WiLD 94.9’s WiLD Jam Review
Bay Area’s hit music station WiLD 94.9 showcased a variety of artists at its annual WiLD Jam held at SAP Center in San Jose on December 15th. The artist lineup brought fans from all ages to enjoy artists from different genres.
The show opened up with newly signed Republic Records artist SoMo, whose performance started with a cover of Ginuwine’s “Pony” and then sang a couple of his original songs including his hit single, “Ride.” SoMo brought the more sensual R&B sound to the show.
The Cali native quartet boys of Far East Movement got the crowd amped up and had everybody feeling “Fly Like a G6.” The group brought a surprise guest, Riff Raff a.k.a. Jody Highroller, to perform their song, “The Illest.” Their electronic dance and hip hop sound kept the high energy of the crowd out of their seats. They ended up leaving their fans on a “Rocketeer” journey.
Next in the lineup was another fellow Cali native, rapper Kid Ink who had everyone singing along to his hit songs including “Time of Your Life” and his latest smash “Show Me” which features Chris Brown. At the end of his set, he signed autographs for many lucky fans and gave away his own autographed hat.
To keep the hip-hop sound of the show going, newcomer Australian MC Iggy Azalea brought out her background dancers as she performed a few of her original songs including her debut single, “Work.”
It was time for a change in the mood of the music, in which the hosts of 94.9 brought out new R&B/pop princess Ariana Grande. More of the younger generation of fans in the building came out to see her perform. Plenty of fans brought posters to show their adoration for her music. Since Ariana’s friend Mac Miller was also in the lineup for the show, she brought him out to perform her debut single, “The Way.” She went on to perform a couple more songs from her Yours Truly album, including an acoustic version of “Honeymoon Avenue,” and a Christmas song to get the crowd in the holiday spirit.
East Coast hip-hop artist Mac Miller graced the stage again to perform some of his own hit songs. His performance gave the audience a preview of his digital-only album, Live From Space, (released that same week) which features songs in a live version. Miller helped get the crowd prepared for the show’s headliner, although he jokingly asked the WiLD 94.9 crew if he could perform more songs than scheduled.
J. Cole at WiLD Jam
Last but not least, it was time for the WiLD Jam headliner, one of the biggest names in hip-hop for 2013, Roc Nation artist J. Cole. The whole stage took a major change since Cole brought his full-band and background singers along for the set. The Born Sinner rapper performed songs from his latest album including, “She Knows,” “Power Trip” and “Crooked Smile.” He also took his fans back to when the world first knew Cole by performing hits from his Sideline Story album including, “Can’t Get Enough” and “Work Out.” WiLD 94.9’s WiLD Jam will always leave the recurring melody of showcasing artists from different genres to perform all on one stage.
