Paid Dues was an annual
hip hop festival
A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival c ...
that took place in
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
, until the summer of 2006, when it was announced that the festival would travel to multiple locations. The last festival took place in 2013.
Paid Dues was an event presented by Murs 3:16 in association with
Guerilla Union
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run tac ...
.
On March 11, 2006 the first Paid Dues festival sold out, with over 5,000 concert goers packing the Shrine Expo Center in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
. The line-up for the Paid Dues 2006 Festival included the debut live performance from
Felt
Felt is a textile material that is produced by matting, condensing and pressing fibers together. Felt can be made of natural fibers such as wool or animal fur, or from synthetic fibers such as petroleum-based acrylic or acrylonitrile or wood ...
(
Murs
Murs may refer to:
People
* Marc Athanase Parfait Œillet des Murs (1804-1878), French ornithologist
* Olly Murs (born 1984), English singer-songwriter
* Murs (rapper) (born 1978), American rapper
Places
* Murs, Indre, France
* Murs, Vaucluse, ...
of
Living Legends Living Legend(s) may refer to:
Film and television
* "The Living Legend", a 1978 episode of ''Battlestar Galactica''
* "Living Legend" (''CSI''), a 2006 episode of ''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation''
* ''Living Legend'' (audio drama), an audio d ...
and
Slug
Slug, or land slug, is a common name for any apparently shell-less terrestrial gastropod mollusc. The word ''slug'' is also often used as part of the common name of any gastropod mollusc that has no shell, a very reduced shell, or only a smal ...
and
Ant
Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cretaceous period. More than 13,800 of an estimated total of 22 ...
of
Atmosphere
An atmosphere () is a layer of gas or layers of gases that envelop a planet, and is held in place by the gravity of the planetary body. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A s ...
).
Paid Dues Festival 2006
Paid Dues Festival 2007
Paid Dues Tour 2007
Following the success of the second annual PAID DUES festival in Southern California promoters MURS 3:16 in association with Guerilla Union (
Rock The Bells
Rock the Bells was an annual hip-hop festival that originally took place in Southern California only, but has since toured throughout the world. The concert featured a line-up of high-profile alternative hip-hop artists, often headlined by a mor ...
, Cypress Hill's Smokeout) have announced they will tour.
"The national touring of PAID DUES is a dream come true. It’s what I had in mind when I first brought the idea to
Guerilla Union
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run tac ...
--something like a
Warped tour
The Warped Tour was a traveling rock tour that toured the United States plus three or four stops in Canada annually each summer from 1995 until 2019. It was the largest traveling music festival in the United States and the longest-running touring ...
for underground hip-hop, where my friends and I could be outside in the daylight enjoying summer with our fans instead of cramped up in some dark smelly nightclub worried about staying up too late and being too tired for work the next morning,” states MURS. “It also provides a safe and comfortable environment in which the younger fans can be introduced to a proper live
hip-hop show."
PAID DUES hit over 10 major markets across the country. It will pass through various sized venues ranging from 1,000 to 40,000 capacities. In
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
(July 28 and 29) and
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
(August 11), PAID DUES will merge with the
Rock The Bells
Rock the Bells was an annual hip-hop festival that originally took place in Southern California only, but has since toured throughout the world. The concert featured a line-up of high-profile alternative hip-hop artists, often headlined by a mor ...
festivals featuring headliners
Rage Against the Machine
Rage Against the Machine (often abbreviated as RATM or shortened to simply Rage) is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1991, the group consists of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim Commerfor ...
and the
Wu-Tang Clan
Wu-Tang Clan is an American hip hop group formed in Staten Island, New York City, in 1992. Its original members include RZA, GZA, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, U-God, and Masta Killa. Close affili ...
.
Paid Dues Festival 2008
Paid Dues Tour 2008
Paid Dues Festival 2009
Paid Dues Festival 2010
Paid Dues Festival 2011
Paid Dues Festival 2012
On the afternoon of December 13, 2011, Murs once again hosted a live chat session on uStream to announce the headliners for the next edition of the Paid Dues Festival:
Wu-Tang Clan
Wu-Tang Clan is an American hip hop group formed in Staten Island, New York City, in 1992. Its original members include RZA, GZA, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, U-God, and Masta Killa. Close affili ...
and
Odd Future
Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All, better known as Odd Future and often abbreviated as OF, was an American Hip hop music, hip-hop Musical collective, music collective formed in Los Angeles County, California in 2007. The original members were Ty ...
topped the bill, with more acts announced leading up to the festival. It continued the annual tradition by once again taking place at the NOS Events Center in San Bernardino, CA.
*Grind Time Battles
*Dirtbag Dan v. Isaac
*Jonny Storm v. Real Talk
Paid Dues Festival 2013
See also
*
List of hip hop music festivals
The following is an incomplete list of hip hop festivals, which encapsulates music festivals focused on hip hop music or other elements of hip hop culture. Hip hop music, also called rap music,Encyclopædia Britannica article on rap, retrieved ...
*
Hip hop culture
Hip hop or hip-hop is a culture and art movement that was created by African Americans, Latino Americans and Caribbean Americans in the Bronx, New York City. Hip hop culture is characterized by four key elements: rapping, DJing and turntablis ...
References
External links
Rock The Bells - Official WebsiteGuerilla Union - Official WebsitePaid Dues - Official WebsitePaid Dues Festival 2011 - Review/Photos
{{Hip hop festival
Music festivals in California
Hip hop music festivals in the United States
Concert tours
Music festivals established in 2006