Sasquatch 2014, Day 1: De La Soul

“Put your hands up if you love hip-hop!” shouted De La Soul as they opened a killer set of their career spanning hits cherished by fans of old and probably more than a few brand new fans. New York hip hop band of the last 25 years, De La Soul truly are masters of the craft and made it damn well known today at the Mainstage of Sasquatch!. They grabbed hold of the crowd and even got the security guards and the dreaded pit of photographers blocking the front row’s view to wave their arms all together for an entire song (a feat for any live act). All across the crowd, people were smiling and grooving along with their music as De La Soul played hits like “Pothole in my Lawn” and “Say No Go”.

In a roll call towards the end of their set, to find out how many people in the crowd were even old enough to remember De La Soul from years back when there weren’t so many yells, they just laughed and said “you might not know these songs. You might not know who we are. But just have fun with it.” And that is exactly what I saw the crowd do today. Onwards from here are the likes of Chance the Rapper and Outkast — De La Soul was the perfect way to start a fine line of hip-hop acts, and a great reminder to “respect the game” as they called out in their set in tribute to so many great years of hip hop... and hopefully many more to come. The trio ended their set with 2006’s collaboration with “Feel Good, Inc.”, a collaboration with Gorillaz, and the crowd went wild. Check out these photos of their set and, if you haven’t ever, definitely check out the last 25 years of their music.