An astonishing tale of wackness, starring Ghostface Killah and two irate fans: Part 1, Part 2. N.B.: I love Ghostface's records, but I saw him live in '07 and while it wasn't as bad as the debacle described in those two blog posts, it was kinda just okay in typical hip-hop show fashion: doing only the first verse of a son; lines being drowned out by the nineteen other guys on the stage, each with his own mic; incoherent between-song rambling...you get the idea. To this day the only hip-hop performers I've ever seen give genuinely strong onstage performances were Public Enemy in '88 and '90, Ice-T in '91 and '92, and DJ Krush in 2005. PE and Ice-T delivered tight, disciplined sets with no rambling, no extraneous personnel onstage, and a genuine effort to engage the audience not with bluster, but with real commanding presence and charisma. They didn't half-ass it. Krush didn't half-ass it, either, but his set was very different, obviously - an almost entirely instrumental performance (plus vocal cameos by Mr. Lif and Aesop Rock) that mixed expert turntablism with live piano, saxophone and shakuhachi. Brilliant, hypnotic stuff.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
THE CHAMP? NOT SO MUCH
An astonishing tale of wackness, starring Ghostface Killah and two irate fans: Part 1, Part 2. N.B.: I love Ghostface's records, but I saw him live in '07 and while it wasn't as bad as the debacle described in those two blog posts, it was kinda just okay in typical hip-hop show fashion: doing only the first verse of a son; lines being drowned out by the nineteen other guys on the stage, each with his own mic; incoherent between-song rambling...you get the idea. To this day the only hip-hop performers I've ever seen give genuinely strong onstage performances were Public Enemy in '88 and '90, Ice-T in '91 and '92, and DJ Krush in 2005. PE and Ice-T delivered tight, disciplined sets with no rambling, no extraneous personnel onstage, and a genuine effort to engage the audience not with bluster, but with real commanding presence and charisma. They didn't half-ass it. Krush didn't half-ass it, either, but his set was very different, obviously - an almost entirely instrumental performance (plus vocal cameos by Mr. Lif and Aesop Rock) that mixed expert turntablism with live piano, saxophone and shakuhachi. Brilliant, hypnotic stuff.
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2 comments:
i saw run d.m.c. in 1984 and 1985 and they f*cking killed it both times...
Their live rep was always pretty sterling; I never got to see them, though. I've also heard really good things about KRS-ONE's live shows.
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