The A3C Hip Hop Festival has been known to pull some fresh and amazing talent over the number of years they’ve been in existence! This year was no different as we were there for our first time to witness it for ourselves! The mapping of many locations where a lot of our favorite acts were so crazy that it reminded us of Rock The Bells (in terms of every one of our favorite acts are performing around the same time frames). From the locations of where the panel discussions, bboy battles, and the like were taking place, the number of levels (rooms) in The Masquerade venue (Heaven, Purgatory, & Hell), to outside of the venue where there was a HUGE stage in the back of it, where the majority of the talent have been performing at.. A3C has definitely pulled out all the stops to bring you an experience of a lifetime. Let me give you a day-by-day take on what went down while I was there.

DAY 1: Let me just say that my being sick pretty much killed this one. Considering that this was our very first time being in in Georgia,  my friend and I were pretty much having trouble looking for where everything was. It felt like we were travelling all over GA itself.

We decided to go to the Masquerade to check out what was going on, and trust me when I say this: it’s a HUGE flea market… like EVERYONE was there with a whole crew, whether they were meeting up with people or just trying to hang out. There were many other things going on at the same time, so I decided to go to the back and check out Skyzoo host the main stage with all of this new talent that’s coming out. I even got to chop it up with him for a bit in between a set. Pretty much most of my day was basically trying to figure out what to expect from the next two days, so I was pretty much being observant. Besides being burnt out from earlier in the day and being sick doesnt help, either.

DAY 2: This day was definitely interesting. We were checking out the A3C Map to see where everything was located, and we were lost… again. I think this time around it was all because of the Google GPS system that got us lost. So, we found ourselves back at The Masquerade. All the action that I wanted to check out was all there… but the problem was that all the rooms that I wanted to check out for the artists I came to see… were FULL & PACKED. Even trying to go elsewhere became a hassle because of the ATL traffic on the freeway was even annoying, so we decided to stay put and stay outside at the main stage to check out Chino XL, Torae (w/Skyzoo), Raekwon, Prodigy, Nipsey Hussle (w/Trae The Truth), Statik Selektah w/DRES the Beatnik & Termanology, & Freeway. Then we went back inside to see the Needle To The Record Competition with DJs King James and Shiftee doing their thing as special guests! What’s special about this event is that there was NO SERRATO usage through the entire competition!

DAY 3: Most of the day was spent on trying to check out what ATL had to offer, since nothing huge was going down as of yet. Once we got back to the Masquerade, we made it just in time to check out Illmind’s B.L.A.P. Showcase, which featured Focus…, S1, Apollo Brown, Needlz, Illmind (himself), and Statik Selektah. That event was one of the livest experiences I’ve been a part of (maybe because of all the respected producers who were on stage). After that was over, I DID manage to maneuver my way in between the crowd to check out the JAMLA set with Rapsody, Heather Victoria, Act Proof, Big Remo, 9th Wonder, & Chuuwee (s/o the big homie Vince)!  Once this fresh set was over, I went to go check out the freestyle battle that went down in the next room. The winner from that battle ended up going to BET to get on 106th & Park for the battle competition there. Afterwards, we got to see the BeatBox legend Doug E Fresh take the stage along with his sons Square Off to perform a freestyle via Doug E’s beatboxing skills.

NOTEWORTHY: People from all over outside of Georgia (in particular New York, Chicago, Florida, Texas; I’m sure there’s more) come out to peep the new talent at this festival. Not only do you have people from all over the country who represents from various networking companies (blogs, websites, etc), you also have artists… I mean ARTISTS (up and coming ones) that are trying to get their shine through one of our sites. They’ll sometimes just give you a CD and don’t say anything to you (it has happened to me on a number of occasions); some put themselves out there like they’re a BIG DEAL. Others will just approach you and just chop it up with you so that you’d check out their music. It’s a huge hustle game out there.

Just know that next year, Word Is Bond will be back out there next year to participate in the madness! Look forward to BIG things happening next year! Count on it, and expect it to happen! PS: sorry for the lateness of this review…

HIGHLIGHTS:

• Seeing an 8-year-old kid rocking a crowd of 21-30+ somethings at the Masquerade. He goes by the name DJ Face.
• Freeway Performing ‘What We Do‘, and 9th Wonder, Young Guru, and all the guests joining him in singing the song!
• Just Blaze sneaking his way in to showcase his work on the B.L.A.P. stage!