rappers who still put on good shows/teh kanye rulz
mandrew
2,720 Posts
kanye last night at a t-mobile party... whereas most artists will typically do six songs in a half assed sort of way, yeezy ripped through about 20 of his hits with a backing string section underneath the palm trees and lovely la night sky. i don't mean to gush but the show was that good. what other rappers are still putting on good fun shows?
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now see that's what I'm talking about. these rappers need to start taking notes.
Other good shows I've seen:
Roots (obviously)
Beastie Boys
Common - seen some amazing shows and some pretty lackluster ones
I wanna check out Ghostface with his new backing band for sure.
Another thing is that these artists don't come out 2 hours after their scheduled set time.
Worst performer: 50 Cent
Yeah, he is horrible live. Only saw his live performances on tv(many times, though)..and it just really bad. Yet people in the crowd are always losing their shit(usually little thugged out suburban dumbasses, but still).
I saw Devin & the Coughee Brothaz over the wknd and that shit was outstanding. The group interaction was great (not dudes running around yelling) and it was a solid hour, mostly of Devin hits past and present. Rob Quest is awesome, looking forward to his solo. Dudes said that was the best reaction they'd gotten after 17 (I think?) dates which is pitiful, yawl oughta go check it out if you can.
Ghostface put on an excellent show a couple years ago, didn't know he was performing with a band now.
Was this in the Wilshire courtyard?
Yeah, dude had me very sold on him when I saw him live. The CD didn't do it for me until I saw it live. He [and the DJ crew] turned the small city of Lansing, MI out. It wasn't a packed house, but people didn't care... they just lost it, danced all night long.
If it were Detroit, I'd bet we'd front. Oh well... small markets rule.
That same night, I listen to Pase Rock propose to their tour manager about setting up a strip club tour. I had never seen someone so serious about anything in my entire life.
The rapper who surprises me with a tight show is Talib Kweli. I saw him at Suck The Bells and he rocked that puppy tough!
EPMD killed it on their tour w/ PUTS
thats what im saying, that cd is classic. It just feels like a dope concert all the way through.
Common: Amazing showman.
Kanye: Saw him before the second album dropped. It was just him and A-track. Shit was dope.
YUP.
And TOO SHORT, BEEEYITCH. Had a live band, called the women in the audience bitches, and they loved it, and (according to a witness) had women lined up at his trailer to give him head.
Me: "Man this is so awesome!"
Friend who is a lady: "Um, all he is doing is talking getting his dick sucked..."
Me: "Man this is so awesome!"
Something I've learned from the DJ Screw scene is that for all that's put on the slowed and chopped part of Screw music, the lyrical emphasis of Screw music may in fact be its most stunning characteristic. Of course the beats are meant to put you into an other-wordly trance, but move beyond that and you'll hear dudes like Pat, Keke, Moe, and ESG totally going off. And to those who might think of their raps as technically simple, you are simply missing the point entirely as the kicker to what SUC rappers are known for is their tendency to leave everything on the table. They go for theirs, they let it all hang out, they go for broke, however you want to put it. And that's a great, great thing that other more deliberate rappers may never fully know. And that's just what Screw fans love, the escapism of submerging every bit of your being into some abstract figment of inebriated poetic skill. If any of you were to go to the Lil Keke show tomorrow night here in Austin, or had gone to the Trae show a couple of weeks back, you could see this in action as Rapid Ric and Hella Yella spin the classics and the crowd hangs onto every word like its scripture.
Point being, there is a whole lot to say for a bunch of fools lounging around getting fucked up reciting verses from records only to have that same experience translate to a rapper on stage with the same, if not even more, punch. I mean, that's what a lot of us are in it for...to get our heads sprung by the music itself...not to become enamored with loose tangents and magician tricks.
Not to hate on Kanye, but I don't think a Z-Ro or Lil O should be in turn deemed inferior when it just might be another unfair compairson between apples and oranges.
Kanye-as-rockstar puts on a good show, but Kanye-as-rapper does as well... the best shit to me is the rapper or group and the DJ, knowing their set, taking their crowd seriously, and laying it down for real.
Now I stumbled into a club out here the other night and that group The Cool Kids were performing. Now please bear in mind I do not keep up on the hipsteur-rap circuit. So this act is new to me. And despite the faulty sound running off Microwave they killed it. Animated back and forth interaction, clear mic presence and a live DJ controlling the set. No tricks no gimmicks just good hip-hop. Thaswhatimtalwmbout.
I admit that even though that ain't really my kinda thing, they did do a good job when I saw them at a Price Paul show.
Seeing these dudes back in college was always a treat. UD always came with it live.
it was at a golf course clubhouse at griffith park. pretty unusual but no complaints. outdoors, good sound, small crowd, and the driving range was open!
he got that ambition baby look in his eyes
Early August--they played at the Downs. Everclear, Blues Traveler and Rabbit in the Moon were also there. It was a pretty nice show from the Wu though.
Agreed, but for an artist it's a double-edged sword. It's amazing when an MC and a DJ can captivate a crowd by themselves - no crowd theatrics, fancy lights, videos, anything. Really, nothing can top that kind of raw energy - every great live hip-hop show I have seen has been like this.
At the same time, do really grab an audience like that is so hard to do, especially when the audience isn't knowing how to get down at a hip-hop show, especially when the soundman can't make words sound intelligible. So many MCs/rappers don't know how to control a crowd - which I almost don't fault them for, because hell if I could really do it - but I think that's why a lot of artists hide behind some of the extra stuff.
Oh, and yes, Too Short is an amazing performer, as is E-40.
And I do wish DJs would mix at rap shows instead of punching that damn air-raid siren after every song.
Rakim
Ghost
Little Brother (yeah I said it, they're dope. They even do T-Pain and EWF covers)
I saw Q-tip a couple of weeks agi and he's DOPE.
Rakim was wild at Emo's last year.
I heart me some hip hop, but I can name about a dozen who do good live shows. As a poet who performs with live back up sometimes, it is a skill.
The thing that pisses me off about hip hop shows is the shortening of songs. When did that become a good idea?