Nas, André 3000 and many more have been summoned to the United Kingdom later this year for to perform at London’s Victoria Park.
On Friday (April 26), the All Points East annual music festival revealed the full lineup of the three-day festival. Set to take place from August 16–18 this summer, the Saturday lineup features Flying Lotus, Loyle Carner and Ezra Collective in addition to those mentioned above.
Kaytranada, Victoria Monét, Thundercat and Amaarae are some of the other artists who will be performing on the event’s other two days.
Having Nas and André 3000 on the same bill is quite the big deal, especially since both are revered with the same passion in the Hip Hop community — Common’s admiration of both is one such example of this.
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Despite penning some of the greatest bars in rap history, the Chicago native admitted that he is still blown away by his fellow MCs during an interview with Hot 97’s Ebro in the Morning earlier this year.
“[André 3000] and Nas, for me, are the two that I’ll be like, ‘Damn, I wish I wrote that,'” he said in late January. “I was playing ‘New York State of Mind’ and one of the greatest lines ever written is: ‘Beyond the walls of intelligence life is defined/ I think of crime when I’m in a New York state of mind.’”
The Windy City rapper also shared his reaction to André’s New Blue Sun, speaking highly of the somewhat divisive flute-driven instrumental album.
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“First of all, it’s just great to hear something from André,” he continued. “Of course I wanna hear his raps, but that dude has been such a creator […] When I put on that flute album I was like, ‘Yo, this joint is dope to me.’”
This wasn’t the first time Common gave Nas his flowers. Last year, the Electric Circus creator hailed “One Love” as “one of the greatest songs ever written” while as reflecting on the beauty and power of Hip Hop.
“I remember being at a performance and then walking outside of the show, and this dude came up to me, and he said, ‘Common, I really love your music. I want to tell you that your song ‘Retrospect for Life’ made me decide to have my kid,’” he recalled.
“I wrote that song because I had been through that experience. And there was a moment when I was on the way to the abortion clinic, and the mother of my child decided, ‘We can’t do this again,’ because this was after already having one abortion. Let’s figure out whatever we have to do. That situation showed when you receive experiences from a place of truth, it just resonates in a different way.”
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He added: “That’s why we related to when Nas talked about what he talked about on Illmatic. He experienced it, and the way he told it was just beautiful. In ‘One Love,’ he talks to his boy in prison. That’s one of the greatest songs ever written.”
