweather Post Pavilion will host :

Eclectic Method: 12-1:30 PM//Dance Forest

Alberta Cross: 12:15-1:15//Festival Stage

**Bombay Bicycle Club: 1:00-2:00//Pavilion Stage

**Two Door Cinema Club: 1:45-2:45//Festival Stage

Porter Robinson: 1:45-3:15//Dance Forest

*Okkervil River: 2:30-3:30//Pavilion Stage

*Big Sean: 3:15-4:15//Festival Stage

**Calvin Harris: 3:15-4:45//Dance Forest

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals: 4:00-5:00//Pavilion Stage

**Cut Copy: 4:45-5:45//Festival Stage

*!!!: 5:00-6:00//Dance Forest

Patti Smith: 5:30-6:30//Pavilion Stage

*Cee Lo Green: 6:20-7:20//Festival Stage

**James Murphy: 6:15-7:45//Dance Forest

**TV On The Radio: 7:00-8:15// Pavilion Stage

**Empire of the Sun: 8:00-8:55//Festival Stage

Teddybears: 8:15-9:15//Dance Forest

**The Black Keys: 8:45-10//Pavilion Stage

**Deadmau5: 9:20-11//Festival Stage

*Ghostland Observatory9:45-10:45//Dance Forest

(** for an act that there is no chance in hell I’ll miss)

(* for acts that I’ll try and hear at least a few songs)

I’m thoroughly surprised that in this one day extravaganza there is only one REAL time conflict on my schedule which happens to occur during Deadmau5′s TWO HOUR set…. I don’t know if I can handle two hours of Deadmau5 so I might just be lucky and able to go see Ghostland Observatory.

Even if you didn’t score free tickets before they “free”d out you can still get a Free-I-P pass for less than $50 which scores you a bunch of extra cool stuff including comped drinks.

I’ll leave you with this:
Something Good Can Work (The Twelves Remix) by skorsz

I remember watching youtubes of last years Fool’s Gold Labor Day party with Yelawolf rocking the hell out of his set, well this year I will probably doing the same with shaky cell cam videos of Juicy J & Danny Brown rocking. Danny Brown’s live set impressed me so much at SXSW, that I became a believer, dude is just great on stage. Of course, you can’t forget the rest of the Fool’s Gold fam including, A-Trak, Dave1, Araabmuzik (mpc vibez!!) and Nick Catchdubs who are sure to have gems to drop. If you are in NYC, I can’t think of a better way to spend your Labor Day, ok now close the Safari window and go get in line.

Fool’s Gold Day Off

Juicy J
Danny Brown
Just Blaze
Brothers Macklovitch (A-Trak & Dave1)
Araabmuzik
Cubic Zirconia
Party Supplies
Nick Catchdubs
+ Special Guests
 

 
City Winery Backyard
155 Varick St
(Entrance on Spring btwn Hudson & Varick)
2-8pm / All ages