While the first day of Lollapalooza was rather dry and not to many anticipated performances, the second day packed a huge punch. Whether it was homegrown Chicago rapper, Taylor Bennett playing Perry’s stage in the middle of the afternoon, Tyler, the Creator playing the main Grant Park stage in the late afternoon, Buddy playing the BMI stage in the early evening or Post Malone playing the Bud Light Stage in the mid-evening, Friday was by far the most Hip-Hop centered lineup of all four days.
That didn’t mean they were all great performances too though. As Bennett’s performance wasn’t that bad, but it wasn’t that great either. No, he didn’t bring out his brother, Chance the Rapper, like many had hoped, but he of course brought out not only his own artist and fellow Chicago native, Bianca Shaw, but even to everyone’s surprise, legendary Chicago emcee and icon, Twista. Performing their collaborative track, So High Remix, together. Which is a remix to the original track. The 22-year-old local Chicagoan talking about everything from his older brother, who headlined Lollapalooza last year, to his recent performance on, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and many other of his favorite Chicago things.
If he focused more on his actual performance than talking so much throughout his nearly 45-minute set and putting so much into the shooting smoke and columns of fire display for his set. Which was better suited for an evening set rather than one taking place under a sun beaming Summer afternoon, he would have came out with a whole lot better performance. But it just goes to show like many rappers or emcees nowadays, you really need to perfect your craft of emceeing before you can really give a truly great performance, whether it be at a festival like Lollapalooza or any other performance.
Though Post Malone and Tyler both had easily two of the biggest crowds of the festival so far, it was Buddy playing the BMI stage, before a pretty packed crowd, who really stole day two with how well he commanded the mic and stage. Going through much of his mostly critically-acclaimed debut album, Harlan & Alondra, for his near 40-minutes or so set, the Compton emcee and singer, had the crowd’s attention from the very jump. As he went through such heralded tracks as, That Much, Trouble On Central and Hey Up There.
Buddy would even towards the latter part of his set ask the crowd, “If they were in Chicago and was it alright, if he brought out one of his Chicago friends?” To which the crowd gave an emphatic, “Yes!” The CPT native then bringing out Chicago’s very own homegrown rapper and fellow Lolla performer, Valee. With Valee performing his single, Womp Womp.
A few tracks before Valee took the stage, Buddy would ask, “If anybody had ever been through some real shit before, if they could make noise!” To which the crowd responded with plenty of noise before Buddy went into his very real record, Real Life S**t. He really got the crowd going and rapping, as well as singing along when he went into his hit Khalid featured single, Trippin’. Getting the crowd jumping around and trying to moshpit, as he jumped into the crowd during his performance of Type of Shit. He would then close out his very stellar performance that showed what a truly great performer he’s with, his pro-Black anthem, Black and very uplifting single, Shine. Shining and delivering what was easily one of the best performances so far halfway through the four-day festival.