Again, I’m gonna have to keep this brief. For the second time in the past few weeks, I’m coming to you live from Chicago, where I’m in town to attend one of these outdoor music festival - this time, Lollapalooza.

I already discussed Lollapalooza here once before in reference to a controversy I was hoping there might be with regard to the fact that Kanye West isn’t headlining, despite the fact that he’s maybe the most popular artist out right now, right up there with Nickelback. Who’d probably be headlining, if they were black. (Think about it.)

Instead, Kanye West is playing either tomorrow night or Sunday night (I can’t recall, and I’m kinda in a rush), opposite Nine Inch Nails, who I’m thinking might put on a better live show (I’ve never seen either of them), though I’m sure the Kanye set would be more relevant to my “readership.” So I’m gonna have a decision to make.

I might have to check out Kanye though, on the outside chance that Barack Obama shows up. I’ve been hearing rumors that he’s gonna come out either during Kanye’s set or during Wilco - one of this year’s other headliners. First, I was hearing it was Wilco, who I know Obama has gone on record as saying he’s a fan of (hmm…). Then, I heard it was gonna be Kanye.

Which, normally, I would take to mean that he decided his best bet was to come out and address the crowd during Kanye West’s set, where probably a lot more people are gonna be. But this is kind of a weird week for Obama with rap music, what with the situation with Ludacris. Last thing he needs is for Bill O’Reilly to get his hands on the lyrics to some of the ignorant shit Kanye’s written.

So that’ll be interesting to see. I might have to file a report either here or on my own site. Only thing is, I like to go pretty hard with the substance abuse when I’m on vacation. So I can’t make any guarantees. (Think of me as your father.)

I’m taking a look at the schedule, and there’s not gonna be a whole lot of hip-hop at this thing anyway, other than Kanye. And a lot of what else there is is kinda teh ghey and hipsterish.

Today, there’s that guy K’Naan, who put out one of the best rap albums this decade (no, really), except it doesn’t really count, since it’s from motherfucking Canada. They’ve got him playing the worse time of the motherfucking festival. I might miss it, if I don’t hurry up and get done with this shit.

Then later on in the day there’s Cadence Weapon (also from Canada), who I’m altogether unfamiliar with, but I’m assuming he’s not that good; and Chi-town’s own the Cool Kids, who I passed on seeing at P-fork a couple of years ago, back when they only had like two songs out. Literally. I might try to catch them this afternoon.

Keeping with the local theme, they’ve got Lupe in a pretty sweet time slot tomorrow, for being a rap act at a mostly rock festival. Maybe it’s because he’s pretty much the only rap going on that day. This way, you’re that much less likely to miss it. Unless you get tanked, lose your sense of orientation, and just decide to check out whatever hipster bullshit is going on nearby.

Which has been known to happen.

Speaking of hipster bullshit, they’ve got another local hip-hop act, Kid Sister, playing in one of these early afternoon slots set aside for people who only have one song anyone ever heard of. I’m almost certainly gonna miss that. Then later on that day, there’s a set by Saul Williams, who I’m looking forward to catching quite a bit. That Niggy Tardust album is my shit.

Share: