“They won’t put this on the news, but we know it happened.”
J. Cole is the truth. And at a time when America was glued to an historic event at the DNC in Philadelphia, he stood up on his stage in Chicago as a real unifying force at a time when we may need unity the most. He said it in his own words: LOVE. He looked out into his crowd for he owned Grant Park for his chunk of time last night, and he proclaimed love for black, white, brown, Asian, Muslim. “That’s a billion f***ing people!”
Not quite a billion (although honestly it could have been with the positivity magnifying both quantity and quality of surrounding energy), the crowd was treated to a set from an artist recognizing his prime. Speaking to the rights of every type of person in the lyrics of his songs, Cole allows a better world within our stripes and stars to be painted within his intricate hooks and bars. Every nook and cranny of his set contained elements of TRUE, REAL, UNIFYING words.
Power to the people. Power to all types of people. Power to the people who believe. Power to the reasons everyone came to the show last night, according to Cole: “Love of music. Love of each other.” Power to every race and gender and ethnicity and power to the individual. If only everyone could regularly get on that level. The power is in your hands. The world is in your hands.
Watch a replay of J. Cole’s important performance here at 10:45 am (CST):
At one point, everyone in attendance was instructed to put their arm around whoever was next to them, whoever the heck it was, and the crowd happily obliged to share in a real moment of human experience. A real moment. Real moments. Real love. We’ve been searching for a real love, while J. Cole has been holding the secret on how to find it the whole time! He has the ability on stage to speak to the whole crowd while maintaining the individual intimacy we yearn for from performers. He transferred that mentality into Lollapalooza’s 25th anniversary opening night, all the while acknowledging his gratitude and appreciation for how far he’s come over the years with truly heartfelt thank yous to the crowd intertwining his meaningful performance.
Headlining an evening of Lollapalooza has been a moment in the making for some time for J. Cole. Throughout last night’s set, he was able to convey to the crowd an essence of meaningfulness. He did pay proper homage to Mike, albeit in the the 45, a uniform number Bulls fans still have mixed feelings about for it is the only Jordan number not to win a ‘chip. But we won’t hold that against you, Cole. Let’s talk hoops sometime…
Hello. Hi. Hello…
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Over on the Bud Light (America Light for now?) stage, fans were treated to some Chicago-themed magic.
Chicago DJ Duo Flosstradamus created an electrifying stage moment closing out their set by bringing out none other than Chicago native and Bulls’ newest star, Dwyane Wade (still can’t believe he’s a Bull, so surreal) onto the stage as he excited the crowd with his opening remarks saying, “It feels good to be home, Chicago.” Once onstage, Wade continued the All-Chicago-everything theme by bringing out Grammy-Award winning singer Michelle Williams to sing her hit song Survivor. Just when the crowd thought the set couldn’t get any better, Chicago’s favorite hometown artist, Chance the Rapper joined the group onstage to sing hits off his recently released, top 5 album of 2016, Coloring Book. Two rappers in their prime right here in Chicago, the greatest city in the world, on the biggest musical stage in the world.
What a time to be alive…