Nothing short of success and positive vibes is the only way to express J. Cole’s first annual Dreamville Festival over the past weekend. 40K Sold-out and all were in attendance for the festival. For my first time being in Raleigh, NC the city showed us a great time and Dorthea Dixie Park was the right size area for the festival as it wasn’t too packed at all. Now the main event is always the performances at festivals and being able to make time to see people you would love to see perform. The list consist of the acts are listed below and with most being the artist from the Dreamville Label.
THE SCENERY
The atmosphere from the festival was a “vibe” people just seemed to enjoy themselves whether it was seeing an artist perform, waiting in line for merch, or taking pictures with props/artwork that was provided at the festival. Some of the things that immediately caught my eye were some of the artwork. They had mural’s of fallen rap soldiers Mac Miller, Nipsey Hussle plus one of J. Cole himself and fans would patiently wait in line to get pictures with them.
THE PERFORMANCES
All the performances I did get to see were nothing short of great everyone did a stellar job at getting the crowd rocking. Now when it comes to festivals there are timeset’s to see each artist you’d like to see. Dreamville made it easy for fans to travel to each stage as there were only two “RISE” and “Shine”. Very clever for the names but each time frame to see a certain artist made it feasible to see each and everyone if you wanted to which is very unlikely in most festivals as they tend to have way more artist perform so more stages are set up and traveling to each stage can be a hassle. Now for my crew of people I went with we saw the following artist Teyana Taylor, Bas, J.I.D., Big Sean, SZA, and J. Cole of course.
Teyana Taylor
Now I must say TT showed up and showed out for her performance her choreography was great. She sure did get the crowd energized especially when she started hitting the Milly rock but her vocals were just as strong as her dancing and made me appreciate her even more. As it takes a hell of a talent to be able to dance and sing on stage.
Bas
The “FIENDS” were out for one of the leaders at the helm of Dreamville. Me being a fiend at the concert was truly satisfied as I’ve followed Bas since his “Quarter Water Raised Me Vol.2” mixtape when he first signed to the label so seeing him perform was a breath of fresh air. The highlight of Bas performance was when he did his hit single “Lit” which features Cole he would perform his two verses but to wrap it up he let a fan come on stage and do Cole’s verse. The fan was more than excited executing the verse perfectly surging the energy throughout the field.
J.I.D.
Dreamville’s Destined star to blow up the industry and some would say J. Cole’s prodigy as he raps in the artist track “Off Deez” “J.I.D. the closest thing to me”. Now just as I heard in reviews and see in video clips on social media J.I.D. is just as advertised. His surgical raps def will get you hyped when he’s rapping bar for bar on stage. One of the highlights would be him freestyling off the head for about a minute hitting every bar with ease. If you haven’t seen him live yet I advise you do and get ready for Earthgang and a moshpit once “NEVER” comes on.
Big Sean
.@BigSean paid tribute to Nipsey Hussle yesterday at Dreamville Fest. ? pic.twitter.com/mSehYBQS1n
— Def Jam Recordings (@defjam) April 7, 2019
Another artist I been following since my college days which began in 2010. “The Don” which he often references himself as came through performing all the classics from his verses on “Mercy”, “Don’t Like” to “Moves” and “One Man Can Change The World”. His performance was very heartfelt during his message to the crowd during his Nipsey tribute which he ended with a verse for him.
SZA
@sza performing @Dreamvillefest with someone’s wig ? #dreamvillefest2019 pic.twitter.com/CfIsi9GSdq
— aaliyah (@agarcia19xx) April 7, 2019
Now out of all the artist, I must say I was most happy to see SZA live. Now before going to see her, she had taken criticism as she didn’t sound great live but boy did she put that shit to shame as she sang her ass off on that stage. Opening up to “Supermodel” the opening track on her critically acclaim album “ctrl” she showcased her vocal ability to be very strong. One thing I loved most about SZA’s performance was her being carefree on stage dancing to her songs showing how free-spirited she is, for example, someone threw a wig on stage and she kept singing her heart out with it hand to “20 Something” it just made me love her even more. A couple of highlights to her performance would be her “Kiss Me” cover and twerking to Megan Thee Stallion’s “Big Ole Freak” track which got the crowd super hyped and didn’t help as my friend would say she was looking like a “sniggity snack” on stage.
J. Cole
The main event the goat and mastermind behind the whole festival made sure the best was saved for last. This would be my 4th time seeing Cole live as I’ve seen him perform during certain era’s (Friday Night Lights, 4YEO, and KOD) but this performance just hit different for me and you’ll see why. The crowd chanting J. Cole once he came on stage as he just looked in disbelief at the 40K people in the crowd as he went on to perform “Middle Child”. Cole would then go on to perform mixtape classics “Grown Simba” and “Back To the Topic”. Cole would also bring out a couple of artists to perform first was 21 Savage for his single “A Lot” that he’s featured on and the next one much to everyone’s surprise was Meek Mill. Performing three tracks “Uptown Vibes”, “Going Bad”, and “Dream & Nightmares Intro” his performance made the crowd flare up just off his voice alone. Cole went go on and perform some more of his tracks from his already legendary discography. Finishing off the festival with his legendary stamp it would climax the first Dreamville Fest as a success.
Nipsey Hussle
In the face of tragedy, the Dreamville Festival was a safe haven for all fans. As many of us were still mourning the recent loss of THE LEGEND NIPSEY HUSSLE. Just about each artist paid some sort of tribute to the fallen artist. Some of the most notable artists were Teyana Taylor who dedicated her song performance of “Gonna Love Me” to Nipsey and his loved ones. The other notable artist was Big Sean who had a heartfelt message expressing us to keep being inspired by all the work Nipsey did to uplift his community of people and he also gave us a verse dedicated to the artist that was heartfelt. Lastly, of course, was Cole who gave a speech and dedicated his song performance “Love Yours” to Nipsey which the crowd had there cellphone’s in the air lighting up the crowd which made for a memorable moment.
The Dreamville Festival was an unforgettable event and I advised everyone to go to next years event if you can.
