- Music
- 14 Jul 18
The 2018 Longitude festival has started out strongly, with phenomenal performances from American and Irish hip-hop acts alike. And that was just the Friday action!
This year’s Longitude was a big success from the off, attracting a full house of festival-goers and selling out months in advance. The crowd brought funky hair styles, glitter and wild dancing with them, under a cool overcast sky, at Marlay Park on Friday.
Jafaris kicked the day off. The scattered masses sprinted to watch him enthusiastically flex his lyrical speed and vocals while wildly dancing about the stage. Attendees fist-bumped to hits like ‘Silver Bullet’, which set the tone for the rest of the afternoon.
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American rapper Princess Nokia drew an impressively large crowd. She incited fierce dancing and delighted fans with some acrobatic moves. The whole tent shouted the lyrics to her popular hit, ‘Tomboy’, as she shimmied around in style.
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Tebi Rex put on a bumping show for the faithful. In front of thundering drums, the rappers bounced around, as their crew ran on-stage to soak the crowd with splashes from water bottles. ‘Men are Trash’ was a light, tropical track, that vibed especially well with the women in the crowd.
Dry ice enveloped the stage and ambient sounds filled the air, building suspense for Post Malone’s appearance. The whole place erupted when he hit the stage. His set featured a mix of material from Stoney and Beerbongs & Bentleys – as it should be!
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Having danced around stage with gusto, he sat down with an acoustic guitar to sing ‘I Fall Apart’. Verdict? The man can sing! Next, he switched into his banger ‘Rock Star’ and smashed it to bits with with proper rocker swagger, sending the crowd into a frenzy. He wrapped up his set with ‘Congratulations’. If he was talking to himself it was justified: this was a killer set!
Back at the Heineken Stage, Joey Bada$$ commanded the crowd with real confidence, performing a number of hits – from songs on his debut mix-tape,1999, through to his newest album, All Amerikkkan Bada$$. For me, ‘Paper Trail$’ and ‘Christ Conscious’, both from B4DA$$, were the highlights, with a deadly bass and raw, hardcore lyricism to the fore. That said, I was pleasantly surprised to hear ‘Survival Tactics’ from his early work with the late Capital Steez go down so well.
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Some fans may have been wilting when headliner J. Cole hit the stage, but the headliner’s set revived the fatigued fans, a sea of hands shooting into the air when he walked on stage.
Bottles, hats and even handy rolls of toilet paper flew into the sky as ‘ATM’, off KOD, electrified the audience, replete with a super-heavy beat that had everyone jumping.
The crowd was gobsmacked by a surprise appearance from Conor McGregor. But J.Cole lifted them even higher with a powerful performance of ‘Work Out’ that had the crowd grooving and feeling emotional at once. Next he threw it back with ‘Neighbors’, preaching about social strife with immense fervor and passion.
As the sun set, an army of phone lights reached out through the darkness. Cole rolled out more youthful anthems , including ‘Love Yours’, ‘Wet Dreams’ and finally ‘No Role Models’, which had everyone singing along lustily. It was a great way to end a fine day's music.
A deafening wave of cheers erupted from the fans as day one came to an end. We can say this much for sure: the bar has been set high for the rest of the weekend...