As we followed the sound of cranking hip-hop, masses of scantily clad girls and guys dressed in oversized basketball tops, you start to doubt your modest outfit choice of shorts, a t-shirt and flat ankle boots. Leggings, the highest heels in the wardrobe and a little crop top showing off a belly button ring would have been a better decision.
Entering the ‘Bling Ring’ saw all the other punters excited for the first act to come on stage. The crowd didn’t seem to need any warming up, but two songs into New Boyz set things got even more heated when two members of the group ripped their shirts off during ‘Tie Me Down.’ This was only the start of what was set to be a day filled with energetic performances, more samples of gun shots than you could count and numerous topless black tattooed males (no complaints from this scribe).
Half an hour behind schedule Bow Wow finally made it on stage, and thus began the dramatic videos played to introduce the artists. Bow Wow bought more drama than promoters were expecting when he blamed them for his delay, and got the crowd to raise their middle fingers chanting ‘FUCK THE PROMOTER.’ Within the first song he had run into the crowd sending the screaming girls into an even bigger frenzy. One lucky fan got pulled on stage where he serenaded her with the sexy RNB beat of ‘Outta My System.’ After scaling the side of the stage Bow Wow jumped down and ripped off his shirt, revealing the third set of perfectly sculpted abs for the day. He has no doubt proved that he has moved on from the title of ‘lil’ which he held 13 years ago.
The ladies definitely were not outdone by the men; Keri Hilson was next up with some back up dancers to keep the men in the crowd entertained. A crowd favourite from her set was ‘The Way I Are’; on the flip side this duet with Timbaland was a reminder that the mega-producer was no longer gracing us with his presence. However the crowd soon forgot about this as Ciara took to the stage. Guys and girls alike could not take their eyes of Ciara as she cranked out her powerhouse dance moves and hits like ‘1, 2 Step’ and ‘Goodies.’ Playing superhit ‘Ride’ she pulled off some of the sexiest dance moves ever! She definitely killed those man rumours from a few years back.
There was no time to leave the ‘Bling Ring’ for more than five minutes as after Ciara had left the stage Taio Cruz was up. The ridiculously short breaks between artists left a lot of the crowd hungry and thirsty so they wouldn’t miss their favourite acts. Taio’s set was surprisingly short, but as expected the crowd was more than willing to throw their hands up in the air for his number one single ‘Dynamite.’
After some dance and RNB, the next big hip hop artist was ready to take the stage; G-Unit’s The Game. The crowd loved him; one woman loved him so much she took her top off not once, but three times! And then proceeded to “touch the left one” as asked ever so politely by The Game. To keep up his hardcore gangster image, he skulled ¾ of a bottle of Grey Goose Vodka (You have suspicions that it may not have actually been vodka, but let’s not get into that…) while the crowd cheered him on singing along to ‘Zombie Nation’. As the crowd continued to shout ‘OH OH OH OH’ at the top of their lungs, The Game ripped his shirt off (that’s number 4 for those of you keeping count) and launched into his hit single ‘This Is How We Do.’
Supafest was quite the family affair, with two of Snoop Dogg’s nephews on the bill. The fact that T-Pain was one of them was a complete shock, but most certainly not a disappointment. Expecting a relatively tame performance from T-Pain he completely blew the crowd away from the moment he opened the set with ‘Good Life’. The whole performance was fast paced with four back up dancers and T-Pain himself whipping out some sweet moves. His half an hour set was full of dance routines and hit songs like ‘Low’ and ‘Take Your Shirt Off’ which prompted many members in the crowd to take their shirts off and wave them in the air. What an unexpected, but truly impressive performance by T-Pain.
Busta Rhymes was also extremely impressive – most of the crowd had no idea what the songs were but were mesmerised by how fast he can spit out rhymes. Slowing it down for a minute with ‘I Know What You Want’ the crowd gladly took on the role of Mariah Carey. He then pumped the energy back up with crowd favourite ‘Break Ya Neck’; admittedly hard to prevent this scribe from making really grimy faces while attempting to keep up with Busta’s rapping.
Headliner Nelly brought a definite buzz of anticipation in the crowd, so after a burst of fireworks and chanting he charged on stage with a favourite from his first album E.I. He then continued to crank out this hits, with the crowd wrapped around his little finger he paid tribute to AC/DC with ‘You Shook Me All Night Long’ and ‘Thunderstruck.’ The crowd was more than happy for Nelly to get back to his hop roots, with the highlight of the set being party favourite ‘Hot in Herre’- however the girl that dropped down and got her eagle on for Nelly, and the girl that got to play Kelly Rowland during ‘Dilemma’ would probably have a different opinion. After ending the set with his most recent number one single ‘Just A Dream’ the crowd was rearing and ready to go for hip hop legend Snoop Dogg.
To keep the crowd pumped up DJ Nino Brown and Benny D played classy urban beats for the ‘Supafest Dancers’, but this just baffled the crowd as they just seemed to be a bunch of hot girls in tight singlets standing awkwardly on stage having a chat and not really dancing at all. As they were ushered off stage the crowd went into uproar with excitement as Snoop Dogg’s intro video started. As soon as the lights came on and the beat from ‘The Next Episode’ dropped, it was clear that the next hour and a half was going to be brilliant. Playing all of his hits from ‘Gin & Juice’ to ‘Drop It Like It’s Hot’, he had the crowd singing along for the whole show. When his nephew Bow Wow joined him on stage to sing ‘Bow Wow (That’s my name) the crowd went wild. Of course there was a dedication to Tupac and Notorious B.I.G, as well as a minute of silence for the most recent loss of the hip hop world, Nate Dogg. The biggest urban festival in the world had to go out with a bang, all the artists from the festival joined Snoop on stage for a giant gangster party with ‘I Wanna Rock Right Now’; It doesn’t get much better than seeing the biggest names in hip hop all on one stage. As clichéd as it may sound it was undoubtedly a Supafest!
– Stefanie Miltiadou
