Under The Influence Tour at Nikon Jones Beach Review & Footage (Chiddy Bang, Kendrick Lamar, Mac Miller & Wiz Khalifa)

Last night the Under The Influence tour stopped at Nikon Jones Beach theater in New York.  The lineup consisted of Chevy Woods, Schoolboy Q, Chiddy Bang, Kendrick Lamar, Mac Miller and Wiz Khalifa.  Getting to the show, there was a ton of traffic so I didn’t make it to see Chevy Woods & Schoolboy Q.  Right as I got to my seats, Chiddy Bang started up their set. The Philly duo came out with a lot of energy and interacted with the large crowd as much as possible.  Xaphoon Jones was on the drums and Chidera was rapping as usual.  Chiddy even freestyled after getting suggestions about what to rap about from the crowd.  It’s not a surprise that Chiddy holds the world record for the longest freestyle.  The crowd became more lively as Chiddy Bang performed their remix to Flux Pavilion’s dubstep track “I Can’t Stop.”  The duo closed up what I would call a very solid set with “Opposite of Adults.”  Watch Chiddy Bang performing “I Can’t Stop” below.

Next up was Compton native, Kendrick Lamar.  K. Dot was one of the main attractions that got me to attend this show. Kendrick opened up with “F*ck your ethnicity” and then went into “Hol up.”  I have to say that the crowd was real quiet during a majority of Kendrick’s performance, but then again most of the kids wanted to see Mac and Wiz and they were “under the influence” (pun intended).  I might have been the only one rapping every word to all of his tracks, but I am definitely glad I was able to catch Kendrick.  He rapped his last verse to “Hol up” with no instrumental and then went into his 2010 classic “P & P.”  In attempt to liven the crowd, Kendrick Lamar said in between tracks “Y’all sitting down like you at church or something, this is under the influence.”  More and more people got up while his set went on and by the end I heard a good amount of the crowd singing along to Kendrick’s new single “Swimming Pools (Drank).”  The rapper even brought out Jay Rock to perform “Hood Gone Love It.”  Not many people recognized Jay, but the crowd got hyped up at the beginning of the track.  Overall, Kendrick’s performance was very impressive.  Like Chiddy Bang, he attempted to interact with the crowd also, but his music definitely differs from other performers that were going up that night.  Kendrick Lamar most likely left the venue with more fans than he arrived with, which shows that he delivered.  Watch “ADHD”, “Hood Gone Love It” featuring Jay Rock, and “Swimming Pools (Drank)” below.

The second Kendrick Lamar closed up his set, a picture of Mac Miller went up on the video screen.  That single picture caused the crowd to erupt.  At that moment I realized how a majority of the crowd attended this show to see the young white rapper.  Mac Miller’s stage production was something to remember.  Since his set took place later in the night, the light show was in full use. I almost felt like I was at an EDM show with all of the lasers and smoke machines on the stage.    Mac went through a lot of tracks off of his most recent mixtape Macadelic.  Before dropping “Lucky Ass Bitch”, Mac mentioned how his Mom would say “That Lucky Ass Bitch is a banger Malcolm.”  And a banger it is.  The crowd reacted with a lot of energy to even his mixtape tracks.  Mac Miller also went through songs off of Blue Slide Park like ”Of The Soul” and “Missed Calls.”    He even dropped his most recent single produced by Pharrell “Onaroll”.  Although that track seemed to get a mixed response on the interwebs, the crowd seemed to love it.  Mac Miller definitely stepped up his stage presence and production from the last time I saw him at Best Buy Theater. It is amazing seeing how Mac progressed from performing in front of his first sold out NYC crowd at the Highline Ballroom a little more than a year ago to now performing to a sold out crowd at Nikon Jones Beach amphitheater.  Watch my footage of Mac Miller performing “The Mourning After”, “Diamonds And Gold”, “Onaroll”, “Frick Park Market”, and lastly “Missed Calls.”

Last up was Wiz Khalifa.  Wiz showed the crowd why he deserved that headlining spot and he did way better than I expected.  I saw Wiz last summer since Big Sean was opening for him and I was pretty bored during that show. Khalifa seemed to do better with a larger crowd and navigated around the stage comfortably going through more slowed paced smoking joints.  I had to leave early since I had practice at 6am the next morning, but Wiz Khalifa kept the crowd alive during his set.  J. Cole even showed up on stage and Wiz even revealed the album artwork to his upcoming project.  Although I am not Wiz Khalifa’s biggest fan, I can say that he didn’t bore me as much this year.  You can check out the footage I got to “Homicide” below.

Thank you Christian (follow him on twitter) for allowing me to use your iPhone to get all of the concert videos..They didn’t let me bring my camcorder in, but the iPhone videos turned out to be pretty clear.