Being away from the stage while recovering from an ankle injury sure hasn't slowed down Prof. Waiting for this show, since the announcement months ago, has been hard but was definitely worth the wait. Set outdoors between two of Minneapolis' great establishments, The Cabooze and Whiskey Junction, it supplied the perfect venue for his return. With a bill to satisfy, including up and comer Mally, well established acts like Evidence and the two brother tandem of SoulCrate Music. Prof had the crowd of 4,000 ready for him to come to the stage.
SoulCrate,one of the best underground acts in hip-hop, quickly impressed playing songs off their recently released album "Welcome Back From Wherever You've Been" - which was ranked #36 on iTunes Hip-Hop/Rap top albums charts within a week after release.One of the last songs' in the set was the best one they performed, "All Day", they use the chorus of the song to get the crowd into chanting along with them. The set being backed by Later Babes DJ trio, how can you go wrong?
The heat continued to rise on and off the stage through out the day; with the acts coming on one after another ,before you knew it, the time for Prof to take the stage had come. The "Get Cryphy" DJ group had the stage before Prof went on and they didn't disappoint. Mixing between beats from the early days of rap to the most recent releases they had the whole crowd jumping and ready for Prof to grace the stage.
Prof's return to the stage was nothing but exceptional, the noise was deafening and the wait was finally over. His set ranged from his brand new track "Zoo" to his most popular track "Animal". He brought several special guests to the stage with him, St. Paul Slim to do several tracks and Shambhala brought the heat as well. With "Animal" 20 people selected from the crowd were brought on stage to dance, shoot confetti and pump up the crowd. From there the set became much slower paced as his time on the stage began to dwindle. With a man in a giant balloon surfing the crowd at one point in the night this was surely not a show many attendees will forget anytime soon.
With the day finally over and a chance to reflect, I had an amazing time and even though I would have enjoyed some of Prof's older joints I can't say I would argue with his claim that "all my songs are fucking amazing".