Photo by Kendra Desrosiers
Chester French and Q-tip perform at Summer Stage.
Central Park was live this afternoon at the Summerstage concert with headliner Q-Tip. It was hot and there was no shade in sight but that didn’t stump the crowd’s energy. Chester French, Sweden-based group Little Dragon, and DJ Benji B got the crowd ready for “The Abstract.” Familiar also sited today included Cassie, Damon Dash, and Amanda Diva.
Duo, Chester French moved the crowd with hits from their mixtape “Jacques Jams, Vol 1: Endurance” and debut album Love The Future. DA Wallach had the crowd laughing at his dorky swag as he instructed the crowd to commence in a soul snap. “Hands up in the fucking air! We need you to snap with us in a second!”
They performed songs like “Jimmy Choos,” “C’mon” and crowd favorite “She Loves Everybody.” The pit was packed with toddlers and guests of a guest but we managed to get some video of their set, check it out:
Chester French @ SummerStage NYC from 25 Magazine on Vimeo.
The Queens Hip Hop legend, Q-tip gave a phenomenal performance with a live band to the at capacity venue. He performed a mix of A Tribe Called Quest classics including “Bonita Applebum,” “Scenario,” and “Sucka N*ggas” as well as “Award Tour,” in which all the die hard “real Hip Hop heads” sang word for word. Tip also performed songs from his latest album The Renaissance, such as “We Fight/We Love” and “Gettin Up.”
While Tip performed “Vivrant Thing,” Diddy danced into the press pit, hopped on stage and did his famous two-step. No one expected it (but 25 caught it on tape and video!). After ending his set, Q-tip came back on stage for “Life is Better,” and jumped in the crowd.
No one wanted Q-tip to ever leave the stage and he clearly gave all his energy to the crowd by sweating out his white tee and presumably his knee high black socks. His performance was unforgettable indeed.
Here’s some Twitter highlights:
@25mag: @iamdiddy jumped on stage w/@qtiptheabstract, guess who’s the only to get video and photo? @25mag, get familiar, best show of the summer!
@25mag: Industry rule number 4080, record company people are shadyyyy
@25mag: He’s in the crowd, where is he? we can’t see you tip, you a lil short my man
@25mag: @qtiptheabstract is sweatin hard, great show!
Check out our exclusive video coverage and photos of Q-tip’s performance, including Diddy’s dance number:
