Governor's Ball 2015 Recap

This weekend, Governor’s Ball was in full effect in New York City. While there were a few troubles within certain performances, most of the sets successfully shown growth from last year. The popular music festival boasted a lineup including Drake, The Black Keys, and Deadmau5 headlining the festival, but there were a plethora of acts that caught our attention as the three days flew by.

Day 1 of GovBall was filled with a dope set of performers, starting with an unfortunate surprise from Mississippi duo Rae Sremmurd. If you haven’t seen clips that’s currently flooding the internet, then you’re not hip about how their set ended. Pretty much, Slim Jxmmi was turning up to “Unlock the Swag”, and happened to fall in one of the stage lights. The set was cut short (no leg puns intended), but it’s good to know that he’s okay.

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Future kept the festival going by performing an hour later, but no other hip hop act performed on day one of the festival until Drake.

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The Canadian rapper didn’t disappoint, performing with an incredible amount of energy and background visuals to back up Drake’s lengthy catalogue of music. Drake’s set ended when he decided to perform the single“Know Yourself” off of his latest album If You’re Reading This You’re Too Late.

Close-up originally from DrizzyDrehk on Tumblr — Close-up originally from DrizzyDrehk via Tumblr

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If you wanted a bunch of rap performers on Day 2 of GovBall, you would be highly disappointed. However, there were a ton of performances that might have made it one of the best day out of the three, with some having very close ties to Hip Hop. For example, Rustie had a dope residency early on, and the man was on fire. From Danny Brown to Hudson Mohawke, Rustie blended both worlds of EDM and Hip Hop together effectively.

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Later on, Kiesza set was far better than many have expected. Equipped with two dancers, a drummer, and what seemed to be a Keyboard player/DJ. This singer’s performance gave off a real badass rock vibe with a pop-like essence.

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Up next was the highly anticipated Little Dragon. Did they need any costumes? Nope. What about insane visuals? Not really. The Swedish band provided fans with a set of dope tracks out of their catalogue from “Klapp Klapp” to “Ritual Union”, no gimmicks needed.

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Although there were an insane amount of artists to fulfill everyone’s needs, SBTRKT had to be one of the best performances that day if not the entire weekend. The London producer brought several artists to actually perform the songs that he worked with them for. That even includes bringing out Little Dragon for the popular hit “Wildfire”.

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On Day 3, Governor’s Ball ended with a bang. The day started out with New York rapper Bishop Nehru. The kid might be young, but he definitely brought that 90’s Hip Hop vibe to the festival.

Then, Chronixx & the Zincfence Redemption was on the Big Apple Stage. The Reggae collective supplied Randall’s Park with a radical sound of reggae that reminded you of legendary artists like Sizzla and Bob Marley.
Next up was Logic, the DMV rapper had a packed crowd at the Honda Stage, and he tore it up by dropping songs from his album Under Pressure to his earlier mixtapes. He even dropped a live freestyle in the middle of his set.

In the Gotham Tent, fans were blessed with the performance of Mayer Hawthorne. The singer had definitely killed his performance, play many songs from both his solo albums and singles from Tuxedo, Hawthorne’s duo with Jake One.

A-Track soon appeared at the Honda Stage, equipped with Heavy Bass, two huge screens, and trippy visuals. The Canadian DJ has built a reputation after winning several World DJ Championships for his insane scratching skills, and he sure showed people why he earned him during his set.

Finally, we ended our night with Flying Lotus. This Los Angeles producer has emerged as one of the leading new-age producers after working with stars like Kendrick Lamar and Erykah Badu. His performance was a trip through different visuals through a huge screen during his set.

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Although there were a couple of issues with speakers on different stages, Governor’s Ball was a success. The Festival continued to bring a diverse spectrum of artists to Randall’s Island for three days, while also brought together a diverse spectrum of people to give the GovBall life. With standards being higher every year for GovBall, we don’t know how big this festival can get from here.