GZA at the Heineken House
One of the best cameos we saw on Saturday wasn’t on a big stage eating an intro from one of the headliners. Watching GZA from three feet away at the Hieneken House at 8:30 p.m.–that was where you needed to be on Saturday. Most press folks got the notification he was headlining the new indoor lounge area 15 minutes before he took the stage. Hardly anybody had a clue he’d be following LA beat scene royalty Gas Lamp Killer and Thundercat, who gave some rad performances on their own. But there he was, The Genius–killing it Shoalin style for a 30-minute set that drawing heavily from Liquid Swords. And of course, he had to go ahead and drop a few verses of “Shimmy Shimmy Ya,” an obligatory ode to Ol’ Dirty Bastard that felt just right–considering we all felt like dirty bastards any way at that point of the night.
-Nate Jackson