Wale, Tyga, and a host of hip hop acts took the stage at the MassMutual Center on Friday.
SPRINGFIELD - A smorgasbord of up-and-coming and chart-topping hip-hop acts from California, Washington D.C., Detroit, and even the University of Massachusetts took the ‘mic amidst the haze Friday night as The Feastival 2012 tour stopped off at the MassMutual Center.
In the night’s final performance and the lineup’s fastest and most explosive, Tyga darted from one side of the smoke-clouded stage to the other as the crowd of 1,000 boomed with excitement.
Backlit by beams of light, flicking strobe-like in all directions, 22-year-old Tyga, born Michael Stevenson in Compton, Calif., opened with “I’m So Raw,” a brazen freestyle touting individualism and originality from 2010 mixtape “Fan of a Fan,” produced with fellow hip-hop artist Chris Brown.
“I do what I want, wake up when it’s lunch, walk like I’m drunk, swagger so uh,” rapped the Compton artist.
Following the online release of the 2010 mixtape, Stevenson told MTV, “Fan of a Fan is basically our dedication back to the fans. These are the people that come to our shows, these are the people that call these radio stations and fight for us all day. So why not give them something for free?"
“I’m a fan, of a fan, I love my fans though,” rapped the 22-year-old in the song’s final verse.
Once confined to the compact cassette, the fusion of social media and the web, has reinvented the analog mixtape from its 1970 heyday as a way of exposing friends to new music or confessing love, into a package distributed for free online to generate hype and attention ahead of an official release.
Charles Gavin, stage name C-Banga, the second performer after DJ Joey Franchize hyped the early arrivals, in an interview afterwards said Lil’ Wayne “changed the game” with a series of mixtapes released ahead of “Tha Carter III,” Wayne’s most rapidly successful album which went platinum in it’s first week of release, selling over 1 million copies.
“Before his "Tha Carter III," he had five mixtapes he put out for free, and he got his buzz crazy. Ever since then every artist, Rick Ross to the little tiny C-Banga, puts out free music because once you’ve got your buzz up and you make them want you, then you can charge ‘em,” said Gavin, who kicked off his career winning the chance to open for former Wu-Tang Clan rapper Raekwon through a WZMX-FM, Hot 93.7, radio contest.
Gavin earned a degree in sociology in 2010 from UMass, where he won battle of the bands and opened for Ludacris, LMFAO, and New Found Glory in the school’s 2010 Spring Concert on campus.
“It’s like the drug game, you give them a little free taste and it’s like, 'Ok I’m hooked' then you’re like, 'Ok now you gotta pay me,'" said Gavin.
As the downtown Springfield center filled, DJ Joey Franchize, C-Banga, Los, and Royce Da 5’9" primed the stage for headliners Wale (pronounced “wahl-ay”) and Tyga (an acronym for “Thank You God Always”).
“I went to jail a couple years ago for this (expletive),” said Royce Da 5’9", born Ryan Montgomery, as he swigged from a bottle of Patron onstage.
“This one’s about triumph. For all the people who told you that you couldn’t do something. (expletive) 'em,” said the Detroit rapper.
Later he asked the crowd to hold up lighters and cell phones, the latter of which were hoisted up for the majority of the show in an increasing trend of concert-goers choosing to record segments of the show on mobile phones.
The light speckled crowd sang along to “Lighters,” a track off 2011’s “Hell: The Sequel” from duo Bad Meets Evil, comprised of Montgomery and hip-hop producer Eminem.
The song sampled Bruno Mars’ “Sky Full of Lighters,” where Mars looks out at an audience and realizes he’s living out his dreams.
“I remember when T-Pain ‘aint wanna work with me. My car starts itself, parks itself and autotunes cause now I’m in the Aston. I went from having my city locked up to getting treated like Kwame Kilpatrick. And now I’m fantastic,” rapped Montgomery.
Wale Victor Folarin, stage name Wale, the oldest of the night’s performers with the deepest background in the industry, stepped on stage next.
Folarin caught his break on a hometown radio station after attending three colleges, two on football scholarships, and ultimately dropping out to pursue a career as an artist.
“Failure is not an option, success is just a process. Say “yes” one time they use you, say “no” one time they plotting. Didn’t make it through college, still debating my progress,” rapped the Washington, D.C. performer before wading through the pit on “Chillin” to the delight of fans before continuing with Top 40 hit “Lotus Flower Bomb.”
Capping a night that saw five performers and a host of hype-men and emcees, Stevenson reprised mega-hit “Rack City” once more before leaving the stage.