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Anaheim, CA- When the Day N Night lineup dropped a few months ago, it was safe to say that the anticipation in the hip-hop community reached a fever pitch. With a stacked lineup of some of the most popular recording artists today, Day N Night 2017 was a music festival that any red-blooded hip-hop head could not miss.
Lucky for me, I had the opportunity to attend Day N Night on Sunday and it was truly one of the most fun experiences I have ever had. With Kendrick Lamar, 21 Savage, and Russ headlining and numerous other amazing artists performing as well, I can honestly say that my anticipation was through the roof.
If you have ever been to a music festival before, you are most likely familiar with that lull and fake enthusiasm the permeates a crowd when unknown “small print” festival acts perform. Attendees are most likely biding time until the headliner take the stage. Well, Day N Night had none of that.
With over 35 artists performing over 3 stages on Sunday alone, Day N Night did an extremely good job of curating the festival’s line-up. Each and every act had strong fan bases, and their fans came out to represent. That resulted in the energy at Day N Night being at a consistently high level from start to finish.
Highlights from early on in the day came from Masego and Elhae. I’m not sure if I was just living under a rock, but from these artists who seem to have been only recently gaining some buzz, I was amazed at how polished and professional each of their performances were. Probably one of the lesser known artists on the lineup, Elhae’s R&B/hip-hop sound was backed by a type of emotion and quality that surely earned him new fans after his performance concluded. Having collaborated with artists such as Kehlani and Ty Dollar $ign, I am pretty damn confident that Elhae is going to blow-up before we even know it.
Probably my favorite performance of Day N Night came from Masego. He showcased a sound that is much different from the mainstream hip-hop that is popular today. Arguably, everyone on the Day N Night lineup could be classified under the hip-hop or R&B genre … except for Masego. Masego brings an amalgam of hip-hop, jazz, and trap together to create his own style the he dubs “TrapHouseJazz”. I was blown away by his performance as he sang, rapped, scatted, played the saxophone, and even got on the drums. Masego brought a level of soul and confidence to his performance that not many artists have and that energy radiated through the crowd.
As the sun set, the festival crowd swelled as Russ, 21 Savage, YG, and Kendrick Lamar were set to play in succession on the Postmates Stage. The steady succession of “top-shelf” artists brought hordes of people to the main stage, resulting in an immense crowd and energy that seemed to grow exponentially with every act.
Russ swayed the crowd performing hits like “What They Want” and “Losin’ Control”. 21 Savage brought the heat from his recent album ISSA. And YG had the party and the politics bringing out a Donald Trump impersonator before playing his infamous “FDT”. The crowd was primed and ready for the G.O.A.T, Kung-fu Kenny, K-Dot. As Kendrick took the stage the ocean of fans were rampant with excitement. Kendrick controlled the crowd with the best of D.A.M.N and the crowd jumped with every beat drop. Kendrick’s entire hour long performance was amazing and the perfect end to such an amazing festival.
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