Guerilla Union, in partnership with Boost Mobile and Blackberry, presented the Rock the Bells Launch Party, held at the House of Blues on Sunset in Hollywood on May 24th. The purpose of the event was to officially announce the confirmed performers that will be in attendance at the highly anticipated summer hip hop music festival, Rock the Bells. A majority of the headliners will be performing their most influential albums in their entirety, a unique perk that sets this festival apart from others.
The Rock the Bells 2011 Line Up:
Headliners
Ms. Lauryn Hill performing The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Nas performing Illmatic (with special guests AZ, Pete Rock and DJ Premier)
Cypress Hill performing Black Sunday
Erykah Badu
Mos Def & Talib Kweli are Black Star
Raekwon & Ghostface performing Only Built for Cuban Linx
Mobb Deep performing Infamous
The GZA performing Liquid Swords
Immortal Technique
Slaughterhouse
Mac Miller
Curren$y
Souls of Mischief performing 93 ’til Infinity
Black Moon
Childish Gambino
Blu & Exile
Fashawn
Random Axe
Masta Killah performing No Said Date
Evidence
Macklemor
Freddie Gibbs
Roc Marciano
Hosted by: The RZA, Murs 3:16 and Supernatural
The party started with the tradition of veteran MC Supernatural freestyle rapping the names of the artists on the line up. Then, a panel of a few of the artists that were set to perform came out for a brief Q&A session. The panel included Supernatural, Evidence, one third of Dilated Peoples, RZA, Chang Weisenberg, Rock the Bells founder B-Real of Cypress Hill, Havoc of Mobb Deep, Big Noyd and the Souls of Mischief.
The set list for this year’s Rock the Bells is a wide range of hip hop artists old and new. Even though the festival is still in its infancy, it strives to pay tribute to the artistry of hip hop culture by staying true to it’s organic roots. The artists will be performing on three different stages this year: The Rock the Bells Stage, The Paid Dues Stage and the new RZA curated 36 Chambers Stage. There will also be a new, fourth stage The GrindTime Now stage, where battling MC’s will be able to free style and challenge each other freestyle battle.
To wrap up the party, there were a few special, brief live performances from a few of the acts with sets just long enough to entice for the events to come. Rock the Bells only has four North American destinations this year:
8/20 San Bernardino, CA- San Manuel Amphitheatre
8/27 Mountain View, CA- Shoreline Amphitheatre
9/3 New York, NY- Governor’s Island
9/10 Boston, MA- TBD
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