I'm so stoked, this is my first official Hip Hop show.
prepare to be underwhelmed.
hip hop concerts typically devolve into too much bass and the hype guys talking over the rappers. the only rap show i've seen that didn't fall into this was dr. dre's 'up in smoke tour'. and i've seen a loooooooot of rap concerts.
WakeOfAshesPosts: 21,665destroyer of motherfuckers
was dr. dre's 'up in smoke tour'. and i've seen a loooooooot of rap concerts.
:-? tell me more. I've never gone to a rap concert nor ever really wanted too. But if enemin or Dre had come around and one of my friends was like "dude go with me", I would have gone. What's it like?
was dr. dre's 'up in smoke tour'. and i've seen a loooooooot of rap concerts.
:-? tell me more. I've never gone to a rap concert nor ever really wanted too. But if enemin or Dre had come around and one of my friends was like "dude go with me", I would have gone. What's it like?
for the most part, hip hop concerts are nowhere near as calculated as rock shows. part of it is, of course, because half those dudes have never done it outside of their bedroom. the culture is completely different. they don't do shows to build hype, they release tapes. so, very easily, the first show of the tour is sometimes the first time they've been on stage in front of that many people. it doesn't help that since they aren't usually in the circle of touring/roadie help, that the people they bring out with them have little knowledge of how to hook up mics, equipment, etc for that size of hall. most of them have done little more than set up for a house party. then you have the crew. rappers love bringing their friends on tour with them and having them on stage even if they have nothing to do. these dudes somehow end up with microphones as well. the shows that i worked all had the same problems. there was never a tour manager who had final say, so they always deferred to other people who always had varying degrees of commitment to their responsibilities. the tour managers for hip hop tended to be more just dudes on cell phones, not middle-of-everything organizers like rock tours. there was never anyone around to let them know that they don't need the bass cranked to 11 all the time. what sounds good in a car isn't good in a hall with 2000 people, so the bass is always an issue. i mean, bass is an issue in rock shows as well. rock bands just don't often go overboard with it. but when you've got gobs of bass coming out of the speakers, there's not much room for much else. it makes the sound bad. then you add in the 5 dudes on stage with nothing to do but shout the key lines of the song and talk shit and...you've got a mess. now, with acts like eminem or ludacris that i've seen, they have other issues...mostly with the music itself. since few rappers use a live band, it's pretty much them rapping over pre-recorded music. this can make for awkward crowd interaction sometimes and virtally makes any sort of spontenaety moot. it basically turns into just the recorded song...fun right? dr. dre and eminem had it down, but i've seen a lot of others fail. even the wu-tang clan, who i love, had a show tjhat i saw where method man didn't show up until halfway through the set. instead of holding his songs for later, they just played recorded versions of his raps while the other guys performed their parts. fuckin' lame.
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hip hop concerts typically devolve into too much bass and the hype guys talking over the rappers. the only rap show i've seen that didn't fall into this was dr. dre's 'up in smoke tour'. and i've seen a loooooooot of rap concerts.
If they are both in Chicago because I know you both live by Chicago. Enjoy your time both of you.