The first evening of the Check the Rhyme hip-hop festival, which began this Friday at 6:00 PM. The public was present to listen to an exceptional lineup of artists. Despite the cancellation of rapper SKEPTA, announced 2 hours before the start of the festival, the evening wasn’t spoiled, with a great atmosphere that got the open-air theater dancing.
6:00 PM The festival starts with No(w) Future, who manages to create a lively atmosphere with remixed tracks, despite the small audience. One could say the festivities truly began with the arrival on stage of Guizmo. It is 7:15 PM, the French rapper, with a beer and cigarette in hand, strings together his most famous tracks at high speed and manages to make the entire open-air theater jump and dance as it fills up more and more. Guizmo’s laid-back, party-going style draws the crowd to the stage, and he plays with this rapport. For Amandine, in the front row at the concert, the Frenchman remains the most anticipated artist of the evening. “I mainly came for Guizmo, he is part of this new wave of French rappers that everyone is listening to right now.” The most memorable moment remains a dance by a teenager invited on stage by the rapper, who, without any hesitation, lost himself in his improvised dance under Guizmo’s amused gaze.
8:00 PM, the group Girls Do It Better takes the stage and maintains the atmosphere set earlier by Guizmo. Going through this year’s most well-known rap hits, the five girls get the crowd jumping and dancing for about thirty minutes. They dance, twerk, and rev up the ever-growing crowd before the arrival of the festival’s “girl power” moment: Gavlyn and Oh Blimey, flag bearers of the new feminist rap scene, arrive on stage with Californian instrumentals and flow. The two rappers manage to create a good vibe with some tracks but seem to lose the audience’s interest after 40 minutes of the concert. The initial energy starts to dwindle, and the concert, extended because of SKEPTA’s surprise cancellation, disappoints part of the audience.
On social media, the news of the rapper’s cancellation was criticized. Many came for the two major international stars, SKEPTA and SchoolBoy Q, and are asking for a 50% refund. Despite this, the festival’s organization doesn’t falter and manages to fill the gaps left by the cancellation. After another show by Girls Do It Better, which revives the fading atmosphere, the open-air theater is now full to welcome the star everyone has been waiting for. For Kevin, who came with his friends, there’s only one thing he’s looking forward to: “SchoolBoy Q is really the big star of this evening, I think most people came for him.”
10:30 PM, SchoolBoy Q takes the stage and sends the crowd into a frenzy, jumping to the rhythm of the American rapper’s flow, closing the first round.
