Editor’s Takeaways From Gov Ball 2019

Day One
You don’t get much respect if you say Kacey Musgraves is the artist you’re most excited to see, I learned on the way to Randall’s Island for the first day of Governors Ball 2019. After entering and passing a monument to the late Mac Miller, I headed to see the goofy, fun indie band Still Woozy. Dressed in a tacky, tucked-in white and blue t-shirt, lead singer and guitarist Sven Gamsky looked pretty much exactly how I thought he would.  He and his small but scrappy crew played hits like “Habit” and “Goodie Bag,” as well as a sweet cover of Mac Demarco’s “Still Beating.”
Next came Hippo Campus. It says a lot that, despite the talent that performed after them, it’s still their song “Buttercup” that’s playing in my head as a write this. I was worried they wouldn’t be as good on stage as in the studio, but these Minnesota rockers had their set locked down, playing songs from their new album Bambi as well as older ones like “Suicide Saturday” and “South.” In a similar fashion to Still Woozy, they struck me as being too big for their time slot; a feeling I would end up having about many of the smaller sets this weekend.

Sun Staff Takeaways from Gov Ball 2018

RANDALL’S ISLAND PARK, NY — Five minutes before Pusha T appeared on stage at the eighth annual Governors Ball on Randall’s Island, a teenager no older than 17 turned to me and remarked matter-of-factly, “This guy wasn’t relevant until a week ago.”

As someone who grew up first on the sounds of Clipse and the Neptunes and later on Kanye West’s GOOD Music collective, the idea that the Daytona rapper was ever “irrelevant” just didn’t make sense to me. Under-recognized or underrated? Perhaps, but Push has been one of the most important rappers in the industry for the past two decades, even if his bars about drug dealing never stormed the charts. And yet, just one week into relevancy, Pusha T’s mere presence was enough to inspire thousands of concertgoers to break out into several spontaneous “Fuck Drake” chants before and throughout the set. In just one week, he had gone from being your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper to slayer of the decade’s most dominant man in music, the “Hotline Bling” king Aubrey Drake Graham.

Top 10 Albums By Gov Ball 2018 Artists

This year, I am proud to say that The Sun will be covering Gov Ball 2018. Check out our list of favorite albums by this year’s performers:

 

1. Khalid — American Teen

Khalid’s debut album American Teen is vibrant and portrays the beauty of youth and hope. On the album, Khalid speaks from the heart about his life. He discusses love and relationships, experimenting with drugs, parents, parties and establishing himself in an uncertain society (all common daily thoughts and experiences of the American teen).