Although I love going to hip-hop shows I vowed to never attend a 'Big rap Show' along time ago. By that I mean those all day hip-hop festivals were a bunch rappers perform and all that good stuff. Why you ask? It's simple: $$$$$$. Last time I attended one of those shows was in 2006, It was the We The People Festival. Don't get me wrong it was ill--Immortal Technique ripped it! But, for it being a revolutionary minded festival that was meant to uplift, inform and support underground hip-hop I sure did spend alot of money. $7 to take out money from the ATM. $5 can of Coke. Nasty $5 burrito. I don't mind spending the loot, if I have it, but there's something hypocritical about advocating revolution and denouncing capitalism then turning around and charging 5 bucks for a 75 cent soda. Coke no less.
Then there's the fans. Psycho Realm was performing that night and well, there were bunch of bald headed cholos. Needless to say, they weren't trying to hear all that revolutionary shit. While a clip of Maxine waters played on stage talking about hip-hop the crowd went crazy and started throwing shit on-stage.
Psycho Realm came up and all hell broke loose. My point is that when you have a diverse set of artists then the crowd will be diverse. I'm all for diversity but sometimes, at rap shows, I could do without it. That sounds kinda stupid and ignorant but...
Take the time I went to Rock The Bells for example. The year was 2005. I really wanted to see Nas that year and I got there early. The temperature was about 105 degrees so not alot of people were actually near the stage around the afternoon, which was cool for me because I got to see Guru, Sage Francis (heard him for the first time and blew my mind) and Hiero up close with no problem.
So nightime hit and Redman was supposed to be up. The crowd waited for him for an hour--he was in the back getting high and forgot.
If you were a Redman fan you would have loved the set. But, if you weren't ( and alot of people in the crowd weren't) then you were just killing time to see the next act. The crowd wasn't really hyped so Red decided to jump into the crowd. They didn't catch him. Dude was pissed and called the crowd boughi. Well, Red ended up winning the crowd over with a little help from his hypeman but, I was really dissapointed with the crowd. The knew Ill Biil's Lyrics but not Redman's?? Get the fuck outta here! Underground rap fans are really black and white...by that I mean they think if you dig a certain type of hip-hop then you can't dig another type. Maybe i'm just getting old and adjusting to the whole downloading thing but whatever.
At least I saw Nas rip it.
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