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Another memorable year of festivals is in the books.
And for the founders of Governor’s Ball, their new labor of love, The Meadows Festival went off with out a hitch for the second year in a row. The festival was held at Citi Field where the New York Mets play, and boasted 42 artists and four stages over the course of three days. Of those 42, CASSIUS rounded up a few of our favorite sets— both expected and unexpected.
Future
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Dungeon Family’s own Future reminded the crowd of the increasing amount of hits —and mixtapes— he’s managed to crank out over the past few years. What’s even crazier is how the crowd knows every. Single. Word. What was once gibberish somehow gets decoded and lines like, “I just fucked your bitch in Gucci flip-flops” become larger than life. And since he was in Queens, Future did the unthinkable by bringing out Nicki Minaj, a mere 10 miles from where she grew up. And the crowd responded with a mad rush to the stage, which only got more hectic when Young Thug came out to help Nayvadius perform “Girlfriend,” along with fan favorite “Lifestyle.”
JAY-Z
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The OG still has it. He’s still got the bars, the charisma and the clout to command the attention of thousands of festival goers. For almost two hours, JAY-Z showed the crowd what classic music is by digging deep into his bag of hits. A few 4:44 songs strung together with other hits from the past two decades showed why the 47-year-old juggernauty can still do as he pleases. And this is only a preview of what we’ll see once his 4:44 tour picks up in October.
Tory Lanez
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The only bad thing about Lanez’s set was that he definitely could have been at a bigger stage. But at a small stage, the sun began to set and dense smoke filled the air as he ran through early mixtape hits, a few Chixtape classics that any R&B fan can vibe too, and new catchy tunes that fans surely had to Google on their way home. The crowd exploded when he performed his rendition of Drake’s “Controlla.” As Drizzy’s version ran the charts, but Tory’s ran the streets. Tory delighted the fans when he did his signature crowd surf for the last 10 minutes of his set while he repeated the chorus to trap-smash “Diego.”
Broods
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New Zealand-based pop group Broods has been on the come up since their first smash hit “Bridges” emerged from the blogosphere. Comprised of vocalist Georgia Notts and her multi-instrumentalist brother Caleb, the duo has been making waves overseas. So much so that they’ve toured with the likes of Haim, Ellie Goulding, and Sam Smith. The siblings have been making the festival rounds in the states, and after a few technical difficulties held them up at Made In America in Philly, the Notts made up for it at The Meadows. They offered up the perfect somber set of easy listening music that’s a bit deeper and darker than you’ll initially think, yet still catchy. Take the addicting “Mother & Father” for example.
Nas
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He came home.
Nasty Nas touched The Meadows Stage towards the end of the festival’s third night. Nas was quick to shout out those who supported him in his cassette tape days, a compliment that caused those sitting in chairs on the outskirts of the crowd to shout in approval. But Nas has a tough job: how do you squeeze over 20 years worth of hits into an hour set? He somehow pulled it off, along with playing a few Mobb Deep cuts in remembrance of Prodigy. Most importantly, he did it while rocking Gucci head to toe.
