It's kind of amazing that we're even functional following the action-packed, blunt-smoking, traffic-jammed monster that was the Day N Night Festival. The inaugural two-day event at Oak Canyon Ranch presented by the Observatory gave us a front row seat to the current climate of whatever people are calling hip-hop these days. Though the bill was headlined by artists like YG, A$AP Rocky, Young Thug and Bryson Tiller, the fest was a clear celebration of an even fresher class of artists bubbling up from the bowels of the internet that finally gave an OC audience the chance to see them live. For the last two days we've allowed ourselves to sweat, bleed and (involuntarily) campout in our cars to find out what this young hip-hop scene was about. Here's what we found.
Saturday, August 13
3:07 Even though the sun’s doing its part already, I hope everyone out here in this 85 degree weather wearing long sleeve shirts get beat up for being so foolish. (Nick Nuk'em)
3:20 The WTF set of the day goes to Father for wearing mismatched socks (lavender and light pink) and mismatched hair styles (apricot dookie braids locks and sisqo blonde beady beads). He’s performing in front of Dragon Ball Z stage graphics in flip flops and a Miami Heat Dwayne Wade jersey. (NN)
3:43 There's a very bad bitch performing on the day stage named Donmonique. I have a feeling she'll fuck up anybody at this festival, including a festival security guard who looks like Jillionaire from Major Lazer. (NN)
3:45 Forget getting to this festival in the middle of nowhere, just getting in from the street was a minor disaster. The traffic and parking nightmare was only made worse by the fact that only one line was open for each sex to be patted down and the security guard was too busy arguing with some kids over whether or not they could bring their water bottles in to move on to the next people. (Josh Chesler)
4:00 These little girls know they’re not at Coachella, right? Teenage buttcheeks everywhere. (JC)
4:40 This must be an all-time low for beer sales at a music festival. Maybe a quarter of the crowd is over the age of 21. The longest line here is for chicken fingers. (JC)
5:10 We’re only halfway through the first day, and the main stage is already way behind schedule. What’s the point of publishing set times if they’re not going to be anywhere near accurate (or in the order listed)? (JC)
5:15 Just saw a kid who I thought was injured but was actually just dancing. (JC)
5:25 Only thing thicker than this air coming out of the pit is a chick I saw in a sundress a few minutes ago. Goddamn, goddamn! (NN)
5:40 MadeinTYO is the first person I’ve seen here who has any unique qualities whatsoever. He’s also got the second biggest crowd reaction of the day (after a DJ playing Travis Scott’s “Antidote”). (JC)
5: 54 There's a saint giving water rations to parched patrons in the pit. Not all heroes wear capes, this guy barely has a shirt on. (NN)
6:05 Shoutout to the white dude with a “Compton” hat and “Compton” shirt who’s likely never been to Compton. Were they sold out of the ones that said “Yorba Linda” in Olde English? (JC)
6:23 Lil Yachty just took this place hostage and this might be the best case of Stockholm Syndrome anyone could ever have. “Fuck this! This my festival now, this the Little Boat Festival. I don't know why y'all thought anything else!” proclaims the Lil Boat the Conqueror. (NN)
6:30 Why is Bas on the second stage? He’s better than anyone on the main stage so far. (JC)
6:50 Weekly photographer Eran Ryan almost came to blows with a couple of girls twerking in the photo pit. Apparently it’s the photo pit/VIP twerking area. (JC)
7:15 Rae Sremmurd is doing a surprise performance of their hits, and every suburban kid in OC is sprinting to the main stage to see it. Those two know how to throw a party. “Come Get Her” is perhaps the most accurate song for describing this entire festival. (JC)
7:27 A teenage boy quickly runs by security to sneak into the festival. He’s immediately found and dragged out. As the kid resists the security guards his friend starts recording the scuffle and yells about how unjust the security guards are acting. Um, ok. (Denise De LA Cruz)
7:30 More like “Hoe Flex Zone.” (JC)
7:50 Fat Nick and $uicide Boy$ command a savage mosh pit as the explosion of gutter bass and high hat create as much energy as just about any OC punk show I've ever been to. Considering most of these rappers were clearly playing in no-name punk bands less than two years ago, dropping the guitars and picking up the mic seems like a pretty smart career move. (Nate Jackson)
7:45 After getting stuck backstage following a scuffle between some artists, I get to the stage just in time to see Lil Uzi Vert jump off the stage and run through the crowd. In hot pursuit from his fans he makes an Olympic sprint and runs out of the entire venue, makes a loop, hops a fence in a single bound and sprints back on stage. Uzain Bolt ! (NN)
8:15 I thought Post Malone had potential when I saw him at Fool’s Gold Day Off last year, but now he’s barely rapping over his backing track. Sounds like all of that smoking and drinking with Bieber hit his vocal cords. (JC)
8:20 “I’m old as fuck! I’m 22.” – A dude that’s surprisingly correct for this festival. (JC)
8:29 Post Malone's crowd is screaming the lyrics to “White Iverson” acapella like it's the “Hey Jude” of their generation. (NJ)
8:45 YG is the hardest dude at this entire festival. (JC)
8:50 YG just took the stage in an apple hat, a bowling shirt and slacks. And while excited to see him perform cuts from “Still Brazy,” I can’t help but feel sorry for the old, black retiree sitting naked somewhere, confused about why he just got robbed (NN)
9:54 A security guard nonchalantly carries a nearly unconscious girl to the medical tent. (DDLC)
8:56 I see a group of people in the crowd obnoxiously Snapchatting with their flash on. After they’ve finished recording how much fun they’re having they huddle around their phone to see if they need to do another take. This was a common sight through the two-day festival. (DDLC)
9:00 YG says all the ladies on people’s shoulders should show their titties or be dropped if they don’t. He then goes onto say “Do my ladies run this mothafucka?” What a weird moment for feminism. (DDLC)
9:04 A guy walking with crutches hears the piano plunking gangsta boogie of YG's “Who Do You Love?” and spontaneously decides to lift them up over his head and start dancing with some girls in the crowd. Magically healed! Praise be to YGsus. (NJ)
9:17 “The police are killing my peoples, I ain't feeling that shit”
“We got a racist ass mothafucka running for President, I ain't feeling that shit “ YG says right before he drops “Fuck Donald Trump” and the crowd chants along. (DDLC)
9:41 This could be an olfactory hallucination from my exhausted brain anticipating the end of the night but I'm smelling ghetto dogs in the pit awaiting ASAP Rocky (NN)
10:09 A$AP Rocky's silhouette in the blood red fog on the main stage got him looking like MJ as his hoodie blows in the manufactured wind from fans blowing beneath stage. Maybe he'll never be the King of Pop, but being the King of Cloud Rap has some pretty nice perks. (NJ)
10:50 “I'm proud to be part of this generation. We ain't down with that segregation and racism bullshit. Leave that shit with the old fuckers. Fuck ethnicity. We all the same mothafuckas, straight up,” Rocky says to a very diverse and young crowd who begin to cheer. (DDLC)
11:00 Damn, people are leaving Rocky's set ASAP to get to their cars. Ungrateful fair-weather fans who don't like his new shit, or do they just hoping to get out of the parking lot before the sun comes up? (NJ)
10:41 The luscious aroma of bacon wrapped ghetto dogs galore cooking outside. Long live ghetto dogs! (NN)
11:20 As I walk out of the park grounds I see a sea of disorganized cars in a stand still trying to exit the parking lot. There’s only a single narrow road for what seems like hundreds of cars. It quickly dawns upon me that I too will find myself in this mess and I start to mentally prepare myself for “car-magedon.”(DDLC)
12:20 a.m. Day N Night has been over for a while now. Welcome to Park N Wait (NJ)
3:30 There has been very minimal progress in clearing out the parking lot. A few people around me are throwing up because of dehydration or drunkenness.A man in a cart is going around handing out water bottles. There doesn’t seem to be any movement exiting the parking lot. Every car is at a stand still. I am hungry, thirsty and beyond annoyed. This timestamp feels more like a survival log entry now. (DDLC)
4:00 Day N Night N Early Morning N Fuck My Life. (NJ)
5:05 I finally exit the parking lot with the little of my sanity that’s left. Congestion in the lot didn’t clear out until 4:45a.m. but I stayed behind to jump two young women’s cars whose batteries died because they had their lights on while they waited to get out of the parking lot all night. I’m wondering if Day N Night Festival will fix this horrendous parking issue for tomorrow. (DDLC)
Sunday, August 14
11:00 a.m. All the dirt flying in the venue got my sinuses fucked up this morning. I haven't had this much dust in my nose since… Nevermind (NN)
1:33 Famous Dex is stealing the show early with tactics I can only describe as zombie-like and bipolar. One moment he's jigging and smiling, the next he's stripped out of his overalls and snow boots, with a dead look in his eye yelling “don't fucking look at me, I'm not human” at his fans. (NN)
2:59 JMSN looks like he should've been a principal character from American History X but sounds like a Justin Timberlake protege. JMSN look like he just left a White Power meeting at Blackstar Canyon and rushed to catch his set. Cigarette in the ear and all (NN)
4:09 Traffic is backed up from Oak Canyon Ranch all the way to the 241 and 261 Freeway entrances. I think I’ve spent more time in my car than I have at the actual festival. (DDLC)
4:50 p.m. It just took us over 3 hours to get into the park (half an hour of driving and 2.5 sitting in traffic for the last few miles and parking). Can we maybe not have a music festival with a stop light-laden one-lane road leading to it next time? (Josh Chesler)
4:55 I’ve seen 7 people peeing along the road to Oak Canyon Ranch. Women are emerging out of bushes while men are just straight up doing their thing in plain sight. (DDLC)
5:05 Flume was supposed to go on at 3:15. Looks like either things are running late or he’s going for the longest DJ set in festival history. (JC)
5:23 An hour later I have officially parked! (DDLC)
5:42 I see a guy with a Pokémon ball backpack. I bet he was especially devastated to find out the venue lacked service. (DDLC)
5:45 White people love dancing to Future. (JC)
6:10 Vic Mensa just got pretend shot on stage! OC is not beyond experiencing the violence afflicting his native Chicago and oppressed communities around the country. RIP this crowd’s innocence and ignorance. (NN)
6:12 Vic Mensa is resurrected and making more social commentary. (NN)
6:15 DJ Sosupersam of Soulection is killing it at the Weedmaps stage. Thanks to her I just thrashed around in my first trap rap pit. (DDLC)
7:02 21 Savage looks lost on stage as a he paces around letting the lyrics of “Red Opps” fall out of his mouth. The little white girls yelling “Slaughter gang shit! Murder gang shit!” are going harder on his lyrics than him. Man, this is weird. (NJ)
7:20 “Hey bruh” should be the official greeting of Day N Night. (JC)
7:47 I haven't eaten all day. How many more burned calories, blunt hits and hennessey pulls before I pass out? And that Mac and cheese which was allegedly responsible for a rash of food poisoning yesterday looks like vomit, so i wouldn't expect anything but churro. (NN)
7:50 Anyone else think Bones from Seshollowaterboyz looks like a young Patti Smith? (NJ)
8:00 If Seshollowaterboyz put as much time into writing lyrics as they do yelling at fans, they’d probably have at least one song that doesn’t fall back on rhyming some version of “getting rich” with “fucked your bitch.” (JC)
8:18 Maxo Kream sighting by the picnic tables causes a minor riot as adoring fans swarm the husky, Houston rapper. One guy passes him a blunt to take a hit and Maxo straight up swipes it and walks away. A friend of the now bluntness fan sees it all go down and appears to be jealous. “Daaaamn, Maxo stole a blunt from you?! This is the best festival ever.” (NJ)
8:43 This is the fourth time Santa Ana gets a shout out by a DJ or rapper. If only they knew that we’re actually in Silverado—know your Orange County cities! (DDLC)
9:00 Could not care less about Young Thug right now. I'm out. Considering I didn't park in the lot this time, the two mile walk to my easy exit from this festival feels like a blessing. With any luck, I'll have enough energy to watch Ray Donovan when I get home. Yep, I'm officially old. Enjoy the traffic jam, lil' homies. (NJ)
9:12 Shout out to the guy with a Beastie Boys Check Your Head shirt on. (DDLC)
9:14 A group of teens are sitting down in a broken circle by the Weedmaps stage. They’re passing around an iPhone and snorting coke off the screen. (DDLC)
9:20 Bryson Tiller just introduced Travis Scott as his special guest. Whoever’s performing on the second stage just lost most of their audience. (JC)
9:25 If anyone tripped in the middle of the stampede that ensued when Travis Scott started “Antidote,” say hi to Harambe for me. (JC)
9:36 Security just said “fuck it.” They’re in the pit going all the way in on they Shmoney Dance for the fans’ Snapchat stories. The finish line is near (NN)
9:45 The count of white girls or “snow bunnies” rocking braids or dreads this weekend is at twenty-four. (DDLC)
9:50 I just want to see a few Young Thug songs and not get stuck in the parking lot until 5 a.m. Is that too much to ask? (JC)
10:15 Now that we’ve had “Antidote” performed live, “Alright” and “Father Stretch My Hands, Pt. 1” are the most popular DJ choices between sets. (JC)
10:45 I’m sorry, but I can’t see Young Thug without thinking of his legendary “No homo we smokin' penises!!!!” tweet. He’s more of an internet legend than a rapper in my book.
11:45 I left the festival early in hopes that I would escape some exit traffic. Yeah, that didn’t happen. The parking lot looks just as fucked as it did the previous night. (DDLC)
11:15 Shout out to the dude in some rapper’s entourage with a Gucci Mane air freshener in his car. If it wasn’t for you, we might still be trapped in the VIP section of the parking lot.
12:17 a.m. Some folks are keeping the party vibes alive even in the parking lot as they bump loud music and turn up on the roof of their cars. (DDLC)
2:05 3.5 hours later, I finally leave the parking lot. I guess that beats the six hours it took me to exit the lot yesterday. There is STILL no one around to organize the cars trying to leave the lot—it’s a free for all in there. Dear Observatory, please fix this parking issue come Beach Goth! (DDLC)
