The 10th anniversary of Rhymesayers, Soundest Festival had plenty of ups and downs at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds on Sunday. We’ll start with the positives that took place. A record 35,000+ fans showed up through the gates to see the best mix of different genres and eras of rap, hip hop, and soul that you’re going to find anywhere.
T.I. took to the stage to a large applause from the crowd as he performed hits Bring Em Out and U Don’t Know Me, while playfully cracking jokes in between songs. Lauryn Hill and her band gave fans a fantastic set that was truly one of the best performances at Soundset. Bloomington native, Modsun was moved to the mainstage because of scheduling conflicts and made the most of it as he wildly ran across the stage and he even performed down in front of the crowd as he told them that it was “a dream come true” to perform at Soundset on the mainstage.
The weather was nice (for the most part.) Bay area legend, E40 did a super job filling in last minute for Mac Miller (who canceled to be with girlfriend, Ariana Grande after the Manchester suicide bombing incident). He had the seasoned fans in the crowd rapping along to his hits Function and Choices (Yup). Gucci Mane arrived back stage in a black suburban right before he was scheduled to go on, got out looking clean in a blue Dolce and Gabbana denim button down shirt. He entered the stage, performed his set and got right back in the black suburban, drove to the airport and out of Minnesota.
Travis Scott was the headliner and his performance will be talked about for quite some time. Just as the curtains went down and he appeared leaning against a prop about 5 feet above the stage, the storms rolled in and it started pouring rain as if it were supposed to be part of the show. Travis even mentioned to the fans (none of which were deterred by the weather) that the storms arrived right on time. He then ran back and forth across the stage rapping his hits. He went and performed while standing over the first few rows of fans towards the end of his set. He easily had one of the best stage shows ever at Soundset as he brought out a giant mechanical eagle that squawked and shot red lasers out of its eyes. Along with lots of pyro lasers and smoke. And now the downs that happened: Pusha T was late due to flight troubles, Ty Dolla Sign was late as well but they both were able to perform. A large amount of festivals schedule was thrown off because of their lack of being punctual.
The biggest disappointment of the day was when rising star rapper, Lil Uzi Vert (who was probably the most anticipated artist scheduled to perform on the lineup) decide to cancel last minute (without a reason or apology to the festival or fans.) Slug of Atmosphere was frustrated and rightfully so. At one point he even announced to the fans that this might just be the last Soundset Festival. Hopefully he was just blowing off steam and there will be many more Soundset Festivals to come. Future artists that are scheduled to perform better take it seriously and actually show up on time ready to go.
The people of Rhymesayers and Soundset Festival have a strong following and reputation. They have worked too hard for too long for people to just disrespectfully cancel or be late on day of show. Big shout out to the people behind the scenes of Rhymesayers, the festival, and the PR team (Anne Jojo, Richie Abbott and Alexandria Baligad for all of their hard work and making sure things are accommodating during the stressful times and situations throughout the day!”
All photos by Tommy Allen Williams
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