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Something In The Water Spread Love Across Virginia Beach

RVA Staff | May 9, 2019

Topics: College Beach Weekend, Pharrell, Puff Daddy, Something In The Water Festival, ViBe Creative District, Virginia Beach, Virginia music festivals

Put together by Virginia Beach native Pharrell, the inaugural Something In The Water festival brought music, art, togetherness, and creativity to College Beach Weekend.

Pharrell’s Something in the Water music festival in Virginia Beach, VA brought tens of thousands of people to the water on the last weekend in April. A Virginia Beach native, Pharrell began planning the event in the fall; it was born out of his idea to cultivate a structured event during Virginia’s College Beach Weekend.

College Beach Weekend takes place around the end of the spring semester and is largely an event for Virginia’s historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), dating back to when it was called Greekfest in the late 80s and early 90s.

During the Pharrell and Friends set on Saturday night, New York born rapper Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs took the stage, singing “Finna Get Loose,” “Mo Money Mo Problems,” and “All About The Benjamins.” At the end, after profusely thanking Pharrell, AKA the “King of Virginia” as most performers were calling him, P Diddy called out the City of Virginia Beach for its racist past. He noted that Greekfest was shut down years ago because the city was afraid of black and brown people coming to the area in large numbers over a short period of time. Pharrell interjected by the end, making sure to tell the crowd “It’s all love here.”

Barring Friday’s weather-induced cancellation, the festival went off without a hitch. There were officers everywhere by the waterfront, mostly acting as crossing guards. Festival goers were required to walk through metal detectors and have their bags searched.

The extended area covered by the festival featured all sorts of activities for concertgoers, including sports and other outdoor activities, booths for local businesses, and a pop-up church service that was open to the community. Performers included SZA, Mac Demarco, Travis Scott, Rosalia, Jhene Aiko, Virgil Abloh, and even some surprise guests like Jay-Z and Tyler, the Creator.

Panels on different discussion topics were held throughout the day at the Convention Center, and there was even an art walk constructed along the Oceanfront, with art displayed at various locations throughout the ViBe Creative District. Virginia artists with works on display included Mickael Broth, Charles Rasputin, Nils Westergard, and many more.

Saturday and Sunday were hot. Every performer ended their set with thanks to the crowd, to Virginia Beach, to Pharrell, and advice to hydrate. RMC Events staffers threw water bottles into the standing crowd, and audience members sprayed it in the air to cool the crowd off. As expected, due to the heat, some people passed out from dehydration, but the crowd always parted and first aid responders were punctual. There were no deaths, but a lot of heat exhaustion.

Away from the stage, festival goers had to keep hydrated with $4 water bottles from the various food stands lining the sides of the blocked off beach. Prices for alcohol were significantly higher; a single beer was $12, and cocktails were a whopping $16. Adding an extra shot was another eight bucks.

This did not stop the crowd from imbibing. As the drinks appropriately flowed, audience members ate hamburgers or jerk chicken from food stands, drank boardwalk lemonade, licked Rita’s ice cream, or enjoyed whatever free treat was provided by UberEats for the hour. In order to create an eco-friendly atmosphere, the festival chose not to provide plastic bags or straws for food nor merchandise.

The concert attracted people from across the Commonwealth and beyond, ages ranging from college students to older hip hop and rap fans – there were even a few families with toddlers. For the concertgoers not interested in the packed crowd, there was space for laying down blankets and soaking in the sun with a good view of the monitor airing the current performances. Families and friends swayed to the music, dancing with strangers and enjoying the clear weather. Like Pharrell said, and repeated often, “It’s all love here.”

Written by Christina McBride and Aviance Hawkes. Photos by Aviance Hawkes.

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

Pusha T Makes Virginia Great Again by Saying MAGA Hats are “This Generation’s KKK Hood”

RVA Staff | July 8, 2018

Topics: Daytona, Donald Trump, HipHop, Kanye West, Pharrell, Pusha T, rap, The Clipse

Virginia’s Pusha T and his new album Daytona is a savagely brilliant rescue to an already miserable summer. Produced entirely by the erratic and perpetually provocative Kanye West, the album, which only clocks seven tracks with a run time of just over 20 minutes returns us to the world where it all began with Pusha in the early 2000s–look no further than his title track If You Know You Know to know why. Pusha, along with his brother, No Malice, were part of the incendiary duo known as The Clipse, which brought the world a stripped down and gritty sound directly from Hampton Roads. Anyone who knows the fabled history of No Malice and Pusha T, understands what is meant by the lyric, “A fraternity of drug dealers ringing off, I just happen to be alumni,” from If You Know You Know. 

There is a reason “coke rap” as a genre did not exist prior to their involvement in mainstreaming the ol’ dusty show business.

Released in early May, the album is the first in a series of mini-releases from West’s G.O.O.D Music label. While his album (recorded in Wyoming in an $8,000 a night hotel suite) has been critically eulogized by most music critics, it is his most recent interview with The Guardian that is now getting people’s attention. In an exclusive profile, King Push addresses the controversy surrounding West’s public support of President Trump and his very bizarre interview with TMZ in which he said, “When you hear about slavery for 400 years. For 400 years?! That sounds like a choice.”

Daytona by Pusha T

During the interview, TMZ’s Van Lathan fired back, saying, “I think what you’re doing right now is actually the absence of thought, and the reason why I feel like that is because Kanye, you’re entitled to your opinion. You’re entitled to believe whatever you want. There’s fact and real life consequence behind everything that you just said.”

In the interview with The Guardian, Pusha both condemned and defended West’s comments at the same time, saying he flew to Wyoming the next day to confront him. “We spoke about insensitivity. The actual messaging. Where I felt he went wrong. You can’t even paraphrase about situations and issues that are so personal to people. When it comes to death and real-life people and persecution and things where families have been divided, you have to be more careful.” He supported West by saying that people were quick to make assumptions and jump to conclusions. “I feel like the keywords in what he said were so strong and powerful, that it doesn’t let you get into the nuances, the underlying perspective. Or even wanna hear how he’s thinking.”

Yet some of Pusha’s most powerful words were reserved for the president, someone West has come out to support on multiple occasions and was photographed wearing the ghastly MAGA lid. “The Make America Great Again hat is this generation’s Ku Klux hood,” said Pusha. “When was America so great anyways? Name that time period?” In saying this, Pusha made Virginia great again, and showed everyone how one of the Commonwealth’s greatest cultural treasures is, indeed, king.

 

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

 

Classic RVA: The Pharrell Williams Interview

Marilyn Drew Necci | February 2, 2015

Topics: interviews, music, Pharrell, print articles, rva mag best of

This year, RVA Magazine will be celebrating our 10 Year Anniversary–and in honor of our first decade of publication, we’ll be taking a look back and some of our favorite articles we’ve run over the past 10 years. Today, we revisit our interview with Pharrell Williams, the cover story from our Summer 2010 issue. Enjoy!

[Read more…] about Classic RVA: The Pharrell Williams Interview

Power To The People: What Local Concerts Should We Crowdfund Next?

Marilyn Drew Necci | June 16, 2014

Topics: Beck, bjork, crowdfunding, David Bowie, Faith No More, foo fighters RVA, Jay Z, Kanye West, music, Pharrell, Pusha T, RVA, The Rolling Stones

As we found out last Friday, the Foo Fighters are coming to RVA as the result of a successful crowdfunding campaign. This is certainly the first time action of this kind has been successful locally–but we can’t imagine it’ll be the last. So who should the people of RVA set their sights on next?
[Read more…] about Power To The People: What Local Concerts Should We Crowdfund Next?

Watch Lots Of RVA-Famous Folks Dance To Pharrell’s “Happy” In New Viral Video

Marilyn Drew Necci | March 21, 2014

Topics: dancing, Pharrell, RVA, silly fun stuff, viral video

That new Pharrell single, “Happy,” sure is a lot of fun, right? So much fun, apparently, that all of RVA had to get into the act in this new video from local production company JI Live.
[Read more…] about Watch Lots Of RVA-Famous Folks Dance To Pharrell’s “Happy” In New Viral Video

Pharrell and Japanther Announce New Records for Spring Release

Brad Kutner | February 19, 2014

Topics: G I R L, Instand Money Magic, Japanther, Pharrell

Fresh from the PR stream, we’ve got scant details on two exciting new releases – 757’s Pharrell (does he still claim VA Beach?) and Punk-rock duo Japanther.

[Read more…] about Pharrell and Japanther Announce New Records for Spring Release

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