BOSTON CALLING – DAY 2 RECAP

05/29/2017 by theneelshow in boston calling and tagged BOSTON, boston calling, cousin stizz, danny brown, hiphop, mumford and sons, russ, tegan and sara, the xx, young thug | Leave a comment

Day 2 saw larger crowds than the day before – probably because all the moms and kids were here for the weekend. Weather held up even better than the day before and the grounds were mostly solid!

Russ put on a short performance because his bus apparently broke down. He started after the end of his set after fans chant for him and then against him. In the end fans were still happy to see the self made man lay down his hits.

PC: TAYLOR HILL

Up next on the Blue Stage was Cousin Stizz

Unfortunately also late in starting his set he gave a great performance and definitely made some new fans. Crowds ran deep for the Boston rapper. He seemed really happy and proud of himself to play to a hometown crowd at a festival.

Things got even more crowded for Danny Brown who gave a slightly toned back performance compared to his usual antics. I heard some people in the crowd speculate as to when he might do coke on stage…

He didn’t do coke on stage.

PC: NEEL BHADRA

PC: TAYLOR HILL

Then I caught a little bit of pop gods Tegan & Sara

Their set was pretty much an hour of straight hits while they bopped around on stage.

PC: PADGETT

2nd to last act of the night I caught was The xx

Watching the duo jam out was mesmerizing. Everyone was dancing and nodding their heads along to their infectious beats. Jamie xx is an AMAZING producer. He even has a track with Young Thug that’s pretty catchy. When they played Intro everyone felt some time of nostalgia as the track was used in pretty much everything from a Rihanna song to car commercials to hype videos for Tomorrowland.

PC: TAYLOR HILL

Closing Saturday night were headliners Mumford & Sons

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PC: TAYLOR HILL

You could feel it in the crowd that they had been waiting for Mumford all day. It was something joyous to be around everyone as they danced and sang to each and every song.

They kept messing with the crowd as they paused before each chorus and slowed down the tempo. Fun for them maybe but horrible for us as we had to listen to a drunk crowd scream the lyrics not together at all. But hey, Mumford & Sons were so thankful to the crowd and showed Boston some real love as they dedicated Believe to us.

PC: TAYLOR HILL

Walked back with a headache from dehydration which was my own fault but the longer day 2 proved to be a really good time. Day 3 next.

-Neel

COUSIN STIZZ – HIP HOP @ BOSTON CALLING

05/22/2017 by theneelshow in boston calling, MUSIC and tagged 500 horses, BOSTON, boston calling, cousin stizz, drake, hiphop, kyle, michael christmas, migos, offset, shoutout, tim larew | Leave a comment

COUSIN STIZZ

SAT @ 3:15

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Cousin Stizz is a 25 year old carrying the weight of Boston’s hip hop reputation on his back.

The Dorchester native started rapping years ago with the support of fellow Boston talent Michael Christmas and Tim Larew. After debuting with Suffolk County and some music videos for singles like No Bells, Dirty Bands, and Shoutout the buzz started to grow. The music was already cool – polished beats from the likes of Obeatz and DumDrumz with nonchalant rapping from Stizz but once Drake put up a video with Shoutout in the background buzz grew even faster (video was probably a Vine – RIP).

He followed up with MONDA in 2016 which featured front runner 500 Horses and racked up 1.7M plays on soundcloud. In 2017 Stizz has followed up by going on tour with Kyle and some collaborations like Want Me Bad with Kyle and Headlock with Offset. He’s also been teasing his next project titled One Night Only.

I’m excited to see where this next project will go, where it will take him, and where Boston can end up in the world of hip-hop. Will he stay in Boston and foster the scene? Will he have tons if A-List features? Who know. Catch him on Saturday at Boston Calling.