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ROCK THE BELLS 2011 Review “NEW YORK CITY STUCK OFF THE REALNESS” by Simone A. Santos



Mobb Deep Photos by Prolo Photo


                      On September 3^rd, ‘Rock the Bells’ 2011 festival arrived at Governors Island for one of the most highly anticipated hip-hop events of the year. The four city, four stage event is presented by Guerilla Union who hosted their first annual festival in 2004. Earlier this month, over one hundred thousand fans floated across on ferries from the Battery Maritime Building, located at 10 South Street, in Downtown Manhattan. Hip-hop fans stood on thick lines for hours. It was all about being a part of this grandiose hip-hop extravaganza. It was hot, approximately 88 degrees farenhiet.

 "Rock the Bells is always a special occasion to me,” said hip-hop fan and artist ‘Sav Killz’, also known and Jamel Rockwell. It’s an occasion comparable to the seventies tribute to rock-n-roll, Woodstock. The Daily News reported Chang Weisberg, a Guerilla Union, Rock the Bells Tour representative saying, “If rockers can acknowledge the respect and awe awarded certain works, why can’t hip-hoppers… It’s an education, a way to learn where hip-hop came from,” said Weisberg.

The line-up included Ms. Lauryn Hill, Nas, Erykah Badu, Common, Mos Def, Talib Kwali, Black Star, Immortal Technique, Slaughterhouse, Raekwon & Ghostface Killah, Genius GZA, Mobb Deep, Black Moon, Childish Gambino, Masta Killa, Maino, Cypress Hill and much more. Albums including Nas’1994 ‘Illmatic’, Raekwon & Ghostface Killah’ 1995 ‘Only Built 4 Cuban Linx’, Mobb Deep’ 1995 ‘The Infamous’ and Lauryn Hill’ 1998 ‘Miseducation of  Lauryn Hill’ were all platinum hits, according to Billboard that were performed in their entirety on this year’s monumental tour. On Columbia records, ‘Illmatic’ sold 59,000 copies in its first week. The album certified gold in January 1996 after selling a half million records and then went platinum in 2001. Over one million copies sold in the U.S.
“This is my biggest production, and it only makes sense to do it on the best rap tour,” Nas told the Daily News. 

 From Los Angeles, to San Francisco, New York to Boston the venues are all sold out on show day.  The grounds, flooded with echoes of percussive triplets, melodic instrumentals and soulful samples sent vibes through fans who bopped, swayed, and screamed flowing spiritually united with the emcees. The real hardcore knowledge and experienced based lyrics were telling and the masses recited some tracks verbatim. Almost everyone recited the words to ‘The World is Yours’ where in verse two Nas shouts out his borough, Queens. He politics controversy, stating;

“To my man Ill Will, God bless your life It's yours!-To my peoples throughout Queens, God bless your life- I trip we box up crazy [explicit] aimin guns in all my baby pictures, Beef with housin police, release scriptures that's maybe Hitler's,Yet I'm the mild, money gettin style, rollin foul, The versatile, honey stickin wild, golden child, Dwellin in the Rotten Apple you get tackled, Or caught by the devil's lasso, [explicit] is a hassle, There's no days, for broke days.”



Nas Photos by Prolo Photo

               The golden and platinum era is when Raekwon & Ghostface Killah gave all the hip-hop “honeys” a chance to find their ice cream flavor. “French vanilla, butter pecan, chocolate deluxe, even caramel sundaes…” are the lyrics in the hook off of the platinum hit and early 1994 summer single from the album ‘Only Built 4 Cuban Linx’. Crateworthy.com posted a video of Lakers forward and Queens native Ron Artest at the Los Angeles festival on August 20^th. He was enthusiastically reciting lyrics on stage with former fellow Queensbridge Housing Project residents Mobb Deep’s, Prodigy and Havoc.

Everything about the atmosphere on Governors Island was 1990’s and certainly brought mid-twenty to forty year olds back in time. In this common place people smiled, shared their memories with strangers, and expressed who they were “really” there to see. There was a nostalgic presence on the scene. Hundreds of vendors sold food, drinks and hip-hop paraphernalia. Antoine Hamlin, a twenty year old hip-hop fan and guest of the Wu-Tang Clan said “next year they need to come down on the food prices. Six dollars for a pizza is way too much. It wasn’t even that good.” Tee shirts were a huge seller. For anywhere between $15 and $30 you could get an originally designed tee shirt expressing images and messages correlating you to your favorite artist, group and even album or song. One message read, “Hip-hop is bigger than the Government”. Another read, “I Got You Stuck Off The Realness”, the first words in the bar from Mobb Deep’s 1995 hit single Shook Ones Pt II from ‘The Infamous’ album. Rock the Bells revived the essence of "real" hip-hop in its traditional resonance. Hip-hop was back where it all got started; in New York City.

“It’s all about keeping things real and conscious in hip-hop,” said Hasan Salaam, an emcee in his twenties from Brooklyn. He had a booth selling CD’s and tees, where he gave away fliers that read, “MCMI Apparel- In Hip-Hop We Trust” and stickers saying “Mo Danger- www.mohammaddangerfield.com”, styled in the old ‘Yo MTV Raps’ logo.

The prominence reigned across New York City’s five boroughs. Areas throughout Queens such as Queensbridge, Southside Jamaica, and St. Albans delivered artists such as Nas, Mobb Deep, A Tribe Called Quest and LL Cool J. The Wu-Tang Clan comes “straight from the slums of Shaolin” also known as Staten Island, Park Hill and Stapleton to be exact. The Wu Tang Clan consists of nine artists including the late Old Dirty Bastard (who passed away the same year Rock the Bells started in 2004), Method Man, RZA, GZA, Raekwon ‘The Chef’, Ghostface Killah, Inspektah Deck, and Masta Killa. In the 1990’s, among these names remains some of the strongest and most influential players in the game. Twenty-nine year old producer and engineer, Ben Wollner from France says, “as far as Nas and the Wu, they have of course influenced me and the music that I produce, the spontaneity of it. They have influenced the way that I perceive music overall.”



Raekwon & Ghostface Killa Photos by Prolo Photo

          From boom boxes to walkmans, discmans to iPods- rap has been and is evolving audibly and by societal perception. In the 1990’s, hip-hop serenaded the tops of the Billboard charts. It was becoming the new music culture of the generation. The appeal has evolved majorly over the past decade, whereas the face of hip-hop is more colorful than ever. People from all walks of life come out to share one thing in common; love of hip-hop and the artists and groups that have helped pioneer the movement of it. Now, hip-hop can be found in all areas of society from marketing to university education. As profoundly international as it has become, hip-hop was as born in New York City. 9^th Prince of Wu-Tang Clans Killa Army, RZA’s younger brother says “Rock the Bells is history in the making. It’s legendary hip-hop in its purest form.” 

I WILL NOT LOSE PT.3 by VARIOUS ARTIST - Uploaded by: DJ HURRICANE_STORM - @DJBKSTORM#

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Who Shot Cha?.... Sunny Winters Shoots

Sunny Winters has been snapping away diligently. Charmed by life happenings, his career draws closer into realization. A Nikon camera and reflector are his “weapons of choice”. Sunny is an avid traveler who shoots everywhere he touches. Growing up in Brooklyn, he was fortunate to have been motivated by the local yet, internationally known, Jamel Shabazz. “Over the years, he was just Shabazz to me. I have watched him interact with all types of different people in different places and the outcome would always be beautiful,” he said. When I first met Sunny, he looked nothing like his Facebook photos. He had already cut his locks and his bop was so, extra, “Brooklyn goes hard” it didn’t seem like the same down to earth, innovator that I’d anticipated. “I had surgery on my foot a couple of days ago,” he said. So, it turned out to be his limp that I initially took for a bop.

We continued kicking it up Snediker Avenue to a “Brooklyn zooish” background scene. Beautiful green leaves spilled down swaying vines over a lengthy sheet of accordion perforated, stainless steel fence. If it’s gonna represent me, it must represent hip-hop. The graffiti tags decorated the backdrop appropriately to suite ‘theSasAppeal’. The fusion of elements characterized an earthy person from the concrete jungle of New York City and Sunny must have more than an eye, he’s figured me out. “I am spiritual, not religious,” Sunny offered as he shot me wearing my sunglasses. “Should I take these off?” I asked. “No, the sun will blind you,” he said as he called for “Shrimp” to hold the reflector up where he needed it to go. After every twenty shots or so, he would let me look at them on the camera.

Sunny has developed his own globally accessible portfolio. The archives on his websites, theSunnyWinters.tumblr.com and facebook.com/SunnyWintersphotography host a variety of pictures from around the world. Most are edited into black and white images that give off rich antique impressions from the most casual of shots to the most urban. “Photography is my chance to make history,” he said. Making millions is a part of the goal, but the main objective is for Sunny’s stamps to shine on through. Certain places at particular moments in a subject’s existence will serve as a nostalgic delight. From the passing of those very instances to the everlasting settings of sun, there will be a memory to visit and revisit; through the eyes of Sunny Winters. Everyday, he rises to capture our today’s for captivating the future of their tomorrow’s.  

This photo shoot was the first of my anticipated many to come. These images of myself provided me with the evidence that photography is not quite the same as merely taking a picture. The expert quality of these photos distinguishes Sunny a gifted professional. It was comfortable, pressure free and natural. When I saw the same shots that Sunny had taken and shown me on his Nikon, I ran home to review on my computer. As much as I loved the photography, I was disappointed in my clothing selection. Sunny said, “that’s why I prefer to shoot nude, clothes can be such a distraction.” Although, he has sold numerous shots to hip-hop weekly and other media, he exclusively works for McMIREPORT.com. The “collective of life how he sees it”, is sponsored by Sunny Winters. This brand name that he seasons with is said to be the “alter-ego” business part of Taj T. However, when it comes to question his devotion to ambitious creations and wholehearted quality, the photographs speak for themselves. Whether he’s taking pictures of nude women down in New York City subways or of  homeless families on the streets of the “favelas” in Rio de Janiero, he’s concentrating.  

There are two things that Sunny is most critical about when his eye is to the window; light and symmetry. “I think natural light really looks good on our skin,” he says. The subjects are charged somewhere inside the lens where all Sunny’s appeals manifest. He says, “I want someone to look at my pictures and feel fulfilled by the collaborative effort I brought about to capture whatever it was. People can feel when you take what you think other people want you to see.” Aside from Jamel Shabazz’s photography inspiring his talent, generally, people and places are what keep him intrigued. He has a keen appreciation for any differences that can be attributed from all sorts of expression. Image is important to him, and he sees it as “a powerful tool,” as written on his webpage.  He appreciates everything that’s creative. When it comes to other photographers work, Sunny believes that what separates talented professionals from the measly “pic flicker”, is being able to tap into what the person may have been thinking, feeling or seeing when the shot was taken. His philosophy runs deeper.

Sunny’s sister, Nadiah says, “he’s not a Rasta, he’s a hippie. He began growing locks with the birth of his daughter Sa’rai, 9 years ago. In Miami, he had his own catering business and worked as a chef, for 9 years. Ironically, that was when he became a vegetarian in attempts to instill more discipline for growth of mind, body, and spirit. He also has a twelve year old son named Marcell. Koko, his wife is a creative designer who specializes in fashion. As she is working on launching her own clothing line, Sunny helps assist her in every suitable manner. Together, they have traveled to places like Cuba, Mexico and Brazil where Koko assists Sunny with his shoots. “It was a blizzard this Christmas Eve, at like 2 o’clock in the morning when spontaneously the woman called me saying that she was ready. We met at Sterling Street on the 2 line. I was only working with a 3 minute time frame. When the coast was clear she dropped her overcoat and went completely nude; and I started snapping away. Meanwhile, Koko was on the lookout at the top of the subway staircase… We pulled it off,” he said.

Geto Boys- "My Mind is Playing Tricks on Me" Lyrics Sampled

 "I stand alone in my 4 cornered room starring @ candles, listening to gangsta music," Juelz Santana and Prodigy use this verse in their songs without making it come off to sound like just a copy. Sampling lyrics is not a standard procedure such as sampling actual music. Juelz and Prodigy paid homage to Geto Boys when they revived this very first line of this very special song, "My Mind is Playing Tricks on Me". Their different approaches change the essence of  feeling and the sounds are to a new flow. The Geto Boys were on that raw 1991 fresh vibe that maintained a soulful, melodious sensation. Whereas, Juelz flips it for 2003 on the hook of "Dipset Anthem".  Prodigy had his hand on "Mac 10 Handle" in 2006. So then in 2009, the Game brought it back when he said, "I make big money, I drive big cars, everybody know me, it's like I'm a movie star," from the first line in the second verse.
There's no song like this in hip-hop history. It's break down is a precise story. Scarface probably wrote the whole sh!t, he's a ill storyteller. The song lyrics have been sampled time and time again.....