Photo: Shane McCauley
Friday afternoon in Denver treated the Ninja crew to Diplo’s eclectic lineup of Mad Decent label mates and friends during the Mad Decent Block Party. The stage was set at the 17,000 person venue Fiddlers Green, located about ten minutes from downtown. Over almost a 10 hour long party, the audience was treated to a revered lineup of old and new including; Flosstradamus with a few guest appearances, incredibly strong up-and-coming Mr. Carmack, Rif Raff, Griz, Diplo, Outkast, and more.
The newer recruits to the label and tour like Jodi High Roller (making a quick departure from Katy Perry apparently), Liz, Djemba Djemba and Mr. Carmack took the stage masterfully with a lineup of big beat, trap, g-rap, and even funk at the beginning of the day as the sun started to fade off. The three o’clock start time didn’t stop the audience from getting rowdy right off the bat. The setting was packed full of young and old that made the atmosphere actually feel like the original concept held in Philadelphia.
After the crowd was fully warmed up, trap stars Flosstradamus (less Autobot) came out to start the train of guest appearances. The duo, who have been on a perpetual roll since their re-emergence a few years ago dominated the trap scene for the night. It was full blown damn son where’d you find this one, see what I did there? Once J2k started to get into his element, Waka Flocka popped on stage dreads-a-shaking to smash out a hip-hop trap set. To finish things off Dominic Lalli of Big Gigantic came out for a final note prepping the audience for fellow sax player and former tour mate Griz. HDYNATION was out.
Griz, always a well received musician amongst the Denver crowd, played a set right on par with the HDYBYS, prepped graciously for ringleader Diplo. In true Diplo fashion the tempo was driving, the sun had set, the party got turnt and the audience was into it. The label head tuned the crowd into his signature high speed and big drop style seamlessly from the multitude of genres performed previously throughout the night. After catching shade from some of his previous block party stops about banning Kandi and glowsticks, the unphased veteran put out a flood of new remixes and releases. DJ Snake’s ‘Turn Down For What’ moved the more mainstream crowd, his remix of Lorde’s ‘Tennis’ ebbed from his remix of Calvin Harris’ ‘Summer’ and landed on his own track ‘Revolution’. Diplo knows his audience so clearly it’s almost laughable if something happens to deter their attention for a second.
Hats off to you Thomas.
Outkast, whom finished the night, almost can’t be captured by words anymore. The enigmatic duo recently emerged for their reunion tour starting off with the likes of Coachella and progressively capturing the younger audience at each stop they’ve made. The duo have kept the formula the same recently with their faster pace classics, a black jumpsuit worn by Andre 3000 engraved with a plethora of quotes, and the same low-slung funk, fluid raps and gritty Southern soul. The two hour long set brought out all the staples; ‘Kryptonite’ flowed into ‘Ghetto Musick’ into ‘Hey Ya!’, ‘Player’s Ball’, ‘Int’l Player’s Anthem’, and a guest spot from Killer Mike during ‘The Whole World’ while Andre 3000 did pushups during Big Boi’s entire verse to end the whole party. The two haven’t lost it in 22 years now. More clear than ever, that isn’t going to change anytime soon.
Needless to say, we’ll be back, and take another half day of work off.
’FLOSSTRADAMUS FEAT. ELKKA – REBOUND’
’Mr Carmack – fan
cy girls FANCY girls’
’2 GiRLS 1 PiPE REMiX (feat. Frankie Palmeri From Emmure)’
’Slippin Into Darkness (GRiZ Remix Ft. Jessica Breanne) – Lettuce’
’Lorde – Tennis Court (Diplo’s Andre Agassi Reebok Pump Remix)’
