hype men
sonofsam
680 Posts
hype men are the worst thing to happen to rap performances ever (imo), and the fact that EVERY artist has at least one on stage with them these days keeps me from even considering going to shows, even when it is somebody i really like... i was hoping some real headz would know the deal (phill most?) and shine some light on this matter for me... what started this practice?... who was the first rapper to have a hype man?... at some point there must have been some good ones since it became so popular, who were the good ones?... do these guys get paid, or do they just get to come along and get groupie seconds?... does anyone here think hype men are a good idea?... i'm not talking about flava flav or somebody that actually had a role in the album, just no name dudes who yell and finish the rapper's sentencesi need a better understanding of this phenomenon 
Comments
i haven't followed hip-hop too closely for a little while now, but another thing that is growing seriously tired is Hooks. Its not even just songs that are down and out from the get go, decent verses come through and then, "Damn, what am i gonna do for this 20 seconds here..no vocal samples? Oh man, lemme just nursery rhyme this little party joint." Anyone with me here? (Don't want to take away from the hype man replies / retorts).
But yeah, they do generally ruin rap shows these days. Usually the entire stage is covered with dudes.
...I like it when a local no-name act has a half a dozen hype men that know all the words, which they will mouth enthusiastically like he's saying some really major schitt.
LOL! That is every local rap show in the country! Comedy mayne.
Don't forget the one guy chronicling the historic event on video.
Haha... I remember that well from my days of actually attending live rap shows.
I always wanted to ask "Do you really think you're going to sit down and watch this at some point? I mean, really?"
That reminds me of an observation my roomate and i always have about bands that we have had to sit through while he's waiting to do a set. Rock dudes, with guitar straps hanging to their ankles, jumping around, flicking a cigarette offstage (yeah i am serious), etc all during the first song. There is no one in the bar so it's not like the energy of the room is possessing these guys and they are getting lost in their musical moment. Oh, and there's about 12 people in the room, 6 of them are me and the rest of my roomate's band.
Anyway, our question is...is that part of how you practice? Like, once everyone learns the song-is it? "Ok Danny, you flick your cigarette offstage, then Mike you do that spin and kick thing while i stand on the monitor and peer out at the crwod." ????
Same goes for the local hip hop statement (which made me laugh a little too out loud for this office i guess). i think part of it is the mysticism of getting put on or someone blowing you up off of one performance. In a way i see these guys as helpful in trying to get their boy's stuff out there (so they can ultimately be the next, "Yeah that's my boy...wanna see his dressing room?")....but you stil have to wonder how much premeditated nonsense goes into this.
Are any strutters a hype man for their homeboy?
example: (and cashless has even better stories for this)
years ago we brought Ras Kass down to do a show. Dude had 2 others with him (mgr & hype man). In dealing with dudes, you knew he just wanted a running mate while he was in town (lookin for p*ssy and such). It's not like Ras Kass had chorus after chorus that needed add'l backing vocals. And the idea of more than 2 people rappping "nature of the threat" at one time would likely explode most peoples
backpackersheads.in short, i think rappers are lonely and needs hugs. that's why they have hype men.
either that or they feel its much less likely to recieve boo's from the crowd if 11 dudes are on stage and may kick your ass for calling them out.
Flavor Flav(perhaps the epitome of a real hype man)
Sen Dog
Bushwick Bill
fuzzy jones
&
jackie knockshot
naw dibi dibi
and a security net.
MR DYNAMITE! MR PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE! THE HARDEST WORKING MAN IN SHOW BUSINESS! JAMES BROWN![/b]
A few years ago there was a 50 Cent show at the Paramount Theater, downtown Seattle. This was when the "Get Rich" LP was new and people were crazy about 50. He had sold out the venue for 2 days. The hommie Skillz was opening so I went to the show with him, his DJ (who was Fusion at the time) and tour manager Rodney. We got to the venue and there was a line up the block and kids were buggin' out. We head down to the stage and just before Skillz is about to go on he hands me his video camera and asks me to record his set. So I was that guy recording the show on video. LOL! Skillz hit the stage by himself with no hype man and put on a good show. Skillz actually watched the video in the dressing room as soon as his set was over. It was the first night of him opening on the tour and he wanted to see the crowd???s reaction to the set.
Now to the hype man part of the story! 50's entourage was STUPID! Dude rolled in with like 40 guys from Queens and MAD security. A bunch of these guys from Queens were just straight up thugs and had no reason at all to be on the tour, they were just his "crew." 50 actually had professional security people with him. Dudes in suits and ties with little speaker earphones in their ear just like the secret service! LOL. 50 Cent comes onstage and it is him, Whoo Kid and 15 other guys! I'm sure Banks and Yayo were among the group, but I did not know who they were at the time. At least half of these guys had mics and yelled non stop throughout the performance. They had no stage sets, no backdrop, no dancing girls, nothing. Just the 17 of them onstage and they were all wearing bullet proof vests. Whoo kid had one little riser he stood on and had 2 instant replay machines loaded up with all the songs and a bunch of gunshot sounds. No turntables, no records, no CDJs, nothing. Imagine 15 guys yelling "G G G G G G-UNIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" all night.
spliff star. i started a conversation with him outside of a club and commented on busta's ride, which was right in front of us (some huge suv). spliff informed me that i could get the same one if i maintained good credit.
Did he break down for you the significance of credit scores and the dangers of predatory lending?
Don't make me throw in The 2 Bigg MC...
He was the DJ...
So it's like when basketballer players review game tape.
I think I'm gonna pay somebody to follow me with a video camera through the street as I spit crazy game to the ladies of midtown Manhattan on my lunch hour -- then I spend the evening reviewing Game Tape, to see where I can tighten up.
Well, I would give it to flav... But seriously. I think he was just as much a hype man as a DJ.
I didn't goto another run dmc show after 94, but of the 5 that I went before that date, he was the dude always hyping up the crowd. And did it with class.
i recently (grudgingly) djed a local rap event as a favor to a friend... these were mostly dudes in their late teens or early 20s i would guess... every single one of the acts that performed had a hype man!... at the end of the night i realized that there wasn't anybody in attendance that didn't appear on the stage at some point, and there was only like 5 names on the flyer
the other disturbing thing that almost all of them did (which i have seen/heard of a lot of famous rappers doing) was yell shit like "yo soundman, turn my shit up" or "fuck the soundman"... there was no "soundman", i plugged my set up into the club's shitty mixer... the club really wasn't equipped for any type of performance, there was just 2 or 3 shitty speakers, the shitty mixer, and a shitty cd player
to tie the two together, the last act, which consists of 2 dudes, came on the stage 9 deep!... 7 fucking hype men... no record, no video, absolute nobodies in the music industry, but they have 7 fucking hype men!... they came up to me and asked "where are the rest of the mics?"... i told them there were only 3, and they flipped out, saying they weren't going to perform, so i was like cool, and dropped a record... then they were like, "ok, ok we'll do it"... the lack of mics didn't stop the other 6 dudes from staying on the stage and yelling the lyrics though... they talked a lot of shit about "the soundman" ruining their show... that was about it for my local rap show dj career
haha. Live hip hop bands are hands down THE WORST EVAR. a) they suck. b) they suck c) they don't bring anyone who doesn't have plans to "get on the mic" and d) they don't buy drinks let alone tip. The last time I did sound for some of these jokers it took me 20 mins to realise that yelling "mic check" over and over is just some shit they learned from TV and they think it's an important part of freestyling. And did I mention how much they suck?
Yo, turn my headphones up.
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i draw a fine line between a hype man and a backup mc. in my books hype men are the dudes who spend the whole set just plain screaming and yelling the name of what ever crew/click/posse/whatever they might be "representing", making shoutouts to friends and and trying to get their voice heard by any means necessary, even if it means shouting into the mic like a rabid chimpanzee over the main artist. this usually ends up badly as everything the crowd can hear is absolute gibberish. comprehending whatever mad lyrics the artist may have - you can forget it. i can't even imagine what a pain in the ass 20-man entourage on the stage is for the soundman who's trying to keep the whole set together.
backup mc's on the other hand are on stage for certain practical reasons. to easen
the job of the main artist a little, easening breath control, bringing that little something to hooks and so on. pretty much the same why rappers double some of their rhymes on album. if the set is any longer than say, half an hour, it gets physically hard and tiring to perform if it's just one man show. add one backup mc, the set gets a bit more interesting and a bit more easier to the main artist to perform.
i agree tho, those shows where there's basically more people onstage than in the crowd are definitely not a good look.