The hot July sun was directly overhead. Music fans that had poured into the SummerStage area were baking like bagels at two in the morning in your local bodega. The sun didn’t melt away anyone’s spirits though. The crowd was amped and ready to go as soon as the gates opened at 3:00.

The theme of this show was that no act had anything to do with the other! A DJ from London, an electronic group from Sweden, a pop band from Harvard, and a legendary Mcee from Queens. None of the acts were very similar, but at the end of the day, they were all making music for the people.

Little Dragon from Gothenburg, Sweden was up first. They do electronic grooves with various random percussion instruments. Lead singer Yukimi Nagano smashed gongs, beat the woodblock and shook some kind of tambourine stick in-between verses. Erik Bodin played mostly synthesized drums. Fredrik Källgren Wallin handled the bass while Håkan Wirenstrand brought the rest of the electronic vibe on keys. Some of their songs sounded kind of jazzy and some were dancey. The highlight was definitely when Nagano started convulsing during a tambourine solo and almost fell of the stage!

In-between all the sets, Benji B from London held it down on the digital turntables. Britain can’t handle the wax? It was almost unnecessary to fly this guy all the way in from England. He didn’t scratch and hardly even mixed. He mainly just played songs when he wasn’t arguing with the guy at the board to turn him up.

While the sets were getting changed I noticed a kid walk by with a skateboard. I remember thinking that was odd because there is a huge sign of what you can’t bring in to SummerStage, with skateboard at the top of the list. But when Michael Rapaport is your father and he’s got his skateboard too, I guess its okay. Rapaport walked by looking for the VIP section. It seems that he brought the whole family out for some Saturday music fun.

Chester French was the second act of the day. Although lead singer Andrew Wallach and guitarist Maxwell Drummey have been together since 2003, they are still relatively unknown. Their new album Love the Future and their free-to-download-online mixtape Jaques Jams, Vol. 1: Endurance are sure to change that. The mixtape has big callabos with Talib Kweli, Diddy, Jadakiss, Pharrell Williams, Jermaine Dupri, and Common.

They started with their first single off the Love the Future album – She loves Everybody. It’s a song about a girl that he loves. He know she loves him, yet its hard to believe because, “She loves everybody.” I loved this lyric – “I use protection/ Because she craves affection!”

They continued on with songs that had mostly the same kind of lyrics. One song was about MILFs and how, “No one will find out!” They remind me of Chromeo, but less electronic and more main stream pop. Wallach was trying desperately for some crowd interaction but he wasn’t quite in position to do so yet.

Q-tip on the other hand could have said, “Go get me a sandwich,” and everyone in the crowd would have run off and returned with a 12” hero. Q, accompanied by DJ Scratch, a bassist, guitarist, drummer and keyboard/saxophonist used his star power to get the crowd going. Starting with Shaka from 2008s The Renaissance, Q-tip found all kinds of ways of getting the crowd into it. Who wouldn’t want to do what he said when he’s rapping and dancing in a bright orange coat in 85 degree weather?

It wasn’t hard even hard when he did the old Tribe Called Quest joints like Oh My God and Electric Relaxation from 1993s Midnight Marauders or Scenario and Check the Rhime from The Low End Theory. Tip had everyone swaying side to side or doing the old Naughty By Nature “Hey . . . Ho!” while waving hands back and forth. He also kept having everyone throw up one finger for our fallen soldier J-dilla on one hand and another finger for Michael Jackson on the other.

Q-tip is an electric performer. Sometimes he would scream an, “Owwwww,” remininescent of Michael Jackson, after a verse. He never stopped bouncing and brought insane energy the whole show. During Midnight Marauder’s Sucka Nigga, he was vibing hard to a sick guitar and bass solo. The crowd was right with him, knowing every lyric, even when he took it all the way back to 1990 with Bonita Applebum from People’s Instinctive Travels and the Path of Rhythm.

The band did a great job covering the backup tracks. DJ Scratch only played the entire beat to a few songs. My personal favorite track by Q, Let’s Ride from his first solo album in 1999 Amplified, was executed perfectly by the guitarist. Find a Way from Tribe’s fifth album – The Love Movement, featured some cool singing of the chorus on a vocoder by the keyboardist. Perhaps the greatest element of having a full band as apposed to just a DJ came on We Fight/We Love off The Renaissance. The bass is sick in that song and Q’s bassist was playing it slap style. Q-tip, without any backup singers, sang the chorus, which is done on the album version by Raphael Saadiq. He’s no RnB star, but he can sing better than most Hip Hop guys. The fact that he’s willing to sing at all puts him on another level from Mcees that just yell into the mic.

After a long Tribe Called Quest detour, Q-tip got back on track with one of his most commercially successful joints – Vivrant Thing from Amplified. At the start of the song, the keyboardist hopped up grabbed his top piano, threw it over his kneck, and started shredding the riff keytar style! The crowd was dancing and singing along when Tip started rhyming, “Yo, Look at me . . . Yo, Look at Puff,” over and over again. Suddenly Diddy jumps up on the stage and shows off those Bad Boy dance floor pro moves. The females behind me were screaming and having a hissy fit! As if the whole thing were staged Q yells, “Freeze” and him, Diddy, and the band all stop right on point!

Puff ran off the stage and Q-tip remained frozen for like 45 seconds. Finally DJ Scratch let the record spin and on of the most classic Tribe joints Award Tour starts up to the absolute hysteria of the crowd. Even though they brought it back and started it over three times, the song was over too soon. The band walked off stage and the audience pleaded for more.

Finally DJ Scratch came back on and showed off his beat juggling skills, going behind the back, under the leg, and pulling a 360 while juggling Ante Up by MOP. Q-tip came back out to thunderous applause to do two more cuts off The Renaissance – Gettin’ Up and Life is Better. After introducing the crowd to his mom, Q was down in the crowd giving everyone a chance to sing the chorus.

People didn’t want to leave when it was over. After witnessing two up and coming bands and a truly legendary Hip Hop innovator, we were in a state of nirvana. I made my way for Columbus Circle with the old school raps of the Abstract Renaissance man dancing in my head.