Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa’s High School Reunion tour is in full swing and they made a stop in the pacific northwest this weekend. The big Dogg and Wiz brought along some old friends to celebrate and reminisce. The crowd of over 15,000 at RV Inn Style Resorts Amphitheater came out to party west coast style.
DJ Drama was the first on stage kicking off some beats while trying to get the crowd hyped up. Instead of hyping up, the crowd seemed to be more into blazing up. There was a distinct haze throughout the venue before Drama’s set wrapped up.
Berner, Warren G, and Too $hort went through a rapid-fire handful of opening sets, with each artist having roughly 30 minutes on stage. Warren G played iconic tracks “This D.J.”, “Do You See” and his most recognizable song, “Regulate”. Too $hort also brought out some old school hits with “Blow the Whistle” , “The Ghetto”, and several verses of “Freaky Tales”. Each artist sounded incredible despite Warren G looking a bit winded on a couple tracks, and Too $hort using his phone as a teleprompter for his own song lyrics. Too $hort also took some time to unite the crowd under the west coast umbrella emphasizing that he’s from Oakland, but has much love for Portland’s Trailblazers and that “we all west coast.”
When Wiz Khalifa came on stage, he was smiling from ear to ear. Well, he was smoking, and smiling. But, his energy and charisma was palpable. Wiz had an aura that just made it feel like all 15,000 of us were just hangin’ with him in his living room sharing some stories and partaking in some medicinal herbology. Wiz’s setlist included hits “Black and Yellow” and “Or Nah.” But his message of unity was really felt through “Peace and Love.”
Snoop rolled out on stage in a prop Impala and when he exited the vehicle, even the young fans that weren’t there when all this west coast rap began knew they were in the presence of royalty. Flanking each side of the stage a pair of “hype girls” worked the pole while Snoop played all the old school gangsta tracks from back in the day as well as some of the newer pop tracks like “California Girls”, the Katy Perry collab. Death Row label-mate Lady of Rage even jumped on stage for a couple tracks which included “Afro Puffs”.
The East Coast/West Coast rivalry came to a head during the mid-90’s with the losses of two icons of the rap genre. Snoop paid homage to those greats, 2Pac and Biggie by playing “California Love” and “Hypnotize” demonstrating that rap is bigger than rivalries and that any beef on each side has long since been set aside.
This High School Reunion tour production is first-class and is a good initiation into some of the biggest hits of rap’s infancy and the artists that help bring it into the mainstream. Viewer/Listener discretion is advised.
