Last weekend, Pitchfork Music Festival closed on a high note with an epic performance from R&B/Rap legend, Lauryn Hill.
The three-day festival drew large crowds to Union Park (located on Chicago’s west side) despite the rainy weather. Pitchfork is mainly known for the many alternative acts that take the stage every year. This year, we saw memorable sets from urban acts like Syd, whose group The Internet released their fourth studio album Hive Mind that same day.
Syd’s sweet and sensual voice had Pitchfork sounding like a heavenly dream. The small framed, charismatic singer sung hits from her solo effort like “Got Her Own”, “Know” and “Drown In It” before bringing out her band mates to perform a few of their well known hits as well as some new ones.
Philly rap newcomer Tierra Whack made her Chicago debut on Pitchfork’s green stage to a not so enthusiastic crowd. Whack served as a replacement for rapper Earl Sweatshirt, who Pitchfork festival goers were eager to see. She performed songs from her project Whack World in addition to other loose tracks.
tierra whack is rocking overalls and a denim cutoff-style bucket hat #p4kfest pic.twitter.com/H72FMHfsSZ
— lukaach 🚮 (@lucheezy) July 20, 2018
Chicago’s own Saba got the crowd hype as he performed songs from his latest effort Care For Me and from his memorable debut, The Bucket List Project. As expected, Saba closed his set bringing out the entire Pivot Gang crew to give an encore performance of “Westside Bound 3”. Saba’s set was the most upbeat performances that day (Friday) and he showed Pitchfork why he is the next great artist to rise out of the city of Chicago.
Raphael Saadiq played Pitchfork on Saturday and his set was nothing short of phenomenal. Saadiq kicked things off with a killer jam session (that featured a muralist doing a live painting) and continued to get into some notable cuts like “Still Ray”, “Good Man” and “Go to Hell.” The Pitchfork crowd went into a frenzy when he brought out Ali Shaheed from A Tribe Called Quest to perform a record honoring the late great record producer J Dilla. Towards the end of his set he started to get into the classic records that we know him for like “Anniversary” (Tony! Toni! Tone!), “Dance Tonight” (Lucy Pearl) and “You Should Be Here”.
Saadiq took a moment to introduce some new music from his forthcoming album titled Jimmy Lee (no release date as of yet) before wrapping things up with a medley of hit songs that he’s written from artists like Erykah Badu, Solange and D’Angelo.
https://twitter.com/SLPowersChiTrib/status/1020799801485668354
Funk, Soul and R&B Legend Chaka Khan put on a performance of a lifetime on Pitchfork’s Red Stage. To say that Khan’s set was a highlight performance from the weekend would be an understatement. The Chicago native and 10-time Grammy Award-winning artist performed some of her biggest hits including “Tell Me Something Good,” “I’m Every Woman” and “Ain’t Nobody” to a mainly 20-something audience.
Last night at the @pitchforkfest was special. The fans, family & friends in my hometown were special & just wonderful to my band & I. Thank you for all the love & support #ChakaKhan #P4KFest pic.twitter.com/pgyU8YrcFg
— C H A K A | K H A N (@ChakaKhan) July 23, 2018
Lauryn Hill commemorated the 20th anniversary of her debut solo project The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill with a stellar closing performance at Pitchfork. After having a DJ warm the crowd for 25 minutes, Hill finally took the the Green stage, kicking off her set with a energetic performance of “Lost Ones”. Though Hill put on an amazing performance, fans struggled to sing along with the classics “reworked” tracks. There seem to be some sound issues and a few moments of miscommunication between Hill and her band on a few of the songs but in the end, Hill did not disappoint fans and skeptics who had been eagerly anticipating the singers return.
Ms. Lauryn Hill was wonderful tonight at #p4kfest pic.twitter.com/LqIsfGOsjj
— Brandon Lee, but alive (@bleeinternets) July 23, 2018
Follow us on Twitter @gripmagonline and @keenlykeena
