It’s been a great year for Hip Hop. In a time permeated by wavy beats, Percocet raps and troll culture, the most talked albums so far this year have come from rap’s lyrical vets and elder statesmen. Tied to the biggest movie of the year, Kendrick Lamar kicked off 2018 with the highly successful Black Panther Soundtrack. This album was a great look for Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE) and Hip Hop overall. In the following months, J. Cole, Drake, Eminem, and Wayne also released critically acclaimed projects, proving there’s still a place for lyricism in today’s game. Childish Gambino dropped the visual masterpiece, This is America, which had us all rewatching it to find the easter egg messages contained within. Not all has been great, however, as the untimely deaths of XXXtentacion and Mac Miller brought perspective and discussions surrounding some of the darker sides to Hip Hop culture. In the middle of all the highs and lows, Kendrick’s TDE labelmate and King’s Dead feature artist, Jay Rock, released one of my top albums of the year: Redemption.

When I discovered he would be here on tour for the album, I quickly jumped on the chance to be there. The close proximity of the venue, and the ticket price made it an easy decision to make. In the days leading up to the show, I received my photo pass confirmation, granting me access as an official photographer for the show and giving me an extra level of excitement.

I arrived at Come And Take It Live around 8:20pm, with my camera in tow. Still early for the show, the line outside was fairly short and moved quickly. I passed through security and proceeded to the check-in desk, where I was quickly joined by a photographer from another outlet. After 15 minutes of double checking and re-verifying, we finally got our passes and were escorted over to the photo pit area. We were given pretty standard instructions:

“Shoot only the first three songs of the set. No flash. No video.”

No problem, I thought, as the first act, $outh$ide Hippie, would hit the stage moments later. To be honest, I don’t remember anything about his set. And that’s no shade to him. I was so focused on not fucking up my time in the pit that I fucked up my time in the pit! Every picture I took was heavily under-exposed, and I could barely see him through my camera’s viewfinder. I knew my time was limited, so I feverishly checked my aperture and shutter speed settings. Yet, even with a high ISO, the pictures were a dark, trashy mess. I’m sure the crowd was focused on the performance, but it felt like everyone was staring at me; it’s like the feeling you get when someone watches you parallel park. There’d be plenty of time to figure things out between sets, so I conceded defeat, and just went through the motions until our time was up.

The pressure of the moment now gone, I quickly realized I had an ND filter on my lens, which is the equivalent of someone wearing shades in the club. No wonder I couldn’t see anything! Rookie mistake, but easily fixable.

$outh$ide Hippie??

With this fail behind me, I was confident going into the second act. New TDE signee, Reason, took the stage and my whole experience took a 180. Each shot I took chiseled away any remaining uncertainty and nervousness I had. The crowd and everyone else disappeared. It was just me, the artist, and a personal challenge to get an even better shot than the one before. In what felt like only a couple of minutes, Reason finished his third song, taking me out of this moment and allowing me to enjoy the rest of his set as a fan.

For an artist that I hadn’t heard before, I was impressed. He connected well with the crowd, and never looked shook on stage. At one point, his microphone went out, and while this could rattle some, he calmly did the “turn it off/turn it on” method of troubleshooting, and got it working again. Within a couple of moments, he was back on beat and finished his verse like an unnerving vet. He engaged the crowd and talked about his grind to make as a rapper. His words painted a nice backdrop for the songs that flowed after. This was punctuated by Summer Up, a track originally released on his “i AM Reason” mixtape. The track talks about the promise he made to himself, that he’d “make it” by the end of the summer. While his prediction was slightly off, he seems to be well on his way. Overall, a nice ramp up to the headliner.

TDE’s Reason performing.

In the minutes leading up to Jay Rock, I double checked my camera settings and mentally went over the shots I wanted to get. A growing nervous excitement was starting to build, and then just like that, the stage lights went dark. It’s go time!

I entered the pit and could feel the crowd’s built up anticipation ready to explode. Jay Rock walks out, and I immediately start taking photos. I was so into the moment, that I don’t recall which song he led with. The next track, however, was The Bloodiest, an aggressively bouncy track that happens to be one of my favorites on Redemption. The opening melody of track immediately sent the crowd into a frenzy. With the raw energy of the crowd behind me now matched with the intensity of the music and performance in front of me, my adrenaline hit new levels. I wanted to rock with the crowd, but had to stop myself and focus on maximizing my remaining time in the pit. I continued to snap pics, Austin Powers style, until time was up. Leaving the pit area for the final time, I felt accomplished and really good about the content I was able to get. Jay Rock continued his roughly 50 min set, with more tracks off Redemption, his verse from Money Trees, and some older tracks. His raps were clean and clear, allowing the crowd to easily follow along. Dripping with authenticity and emotion, his delivery and command made for a high energy show despite minimal theatrics. He ended his set with an electric performance of the life anthem, Win. This time, I joined in on the crowd sing-along and finished the night on a high note. I may have had a rocky start to the show, but in the end, I got to “Fuck everything else. Win. Win. Win. Win.”

Jay Rock – The Big Redemption Tour @ Come And Take It Live.