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ONCE AGAIN, THE BELLS WERE ROCKED!!

         Guerilla Union’s “Rock The Bells” has again proven itself to be the largest hip-hop gathering in the nation; fully establishing itself as a “World-Class Hip-Hop Platform.”   Now powered by Sandisk the Dynamic duo seem to be combining forces to take things to an evolving and positive direction.

About Guerilla union:

          Guerilla Union now has a heavy long list of top notch performers they have brought to cities across the nation.  Not only have they brought the best of the best, Guerilla Union has made history by reuniting many groups that most may have believed impossible to bring back for a performance. This year they pulled in A Tribe Called Quest, and reunited a legendary group from the 90’s The Pharcyde. Last year in 2007 they reunited Rage Against The Machine, and brought us Public Enemy Celebrating their 20^th anniversary as a group.  The most appreciated and memorable reuniting for me was in 2004 when Guerilla Union gathered the entire Wu-Tang Clan for one last time. This was most meaningful because shortly after the tour came the unfortunate death of one of their members Ol’ D.B. 

          The reunited groups are not the only ones to rave about.  This year’s list of performing artists include: Mos Def, Method Man, Redman, Nas, Immortal Technique, De La Soul, Raekwon , Ghostface, Murs, Blackalicious, Dead Prez, and Rakim.  The list goes on and on if we focus on past years performing artists.  Some of the top A-listers Guerilla Union has lined up in the past include:  Aesop Rock, Living Legends, Del the Funky Homosapien, Hieroglyphics, Swollen Members, Visionaries, Planet Asia, Supernatural, Self Scientific, and EPMD just to name a few. 

          If the names of performers are not enough to convince you of the power of “Rock The Bells” let’s talk numbers.  Rock The Bells in 2007 was the largest grossing hip-hop event in the nation.  According to Billboard Boxscore last years twelve shows grossed $14.5 million and drew in more than 200,300 hip-hop music lovers.One of the most impressive venues last year being in San Bernardino, Ca. at the Glen Helen Pavilion where tickets sold out with a capacity crowd of 45,000 people.  I have not received statistical information for this year but I can assure you despite the Harding economy “Rock The Bells 2008” was still was a very prosperous nationwide event.

About Sandisk Corp:

          With Guerilla Union doing “Big Things” there is no questioning to why Sandisk would be interested in indulging in a “piece of the pie.”  Sandisk Corporation is a super power in their field and the inventor of flash storage cards.  They are the global leader in: research, manufacturing ,consumer branding, and retail distribution internationally.  This Silicon Valley-based S&P 500 company has a large product portfolio including: audio/video players, USB flash drives, embedded memory for mobile devices, solid state drives for computers, and most related to this collaboration with Guerilla Union is their flash memory SD and micro SD cards for mobile phones, digital cameras, and camcorders. 

The Benefits of Collaboration:

          The two companies have launched a web site where fans and venue attendees can download a selection of rich multimedia content about the festival and performers. Since most mobile phones are now equipped with the option of adding memory for media purposes Sandisk has been pushing an ongoing campaign called, “ Wake Up Your Phone” which reminds cell phone users of the various capabilities their phones are possible of doing with the help of a micro SD memory card.  Chang Weisberg of Guerilla Union Stated,” Mobile Phones have become a major part of our lifestyles, so we are enabling artists to enhance their connection with the fans, before, during, and after events through multimedia content the can store on memory card on there phones.”

          This is the benefit for the music goers, and Guerilla Union gets a huge partner for Rock The Bells. But, being a graduate in the field of psychology I can’t help but notice the larger benefit that Sandisk gets from this collaboration.  This allows Sandisk to tap into a huge target market; Young music lovers that more than likely just happen to have a cell phone and obviously appreciate music or they would not have bought a ticket to the festival.  More important was the visual placement of tons of Sandisk banners placed high and low and everywhere you looked.  When peoples senses are heighten, for example at a music event where their favorite artists are performing they are naturally more susceptible to branding and visual cues. What really blew my mind was before the Tribe Called Quest performance Supernatural came back on stage for a freestyle rap about Sandisk.  Supernatural told everyone to pull out there cell phones and turn them on so the light showed and hold them in the air.  At this moment and time Sandisk had thousands of people participating in a modern day brainwash branding session as Supernatural did a beautiful job at rhyming perfectly about Sandisk memory for your mobile phone.  It was a very strong marketing tactic and my hat goes off to Sandisk.

Event highlights and personal experience:

          Rock The Bells toured the United States hitting 10 cities throughout the country.  On Sat. August 16^th 2008 The Hip-Hop Spot had the wonderful privilege to cover Rock The Bells San Francisco at the Shoreline Amphitheatre.  Our day started early as we checked in at a near hotel for press and photo passes. I was quite impressed when I was greeted by Sandisk with a smile and a free 8 gig. Micro SD memory card. My Blackberry was now “beefed up” with memory and I and a fellow colleague loaded onto the shuttle ready for a long exciting day of real Hip-Hop.  While on the way to the Shoreline Amphitheatre I had the pleasure to talk with Sandisk employees discussing lightly about future products and new things to look for from their company.  From the discussion It seems that a 16 gig. Micro sd is soon to come and that Sandisk may just change the way we buy music by offering a new approach.  Once we arrived I circled to outer portion of the event where you could see all types of vendors and food spots.  I really did not have much time as the 12 hour packed day of artists was already beginning.

          Murs was the first to take the stage and I was unfortunately unable to get pictures due to a photo pass issue with the shoreline security.  Blackalicious was up next and I was able to get things squared away and went down into the photo pit.  It felt almost strange to see big artists like Murs and Blackalicious performing late morning while many spectators had not even arrived to fill their sets.  This is how you know you’re at a big show when you have artists of this caliper starting the show.  To my surprise things seemed to move like clockwork with barely any time space in between artists.  I say this because many times you will go to a show and wait up to hours for an artist to enter the stage.  Obviously this is not the case with the heavy line up Guerilla Union Brings.  Dead Prez rocked the stage nicely with their normal political agenda of truthfulness.  After the set we had the privilege to talk with Dead Prez and we were impressed with their acceptance and willingness to talk with us.  Unfortunately this caused us to miss the photo period to get some set pictures from the pit for Ghostface and Raekwon.  Immortal Technique was so strong on stage. His powerful presence could be felt from off the stage.  His anger and disapproval of the government was naturally apparent as he preached about the revolution.  We also were privileged to meet with and interview Immortal Technique.  Despite his angry appearance Immortal is a kind guy focusing on helping people in third world countries. He raised several tens of thousands for children’s hospitals overseas. He has involved himself in opening an orphanage in Afghanistan, and created a writing grant scholarship for young students.  After Immortal came Supernatural.  The man is amazing as he challenged the crowd to hand him personal items so he could add them to a perfect rhyming story.  His D.j. was also extraordinary looping human sounds to create a body moving beat.  Raekwon and Ghostface hit the stage next and were the first in my opinion to really get the crowd hype. Classic ol’ School tracks were definitely the ones that got the crowd out of their seats.  Next was the set of Rakim one of the forefathers of Hip-Hop.  I had never seen him perform and it felt surreal.  His stage presence was good; he worked the crowd well, posed perfect for the camera.  Next up was De La Soul to the stage.  It was good to see these veterans who still had what it takes to get a crowd going.  Classic jams had the crowd nodding away and their jump into the crowd seating made them even more likeable.  Following De La Soul set was Method Man and Redman.  These two guys “stole the show.”  Their goofy energy and crowd interaction had everyone in a roar.  Both artists jumped into the crowd at various points in their performance. Redman Threw water as Method Man danced energetically.  Their performance was definitely the most hype.  As the event moved on next up was Pharcyde.  These stars of the 90’s moved everyone with there funky Pharcyde style and smooth dance display. The Pharcyde is amongst my favorites so I could not help but dance in between clicks of the camera.  The reuniting of this group was special to watch and although they were several years older now they still had a real cool vibe to them and healthy appearance.  Next in line was Mos Def.  He played the stage like he could do it blind folded.  He had a real laid back attitude and breezed through his many popular tracks.  He is a true icon in Hip-Hop and it is always good to see him perform.  Next Came NAS up to the platform.  From the beginning of his set he came out fierce with a strong message against the media and the government.  Nas also seemed upset and focused on what appeared to be a common message at Rock The Bells which is a revolution for truth and the need to showcase those in powers hidden agendas.  By this time I was feeling the drain from the long day, but, still anticipated seeing Tribe Called Quest one of my all time favorite groups.  After Nas Supernatural came on stage and did a Sandisk Freestyle warming up the stage for Q-Tip and a Tribe Called quest.  Q-Tip came on stage shortly after and Mos Def appeared as a hype man.  The sun was almost down and the lighting effects were kicking in full spectrum.  Q-Tip looked great and showed us he still had what it takes to make the crowd go wild while Mos Def danced around acting real silly.  Then Finally Emerged Phife Dawg and Ali Shaheed Muhammad.  My first true reaction was, “my God is Phife o.k.?” Phife Dawg looked sick and I felt bad.It took me a minute to get into the music simply because I was a bit in shock of his appearance of health.  For those who don’t know he has been dealing with Diabetes. Keep him in our prayers. Tribe moved the crowd with their cherished jazzy hip-hop style. Because of flash restrictions and the many lighting effects I unfortunately did not get any good pictures of Tribe Called Quest.

          Overall, Guerilla Union’s “Rock The Bells” turned out to be another history making event.  They are now planning to take their tour on a national level hitting Japan and several European locations proving their status as a true” World-Class Hip-Hop Platform.” Sandisk’s presence was definitely felt at the venue.  The team representing Sandisk on location were friendly and welcoming. They made an intelligent move by teaming up with the popular Guerilla Union Crew.  I am sure we will see more exciting things as they positively evolve our music festival experience.

Written by: Anwar Ibrahim

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