San Francisco’s Outside Lands music festival for 2023 concluded on a sex-positive, hip-hop-heavy note — namely due to Meghan Thee Stallion taking Golden Gate Park by the neck.
Sunday at Outside Lands is always a strange experience. The badge of enzymes and proteins we carry around — what we like to call our bodies — are exhausted, begging for some semblance of rest. We’ve had more than our fair share of beers at this point; the amount of money spent on festival food is not regrettable… it’s just alarming. At times, it feels like we’re retracing the very same bootprints we left in the now-deepening mud made Saturday.
.@theestallion brought hot girl summer to golden gate park
📸: @AliveCoverage pic.twitter.com/Q2CNCtj9O7
— Outside Lands (@sfoutsidelands) August 14, 2023
Nevertheless, we persisted. And it was clear hip-hop dominated Sunday at OSL this year.
(Though the sets from ODESZA and The 1975 were fantastically adequate, it was the earlier rap superstars who really shined the brightest on the last day of this year’s OSL festival.)
Lil Yachty has remained an enigmatic, psychedelic force since he emerged onto the music scenes of El Paso and Brooklyn — a geographical combination that played a role in his coastally agnostic work. Lil Yachty is introspective and frivolous; grounded in reality and atop an imagined mountaintop; he defines what it means to be a multi-faceted human.
Houston-based rapper Tobe Nwigwe is an enigma wrapped in a riddle. But as mysterious as his persona might be, there’s no denying the strong impact his work, including viral hits like “I Need You To (Breonna Taylor Tribute)” and “Try Jesus, ” has on our collective culture. Even former First Lady Michelle Obama has his songs on her workout playlist.
When Meghan Thee Stallion, a.k.a the official Hot Girl Coach, began running through a long list of hits at Land End at 6 p.m. — far too early, tbh — it was clear she was the moment that day. Her energy was unparalleled as the “Body” rapper belted out one breathless hook after another.
By the time she came to a close, Hot Girl Summer began to dip into a familiar foggy San Francisco evening… but not before the present crowd took notes from the Hot Girl Coach herself.
The Best Thing You Can (Still) Eat from OSL Day One: Pink Onion Pink Alarm Fire Pizza
In a full circle moment, our last day at OSL culminated in another pizza delicacy — this time from the Southern Italian restaurant located at 64 14th Street. The perfectly cupped pepperonis on our slice were *chef’s kiss* and it was a sufficiently sized slice to fill us up before walking the festival grounds.
The only thing wrong? We regret not getting a slice of the magic mushroom pie — mushroom, prosciutto, white sauce, truffle oil — too.
Feature image: Courtesy of Alive Coverage
