Photo Credit: Jason Lewis for Sentinel
Nas will again be one of the top acts at the Rock The Bells Tour.
Guerilla Union has announced initial details for the 2009 installment of the critically acclaimed festival series Rock The Bells–North America’s only hip-hop festival. Teaming with Budweiser for this year’s Rock The Bells 2009 Festival Series, the festival features such headliners as Nas & Damian Marley, The Roots, Big Boi (Outkast) and Common plus many more major hip-hop artists.
The summer trek will kick off June 27 and run on consecutive weekends through August 9 in ten cities across North America including Toronto, Washington D.C., Boston, New York, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami and Vancouver. Each stop will feature 25 acts on two stages, a vendor village, surprise performances and more. Exact dates, venues and ticketing information will be unveiled at a later date. Fans are encouraged to visit www.guerillaunion.com to sign up for their newsletter with up-to-date information on the tour, as well as visiting media partner MySpace Music at www.myspace.com/music.
Anticipated performance highlights of this year’s festival series include: headliners Nas & Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley who will perform material off their June release Distant Relatives, promising to deliver the “soundtrack to global change” and they’ll focus on bringing attention to social issues in Africa; The Roots will break away from their “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” residency for some live dates; and, for the first time, KRS-One–known as the purveyor of the Temple of Hip Hop and his activism with the “Stop The Violence” campaign-will join MC Supernatural, Murs and Pete Rock as hosts for RTB, as well as serving as a performer. The complete list of participating artists for the tour follows below.
Also confirmed for Rock The Bells is the long-awaited reunion of the Irish-influenced hip-hop trio House of Pain consisting of all the original members (Everlast, Danny Boy and DJ Lethal) featuring La Coka Nostra, who will perform material off their early 1990’s releases. Reflection Eternal is another notable collaboration for Rock the Bells with the union of Talib Kweli and Hi Tek. Wu Tang’s RZA and Raekwon, M.O.P. will also perform.
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