Red & Meth brought out NORE during their set, who got a lot of love from the audience. Of course, NORE came out with DJ EFN and Weird Thoughts from CHP, which was a GREAT LOOK! Shouts out to my Crazy Hood family, too, for holding it down for Miami Hip-Hop! It made me happy to see The General onstage shouting out "MIAMI!!!" and "CRAZY HOOD!!!"... hahaha!!!

But the entire show was tight work... Supernatural KILLED his "hosting"/set with his DJ on the One's & None's as well as his Busta Rhymes and Slick Rick impersonations!!! It's wild to see him actually come off the top for SO LONG and STAY ON WITHOUT MESSING UP!

Dead Prez did their thang with a southern twang. Them boys are ALWAYS tight! I LOVE to see them do what they do. One of my all time favorite groups.

Mos Def was on point. One of the best MC's to do it... EVER.

Immortal Technique was cool, but B-Boy/DJ G.I. Joe was the REAL HIGHLIGHT of the set! lol Seriously though, Tech's in your face communism seems a bit too forced and I'm not even being biased. I LOVE Dead Prez and they rep pretty much the same ideals, but they don't OVERKILL like he does (I really would like to see him live out that old line about walking through Lil' Havana with a Che t-shirt on screaming Viva Fidel... JUST ONCE lol). I'm sorry, man... I'm a fan of Hip-Hop TO THE DEATH (and even a healthy portion of Tech's work), but NO ARTIST should EVER disrespect an ENTIRE PEOPLE so blatantly. One way or another, IT WILL COME BACK TO HAUNT YOU ONE DAY, HOMIE. BELIEVE THAT! ONE DAY... but shouts out to him for acknowleding the independent artists' in the crowd hustling product as well as spittin' a DOPE, ACAPELLA SPANISH VERSE!!! That was a dope addition to his set, I must admit.

I'm not being funny, but I'm curious to know, though: WHO THE HELL IS WALE??? He was pretty dope, though. Just never heard of him before. That's all.

De La Soul had a really fun set that got the crowd into it. I love seeing them perform! Maceo was having a GREAT TIME behind the turntables with his bizarre, over the top, crazy man laughter. lol

Raekwon & Ghostface were ON POINT... it was a blessing to see the gods runnin' through the classics as well as some ILL new material. REALLY LOOKIN' FORWARD TO CUBAN LINX II!!!

The Pharcyde was on point as well. Very energetic set. Seeing them together after so long was definitely one of the highlights for me.

Red & Meth did it like only they can... people talk about swagger nowadays, but them two ARE the definition of "swagger" onstage... combined with a VERY HEALTHY DOSE of REAL SKILLS. LOVED THEIR SET!

Nas came through with nothing but hits... the crowd served as his hype men as people sang along with EVERY LINE on EVERY SINGLE SONG! God's son REALLY PUT IT DOWN last night... he single handedly made it memorable for me when he brought back all of his old joints and then the new ones... you realize that you are in the presence of greatness when he's performing. ABSOLUTELY ONE OF THE GREATEST MC's OF ALL TIME.

Tribe Called Quest closed it out with spectacular set that was worthy of the headlining spot. It was incredible to see them together again, considering the fact that I had not seen them since Lollapalooza back in the early 90's! Nice to see them bring out the Kiiiiiiiiiiiid Capri, too.

What I enjoyed most about the concert was the fact that everytime any artist asked the crowd to make some noise for Hip-Hop, people screamed at the top of their lungs! So, that in itself was INCREDIBLE to witness, specially in Miami!!!

I for one, am inspired!!!

REAL HIP-HOP LIVES, MY BRETHREN!

Overall, pretty dope concert this year. Hopefully next year we'll have some more homegrown talent onstage instead of out in the crowd. MAYDAY!??? DYNAS??? GARCIA??? OMNISCIENT??? MAJOR LEAGUE??? CYNIC??? PROTOMAN??? THC???

Sound like a dope line-up??? STAY TUNED!!! Maybe it will happen sooner than later!!!

By the way, shouts out to Dro Diddy, Struck, JoeyCrack, and R & R, who were out there doing their thang and making sure the festival was properly covered for the South Florida Hip-Hop community. I'm sure we will see the pics and footage posted up soon!

Respect to you all,
The APEX