To our pleasure, there wasn’t torrential downpour at this year’s Summer Jam experience. On Sunday night (June 1), there was only a sh*storm of Hip-Hop brewing at the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Albeit some of the night’s biggest guests hailed from cities outside of the Big Apple, Queens took over Summer Jam 2014 with exceptional performances by Nas, 50 Cent and Nicki Minaj.
Troy Ave opened up the main stage festivities before Action Bronson and Trey Songz did their thing, respectively. Wiz Khalifa took center stage early as well and played a slew a fan-faves, including “Work Hard, Play Hard” and “We Dem Boyz.” His set wouldn’t have been complete, however, without a cameo from Snoop Dogg for a live rendition of “Young, Wild & Free.” Later The Roots continued celebrating their 20th anniversary with a solid performance that featured The Lox and M.O.P. Heads enjoyed nostalgic hits like “It’s All About the Benjamins” and “Ante Up.”
In the wake of celebrating the 20-year anniversary of his landmark debut Illmatic LP, Nas appeared on stage, Henny in tow, to “New York State of Mind.” He then blessed an already buzzing crowd with appearances from Meek Mill and French Montana, right before his set culminated with a surprise introduction of fellow Queens rapper, 50 Cent, who aptly walked out to “Hate Me Now.”
Fif hurdled through hits like “I Get Money” and “What Up Gangsta,” but he also played a few mixtape tracks, keeping fans on their feet. The most unexpected part of the evening happened next. Considering G-Unit’s now infamous break-up, it was a little surreal (and overwhelming by looking at the crowd), when Fif brought out Lloyd Banks, Tony Yayo and Young Buck on stage for their first group performance in years. The crew ran through a number of songs including, “On Fire,” “So Seductive” and (Ja Rule’s favorite), “I Smell P***y.”
We’re just scratching the surface though. Nicki Minaj then opened her set with “Monster,” before stringing along a few friends like Lil Herb for “Chi-Raq” and Soulja Boy for “Yasss Bish!” YMCMB’s first lady also performed live renditions of her recent singles “Lookin Ass” and “Pills N Potions.” And as hoped for, Drake indeed emerged on stage, but not before Nicki uttered the unbelievable. “It’s a n***a in Young Money, I don’t f**k with anymore — Drake. I used to love you, but I don’t love you no more.” No one really fell for that. Moments later, we all saw Drizzy on stage for “Worst Behavior.” The Barbz didn’t finish without Lil Wayne, who graced the stage with his presence before Drake wrapped up their set with his “Trophies” anthem.
Kid Ink, DJ Mustard, YG and Nipsey Hussle ended the night on a high note with the help of A$AP Ferg, who performed “Work” and his knocking “Shabba” track.
Iggy Azalea, Mack Wilds, Jhené Aiko, Childish Gambino and more played this year’s festival stage at Summer Jam 2014.
Peep the photo ops in the gallery on the following pages, Leave your thoughts in the comments.
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Photo: Hot 97/Makenten Petion/WENN/Instagram
