The city will host its biggest hip-hop line-up to date when Rock the Bells hits Deer Lake Park in Burnaby tomorrow.
Nas, Damian Marley, Common, Big Boi and KRS-One are among those who will perform at the Vancouver stop of the annual, international hip-hop festival, now in its fifth year.
While it’s a leaner line-up than the one at most U.S. dates, which includes Cypress Hill, Ice Cube, the Roots and Busta Rhymes, there is certainly no shortage of great music.
Nas, who will co-headline with Marley, calls their energy together “out of this world.”
“The way he rocks with the audience is totally different from the way I rock with the audience,” said the Queensbridge rapper. “It’s like [the audience gets] two experiences at one time, two different experiences brought together.”
The two are finishing up an album together, titled Distant Relatives, which spawned from their collaboration on the song Road To Zion off Marley’s 2005 album Welcome To Jamrock. Nas says they will perform a few songs off it at Rock the Bells.
“It’s a straight-up hip-hop tour and that’s what I like about it,” said Nas of the festival. “I can’t wait to come out there and do what we do.”
