A night of 90s hip hop with Nas, The Roots, & De La Soul in San Diego

A blood moon shined over San Diego’s Gallagher Square at Petco Park as three of rap’s legends presented A Great Night in Hip Hop. Long Island’s De La Soul, New York City’s Nas, and Philadelphia’s The Roots joined forces to celebrate the best of the 1990s East Coast scene. A large video screen behind the artists showed live performance video, band logos, and video clips.

The universe also contributed to the night, as a lunar eclipse played out behind the stadium — just above the stage.

Thousands of fans lined up clear around the block, all the way past Bub’s at the Ballpark (for those that don’t know, that’s one massive city block). Opening the show at 7pm was De La Soul, one of the founders of the Native Tongues movement: a collective of likeminded artists known for positive, Afrocentric lyrics and eclectic, jazz-influenced sampling — a sharp contrast to the harder-edged hip hop dominant at the time. De La Soul stood alongside artists such as A Tribe Called Quest, Jungle Brothers, Monie Love, and Queen Latifah. Kelvin “Posdnuos” Mercer sounded great over the beats of Vincent “Maseo” Mason Jr., who also delivered some of the vocal parts from the late David “Trugoy the Dove” Jolicoeur.

By 8pm, The Roots literally took over the stage, with an 11-piece live band. Founding members Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson was on drums and backing vocals, while Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter held down the mic. The touring lineup featured three keyboardists, a bongo player, bassist, guitarist and horn section with saxophone, trumpet, and even a sousaphone. The band was highly entertaining in their own right, dancing and marching all across the stage, filling out the sounds that are usually sampled.

The Roots is a highly talented band, with many standout moments this night.

40 minutes into their energetic set, The Roots welcomed headliner Nasir “Nas” Jones to join the party a little early — and Nas never sounded better. With this amazing group of musicians backing him, his sound was so enhanced. He is still celebrating the 30th anniversary of his landmark debut album Illmatic. He pulled heavily from that classic LP, which had everyone moving their feet, bouncing their heads, and singing along. It was truly a treat to hear such important songs elevated to another sonic level. Nas even changed some of his own lyrics, presenting a more positive, mature vibe. Nas is to hip hop what Merle Haggard is to country; both had a rough upbringing and wrote about the difficulties they witnessed. Both had unique writing styles that influenced generations of artists who came after them. After crushing it for 40 straight minutes, Nas walked off to thunderous applause.

But the “Great Night” was not over yet. The Roots continued on with another highlight provided by guitarist “Captain” Kirk Douglas. His soulful vocals led into one of the quietest guitar solos ever played. Kirk brought the volume and the mood way down, before slowly raising it back up with his own personal call-and-response vocals and guitar playing. Eventually, the entire band joined back in for a portion of Bob Marley’s “Get Up, Stand Up”. Next up for the spotlight was a drum solo from Questlove, followed by Stro Elliot on the turntables. Finally, Black Thought took the stage back over as he had all night. The band danced and joked around and the crowd let out their last bit of energy trying to keep up.

Precisely at 10pm, the show was over, a courtesy to the residents of the neighboring apartments, many of whom spent the evening on their balconies enjoying this unique celebration. Hip hop continues to evolve and grow, so it was a pleasure to see some of its greatest performers doing the same.

Photography by Eric Scire @Eric_Scire; Recap article by Johnnie “Crow” Vrana

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