Ludacris at NXNE

After Big Boi cancelled the North By North East (NXNE) headlining gig due to an injury, it was announced that Ludacris would take his place as the final performer at Toronto’s Yonge-Dundas Square on hip-hop day to close out the festival. For hip-hop heads, it would be hard to beat last year’s rap finale with Raekwon and Ghostface Killah, which brought an estimated 25,000 people to the square, but this year, Luda most definitely did.

Hitting the stage at approximately 9:15 p.m., Luda came out sporting an orange tee, ready to rock with the city, which had spilled over into the side streets and reached all the way back to the Eaton Centre for the free show. One by one, Luda delivered hit after hit, reminding the crowd (in case fans forgot) of the endless discography of records he has under his belt. Luda spit “Area Codes”, “Southern Hospitality”, “What’s Your Fantasy”, “Blueberry Yum Yum”, “Act A Fool” and his Grammy winning verse of “Yeah”.

After dabbling in some new work, from his IDGAF project, it was obvious that the crowd was not feeling the same vibe, so the southern spitter made sure to bring it back to his old bangers with tracks like the forever relevant, “Move Bitch”. Toronto went in. For any doubters that thought Luda lost it, he proved them undoubtedly wrong, as he closed off this year’s NXNE festival with a vengeance.

Q&A with Tasha The Amazon on NXNE

Toronto artist/producer, Tasha The Amazon has gained a lot of attention with her singles, “Scallywags” and “Let It Go”. The femcee has performed at NXNE the past few years and this year is looking forward to opening up for Action Bronson, Raekwon and Ghostface Killah at Dundas Square on June 17.
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE OPPORTUNITY OF PERFORMING WITH RAEKWON AND GHOSTFACE KILLAH AT NXNE? It’s obviously a huge honour to be able to do that. I performed previously with the GZA and The Roots. Wu-Tang is a huge inspiration to me so I’m ticking more and more of those people off the list. Anybody I tell, their mind is blown.
WHAT DOES AN OPPORTUNITY LIKE THAT DO FOR YOUR CAREER? It’s hard to say, because it all depends on who comes out to the show and even something like if it rains and it’s an outdoor show, there’s gonna be less people. It may be harder to hype the crowd but it’s always cool to have that flyer. I think personally, it’ll be great because it’s the middle of the summer — a lot of people come out. I performed at the show last year and there’s always a great response. I can only imagine it’ll be wicked.
WHAT IS YOUR PLAN PERFORMANCE WISE TO CATER TO A FESTIVAL CROWD? You have to build on-stage chemistry. I have a couple of my boys that are going to come and be hype-men and do a couple verses of their own. JD Era might be coming to perform with Raekwon and him and I have a song together so maybe we’ll pull out that and do a little collab. Maybe I’ll see if Saukrates is around and wants to do the song that we have going on. Just being able to build your own chemistry on stage, then it doesn’t matter so much if the crowd is dry and into it or not. You just kind of bring them into your world.
HOW DO YOU THINK NXNE WILL AFFECT THE VIBE OF THE CITY? I just find that festivals seem to be more positive than shows. At shows, people come across the border and they bring their bullshit with them sometimes. When we have a festival, there’s a lot of people coming together. Some people are conscious hip-hop, some people are street hip-hop and some people are just fun on the line between pop and everyone puts their shit away for a day or for a week. I think it will be good in this kind of climate, because we need shows that are fun and positive.
IN YOUR OPINION, WHAT DOES NXNE DO FOR THE CANADIAN MUSIC SCENE? I think it’s an opportunity for us to show in an official way what’s going on. Every time I go anywhere else in the world, everyone is like, “Oh, you’re from Toronto? There are so many cool bands and artists and producers that I hear coming from there.” They’re definitely checking for us, but they’re not necessarily going to come up here on a regular Friday and check out what we have going on. This is an official reason for label heads and booking agents and other artists to get on a plane, buy a wristband and check us out for real. It’s a culmination of everything that we have going on.