The second day of Phillips Backyard’s “TILT” Music Festival was one for the books. The day 2 lineup featured a range of Rap and R&B all day, which included Teon Gibbs, Liinks, SonReal, Flyana Boss, and a headlining set by Jessie Reyez. With the temperature clocking in at an insane 29 degrees, festival goers were busy staying cool while also enjoying an incredible day of music. With the sun scorching and the sounds even more hot, let’s review the day!
The day started with Vancouver’s Teon Gibbs. With new music coming out in July, Teon performed a solid opening set. During the set, he kept the energy alive as fans began to enter the gate. From there, local favorites Liinks were up to crush their set. Georgia and D Whiz continued to keep the energy going for the Phillips Backyard crowd with their bars and sound. Another really solid day of opening acts and it reminded me how lucky we are to live in the musically talented Pacific Northwest.
SonReal made his way to the stage next. During his set, he experiences a few technical issues due to not having a soundcheck. With these delays taking longer than normal, Sonreal took it into his own fans to give the crowd a show and decided to play acoustic versions of his songs. According to him, some of these songs he never played acoustic before. The risk paid off as these were some great songs and it the sound crew some time to recheck their equipment. Even with the few delays, it was still a great set. We then moved on to rap duo, Flyana Boss. To start, their DJ played an incredible mix of Jersey Club to get the crowd pumped up. If there was any highlight from the day for me, it would be this because I never hear Jersey Club enough at festivals, so hats off to her. Then the duo arrived on the stage for party set unlike any other. The vibes these two were bringing was perfect. While I think their set was good, they lost me in the end with their cover/sample of Bohemian Rapsody. I guess it’s fine that it’s their song, but it was getting too close to a singalong for me.
Jessie Reyez was up to close the second day of music at Phillips Backyard. Performing her classic catalog left fans singing every word. Jessie’s fans were some of the first festival attendees on the site and they had stayed at the front the entire time. In this heat, I’d consider that devotion. It got a little emotional for Victorians during her set, as she paid tribute to Dylan Willows while performing “Figures”. She had the crowd shine their phone lights as she held a shirt from the Dylan Willows Celebration show which took place this past March. She mentioned that she didn’t know him, but the thought of paying respects to someone we lost recently is such a class act. Jessie gave an iconic performance and was even joined by SonReal for a song! A truly proper way to end day 2 of TILT.
Rap at summer festivals have slowly been making a decline, but if this day showed me anything, it’s that the genre is still going strong. For a town that isn’t very used to the genre as a whole, the music was appreciated and the party was felt throughout the festival grounds. It’s crazy to think that we are already moving to the final day of the festival, but I can already sense that this will as great as the rest of the festival we have already witnessed.
