House of Music

Various Artists

Golden 1 Center

Sacramento, CA

December 11th, 2021

Photos and Review by Alexander Andrade

For the first time in my music photography career, I was able to cover a big venue concert that included with artists I have been a fan of since growing up. The line-up for the event in order included J.J. Fad, N2Deep, Xzibit, Baby Bash, Fabolous, Fat Joe, and well known bay area artist E-40. I was super stoked when I found out E-40 and Baby Bash were in the line up because they were always on my music playlist. Also the fact that this was my first big concert venue! Although, it was a bit challenging because each artist had a set between 10-15 minutes due to amount of performers, That only allowed me 1 minute per artist to capture photos.

The Heart of Hip Hop Holiday Jam show started off with group J.J Fad by coming out on stage dancing away to their famous hit song “Supersonic”. To my surprise, the whole arena went crazy! J.J Fad made the crowd hyped by also rapping to song “Eeenie Meenie Beats”. If I am going to be honest, I was in shock to see the group still being able to rap at a fast pace. With a set of only 10 minutes, they did a great job warming up the crowd. The second act was followed up by N2Deep which also had about 10 minutes. I have never heard of the group before, but I must say, the rap group gave off a relaxing and groovy mood. The way I can describe it is closing you eyes and just dance away! As these acts wrapped up, I started to get excited because my favorite artists were about to hit the stage!

The rest of the night was just incredible. The remaining acts of the event left were Xzibit, Baby Bash, Fabulous, Fat Joe, and E-40. If I go into detail with each artist, I will be typing all night. So, I will keep this short. Whatever energy the opening acts gave off, times that by two when they hit the stage. The whole night felt like I was back to my middle school days. Especially when Baby Bash was sing “Suga Suga” and “Baby, I’m Back”. However, when I tell you when E-40 hit the stage, it was a wrap. E-40 still knew had to pump up the crowd and was drinking was seemed to be hard liquor. You know what’s funny? With each shot E-40 took, he seemed to be more energetic. It was like it fuel throughout the entire act! Baby Bash also had a similar situation but with marijuana.

The promoters of the event, V101.1, put together an amazing concert. It was great to see the crowd get engaged with the arrtists the entire show. I wish there more time between the acts, but everyone had a great time!