Eminem's 'rapture' Festival Photo Recap

You may have noticed through our Facebook updates that we got along to the Rapture festival in Melbourne last week, which featured Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, J Cole and Action Bronson. It ain't just the free wine and canapés talking when we say it was an absolutely mad comfy night, with dozens of hits, Pirus and Crips getting along and some memorable/disturbing crowd-generated entertainment too. Local boys 360 and Pez got the soiree started, but Pez was soon dispensed of (Get it? Cleverrr) and Sitty rifled through his pop joints, which the crowd were definitely digging. He continued the curious Australian rapper tradition of wearing his artist pass around his neck – was he worried security would pull him off stage because he looked like he didn't belong with all the rap gods? Own that stage bruh bruh, be confident and no one will question you.
Next up was Action Bronson. He took home the award for best shoe game, repping a pair of Sneaker Freaker x New Balance 998 'Tassie Devils' in his very unique way – tongue popped up to the clouds with laces as loose as a mongoose. He blitzed through some bangers, blazed up and should have won a stack of new fans. J Cole was dope too, but he was overshadowed by the babe geniuses in the background singing backups and slinging synchronised dance moves. Cole also seemed to struggle to maintain personal balance, falling back and forwards in jagged jolts but never falling over. It was a quite an impressive skill, actually. He finished off with his biggest hits and although the sound mix was a bit muddy, plenty of peeps singing along made up for it.
The show got even better when Kendrick skipped onto centre stage in a juicy pair of Nike Flyknit Chukkas (shoes can be juicy) – they may not be the Cortez he vowed only to wear, but we all know we would have got sick of that fashion code pretty quick too. Kendrick subbed out a few syllables here and there in his rhymes to add extra badass emphasis to the ones that mattered, but I still wish he had a go at replicating his rapid fire flow from his albums, even though it would have left him a little short of breath.
Eminem certainly had no problems with fast talking in his set. And despite the incredible lineup, it was obvious most folk were really there for Master Mathers. Decked out in a pair of Nike SneakerBoots, Em truncated a few of his hits so he could provide a delicious buffet that wouldn't disappoint anyone, and a deafening bomb sample was dropped every fifteen minutes to wake anyone nodding off the hell up. Eminem has never been slept on though and his performance, and the whole night, was turtally elite. Thanks to Dainty for sending us along, and our grandest compliments to our gurl on the inside, Michelle Grace Hunder, who is entirely responsible for the incredible photos (except for the Eminem shot, taken by Jeremy Deputat) in the gallery above. Enjoy!
By Bones Lawley