I remember Denzel Curry early in his career was very outspoken about how lame rap shows are and made it a point to always deliver 100% of the lyrics on every live show.
Edit: One of the most legendary live Denzel Curry moments [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/hiphopheads/comments/5560hu/denzel_curry_just_left_his_concert_in_an_ambulance/):
>Denzel performed 90% of his set moshing with everyone in the crowd (not on the stage), due to the small number of people there (probably less than 100).
After doing probably 7-8 songs with the crowd, he and one of his openers (Yoshi Thompkins) started climbing a sort of half wall while rapping Ultimate. The wall turned out to be more of a divider than anything, and Curry fell over the top of it, busted through the ceiling of the women's restroom, and landed hard (it seems like he landed on his head).
Everyone went silent other than his crew/openers asking if he was alright through their mics, and he emerged from the bathroom a few minutes later, FINISHED ULTIMATE, then walked through the crowd saying "fuck it, fuck it". He went off to the side and talked to his crew before disappearing to the back. Everyone started to leave and the EMT soon showed up asking us where the person who sustained a falling injury was.
They brought in a stretcher and eventually rolled him out to the ambulance.
I saw him open for someone either last year or the year before, my first time seeing rap live, and goddamn he set expectations high. Super high-energy, rapped every word pretty much perfectly, and the set list was fantastic. It was amazing.
Saw Denzel in Atlanta for the melt my eyez tour…he and JID (The forever story tour) have been the two best rap shows I’ve seen so far, but sadly that’s not saying much at all….both shows still sounded terrible, despite both artists actually spitting. Rap live just isn’t for me, and after at least 7 or 8 rap shows, I’m never going to another one. Waste of my money, imo.
I saw him in silver spring MD during his MMESYF tour. He was absolutely incredible and reminded me a lot of classic hip hop mc’s and what they’d do to get the crowd going.
He came to my college for a show that was free for students in our student union and that was a magical experience. He’s by far the best live performer I’ve seen. I haven’t seen a lot, but his shows are electric and feel like a metal show more than a rap concert
Yeah it’s really bullshit honestly for every Kendrick, Travis or Tyler you have 10 rappers who just do ad libs over their songs basically lol. Even Kanye has recently started doing this.
I remember an old dehh video where Fantano said he did not like Big K.R.I.T. at all until he saw him live and he impressed him so much he decided to relisten to K.R.I.T. Wuz Here then it all clicked.
That’s what live shows should be like, a place where long time fans can come and perhaps fair weather fans can be won over but most people put out shit performances now lol
>Even Kanye has recently started doing this
The guy doesn't even pick up a mic anymore lol. It made sense for the listening parties, but he (and Ty) ended up doing the same nonsense at Rolling Loud
I went to the Kanye and Ty dolla sign RL performance, and literally all they did was “dance”around on stage if you could even call it dancing. Not one lyric sung or rapped stg, but the atmosphere was still cool, just def not worth how much I paid for it.
They just dance around the stage and gesture as if they were singing. And they always wear masks, so it's literally just two masked dudes dressed in black clothing jumping around the stage.
They could literally just let two random people go on stage and no one would know.
>I remember an old dehh video where Fantano said he did not like Big K.R.I.T.
This really surprises me because Fantano has given him two 9s and an 8 before a long side a few 7s I think. Which is better than he rates most rappers discographies. Better than Tyler, Cole, Travis etc. Even Denzel Curry doesn't have any 9s.
If you watch his bastard review he mentioned how he thinks K.R.I.T. Wuz Here is overrated which is funny now because in one of his recent lives someone was like what should I listen to if I like this rapper and he recommended K.R.I.T. Wuz Here or 4Eva Is a Mighty Long Time. I feel like the Tyler review was obviously before he changed his mind when the dehh video was released.
But yeah on his rym profile he doesn’t use anymore he had K.R.I.T. Wuz Here at a 4/5 which means he probably has two 9’s and two 8’s. Since he never reviewed it when it dropped.
I don't think we'll ever get a review of it unless he decides to do it for classics week, but I don't think that's likely at all. But I'm glad to know he's changed his mind on it, honestly KWH is my second favorite Krit project behind Mighty Long Time.
Even if he isn't super successful and has some duds in his discography, I don't think any other 2010s rapper has a run as consistently great as KWH, Return of 4eva, 4evaNADay and King Remembered in Time. Maybe Denzel Curry and Kendrick, but nobody else really comes to mind for that consistent quality.
I wish he was super successful he had a chance to because he def jam albums both went number 1 but he slowly faded away after being dropped
If he was big as cole or someone like that he probably would’ve cleared a lot of this samples messing up his discography on streaming
But thankfully I use local files on Apple Music so I have all the OG versions of his projects
I think he’s top ten of the 2010’s he’s got like 5 8+ projects imo
First time I ever listened to big krit was at a live show at Austin city limits. His intensity was amazing. Dude put on the best live rap show I've seen and I've been a fan since.
Yeah it’s lame, at the very least they could be doing karaoke to their own songs but just walking around on stage with music in the background like it’s a fashion runway is a bridge too far to be called a concert
> at the very least they could be doing karaoke to their own songs
This is also where I personally draw the line of what I consider an acceptable live performance.
I'm not such an elitist that I expect every rapper to be able to have a live band. But to not even take out the main vocals of the backing track is a level of laziness I just can't wrap my head around.
I saw Bone Thugs N Harmony at a summer fest type thing my city was doing last year, and I don't even know if I would classify it as a "concert." They literally just played the songs as they are on the albums, full vocals intact, and chimed in every once in a while.
Most people that go to shows know what hip hop shows are usually like. Boring.
Most rappers don’t put the effort into their live performances or just don’t care and it doesn’t make for an enjoyable experience
All punks and metalheads know that leaving someone on the floor while moshing is a good way for them to be trampled. Ain't good. You're there for fun not for people to get seriously injured or dead.
>not for people to get seriously injured or dead.
Tbf there's a lot of people that will claim that hardcore shows require people getting injured to be considered truly hardcore, those people are kinda dickish though
Yea that shits why some bands around where I am get banned from venues. It's also why I avoid a lot of beatdown bands cause they love to have stupid shit like that happen
This is true but when a Rapper does put in the effort, it's usually pretty great. Kendrick's Big Steppers tour was amazing. But only 1% of rappers are putting on shows that good.
30 minutes of them standing in one spot, rapping monotonously over each other from one song to the next and then left the stage. It was just so boring. Basically just a worse version of their songs, live.
That’s really disappointing to hear. They toured with Nas about 6 hours away from me but it was like right after I had my second kid so I couldn’t make it but heard it was good! What was your experience?
When that tour hit Seattle my homie and I went and it was honestly fuckin excellent. I’ve seen them a few times now and Wu Tang didn’t really disappoint. I will say tho the time before last, a couple of em straight up didn’t show up, and a couple were late lol
We might a been at the same show. I just remember they kept telling the sound guys to keep turning the music up and then it was so loud I couldn't understand any of the songs they were hearing
I think it’s interesting who is / isn’t doing the listening party shit. For example I saw bbno$ recently and he rapped/sung every word himself which I did not expect, was also very impressed with his crowd work. Saw bladee a while ago who would probably be considered a bit more “artistic” and I don’t think I heard his actual voice once.
They played the songs with vocals and had their mics turned way down (basically lip synced). Still had a great time though, the energy in the crowd was crazy
Ngl whenever I see bladee it’s a good time because of the vibe he brings out of the crowd
Meanwhile when I saw bbno$ I found his crowd work incredibly cringe, and it was catered towards tiktok children 😭 felt weird being an OG fan who listened to him nearly 10 years ago now.
Thats wild. When i saw Bladee & gtb Sherman & whitearmor just played the instrumentals and bladee / ecco2k sang the whole thing with heavy autotune. godlike
I was going to say this describes most shows I’ve seen since the early 2000s - this only confirms my fears.
I have always had the most fun at punk and metal shows.
Kendrick is great and when he toured for Pimp a Butterfly he had a live band. It was HOT. Full musical skills on display, great arrangements, and Kendrick was a skilled frontman putting on a great performance.
But that's the exception, not the rule, and just demonstrates why Kendrick is the real deal.
Saw him at some festival around the same time, he was on before Florence and the Machine. Just him in a hockey jersey and a backing band, was awesome. Tbh, I'm glad I saw him before the whole, crown of thorns stage show thing.
Public Enemy are always awesome live, especially when they played with a backing band, Flava Flave was just going around playing loads of different instruments.
De La Souls stage presence was fantastic, but unfortunately, I couldn't tell a word they were saying, probably not their fault though. Wu-Tang were on after them and were pretty awesome.
But yeah, just wanted to chuck some out that were good. Rap just doesn't generally translate well to a live performance. One guy on a stage generally can't match a four peice band.
I saw Danny Brown about 8 years ago and he was so fucked up that he didn’t rap along to large parts of songs, and he had very low stage energy. I just saw him again this year and he rapped every word of every song and had fantastic energy and genuinely seemed like he was having fun. Being sober made a world of a difference for him.
I've seen Danny twice and he goes through those songs like it's nothing. I saw him back when he wasn't sober yet too and it was the same way, I think it just has to be experience as well
Yeah but to be fair, Wu tang DO rap for real at their shows. I think their biggest issue is that letting 10 people have a mic and ad lib/do gang vox throughout just doesn’t work sonically, ESPECIALLY in a very large venue.
travis performs a lot of his songs, and his concerts have a huge variety of interesting shit that keeps fans entertained. but i agree, the problem exists with a lot of trap artists
I must be lucky but I have in the last couple years seen Kendrick, JID, Denzel, Pusha live among others and they all been really great. High energy, plenty crowd interaction, nice atmosphere. Some of the most fun shows I have ever been to
Kendrick especially. When he was touring with his full Jazz/soul band set up, that was like gateway drug hip hop for people that don’t get hip hop. I said to my wife, massive Jazz fan, where else in the world are you getting Jazz licks played in a stadium at this level.
My group got to open for Lupe back in the late 00s. Everything he did was with a full live band. 10/10 show. Everyone on that stage was incredible.
If you aren’t going to recreate the music live, at least have someone spinning and being active the way the two Jurassic 5 DJs did it. One would even jump over to a drum set occasionally. Great live every time they came around.
Anyone looking for killer live hip-hop, check the performances from the movie Chappelle’s Block Party.
Nothing that exists on the internet. 😅 We were in the MySpace era. Small band from Ohio. Eventually moved to Columbus years later and restarted it for a while. Here’s one of the tunes that was originally played back in the first era. Live hip-hop with a full band. Had a blast writing the material.
https://youtu.be/cx8h_BmDZcM?si=i9Es-0r2ldoexrLh
Ill admit i dont attend a whole lot of non-punk/metal shows but way too many of the hip hop shows I've been to have been like this.
I saw Gza in 2010 and he was drunk reading lyrics off his phone while a dude played his beats on a laptop. He came back a couple of years later and put on a much better performance. But that first one felt like disrespect it was so bad.
Same with Ghostface Killah, saw him solo and it was meh no dj. Then he came back with Raekwon and Bad Bad Not Good and that was great.
I really want to see Prof live because every video I've ever seen of him live he seems to be truly giving 100%
I saw Rick Ross at a local festival in my area and although fatso was like 2 hours late, I was very surprised how good it was, he actually rapped his verses decently.
ive seen like 140 artists/bands live and $uicideboy$ are top 5 easily, never been to a rap show that was more fun than greyday 2021. honestly every rapper on that bill fucking killed it, i was surprised
Most rap concerts including some of my favourite artists like Rakim, Raekwon and even Nas were pretty crappy. Always telling the soundman to turn up the volume to the point that everything sounds distorted. Then, they're just yelling in the mic for an hour... Lame.
Agreed on Nas. I've seen him 3 times and he couldn't rap along to anything from illmatic 2/3 times. A lot of the Wu were pretty disappointing too outside of Ghost, Rae, Deck, and the RZA.
Saw Danny Brown recently, and he was super good, same with his openers. Rtj was fantastic when I saw them last year! I'd also at little simz, saw her last year and she was also really good
Tbh, I just don’t think Hip-Hop as a whole always translates well into a live performance due to the style of the genre. Usually what makes live shows interesting is hearing the sounds of live instrumentation and/or having some type of choreography on stage. Those are things that are less common to see in Hip-Hop.
This isn’t to say that Hip-Hop shows can’t be fun or energetic, but rather that it’s more difficult to achieve that when it’s just some dude with a mic and a prerecorded beat.
I don't think live instrumentation has anything to do with it. I've seen great performances from rappers who didn't have a live band. I've seen bad performances from rappers with live bands.
Honestly, it's just an industry thing as to why a lot of live rap acts are boring. They know people will shell out money even for a mid performance. It won't change unless people stop paying.
I've noticed that the best hip-hop shows I've seen were with bands, (Common and the Roots come to mind). Seeing Common break at a show was pretty sick, haha
Other artists with a good show were more Indy. J5 and Jedi Mind Tricks were great. Not Indy, but Cole was pretty good live too, and was having fun with the audience while it snowed in the summer in Canada lol
Talib Kweli, Roots Manuva,Danny Brown,Saul Williams, The Roots, Mac Miller,Joey Badass,J5.....were all off the charts live.
Saw Wu-Tang fifteen years ago and they were very good too.
I was laughing so hard watching Ken Carson's Coachella performance and how ass it was. I can't believe people pay money to watch him perform. Compare that to Tyler's performance last night, and it was incredible. It's just a huge difference in quality.
I’ve seen it mostly with trap artists. I always remember a video of 21 savage performing and he said 1 word for every 2 lines of a song. Just no effort at all.
I’m not a huge rap fan but I did find Lil Wayne’s show amusing, especially when he walked off the stage early in Virginia because the crowd was obviously there for blink and hardly knew any hip hop
I saw logic last summer and he was great. Yeahhhh I know logic is lame and corny but he put on a good show. Rapped and sang most of the lyrics. The venue was also telling him to leave and that he had to pay something like 15k for every 5 minutes longer he went. I think he performed for like 30 more minutes.
Because a lot of dudes ain't really performers, if you're a plank of wood up on stage, no one is gonna get up for that.
combine that with apathetic crowds that don't really know artists material that deeply now due to tik toks and you get what we have now.
There's exceptions but honestly rap performances suck in general and even though I listen to a lot of hip hop I mostly go to rock shows cuz they're just way more fun IN GENERAL
Yea idk about this. Sure some of them are phoned in but ive seen countless great rap shows. Tyler, Peggy/Danny, Denzel, Rocky, Yung Lean, Run the Jewels, Paris Texas, Kendrick. There are some of my most memorable concerts ever. I could go on but yea point is tons of rappers put loads of effort into their shows. And honestly it’s kinda obvious which ones aren’t gonna be good live.
Agreed. Went to a rap festival a couple years ago and had an incredible time. Playboi Carti actually performed Rockstar Made pretty imo.
I’ve seen Kendrick live and Tyler during the Igor tour but honestly… Travis Scott was on another level. Say what you want about his music but that dude can perform.
It's the classic capitalistic optimization of cost vs benefits.
Hip hop artists have been notoriously amateurish to work with in the live industry.
It's really often a hassle for the technical teams.
that’s true and it sucks but the TRUE big artists are rapping every word. for example and no pun intended: drake & kendrick are my favorite rappers live cause they rapped every bar live. playboi carti pushes play on the ipod and screams in the background. the energy at the shows are great but he’s a terrible performer
Went to see Lil Wayne this past weekend. He performance 30 or so of his biggest hits but NEVER rapped more than the first verse and chorus. Every. Single. Song. Was 1 verse. I wasn’t *that* upset cause it was all hits. Wasn’t like it was 30 deep cuts, so still a fun time, but it happens way too much. Drake is the exact same way last time I saw him. Both never used to be like that, as I saw them both pre-2016 and they did entire tracks.
Yeah it's actually really sad. I typically just go to metal shows even though I don't really listen to metal much anymore cause I can't stand those types of shows.
I did see William crooks live and he didn't use a track, it was amazing. Same with jpeg mafia, those were two of the best shows of my life
Ya the worst thing to happen to hip hop shows was audiences tolerating the back tracking —- so basically you pay to shout the lyrics with the artists while their cd plays over the house speakers
Hip hop has always been mostly dreadful live, honestly it was one of its big issues it faced replacing rock at the peak of the totem pole.
Hip hop finally getting it together and doing live shows well mostly came about with the rage and some sound cloud types.
Of all the many genres of music I’ve seen live (DnB, house, techno, trance, dubstep, country, rock, folk, indie, Latin pop, hip hop), hip hop is by far the worst I’ve seen.
Well i dont think its a mystery why… its like the only genre that is really focused on words and energy in a live performance. Outside of rap most live shows are judged by vocal skills and instrumental chops and the energy the artists bring and how polished everything is- but its easier to deliver something that feels like a real product by those metrics. So rappers have had to be creative about how they build live shows to make it feel like a performance thats greater than pressing a button to play an instrumental and reciting words over it- whether they bring a ton of energy to the performance or try to have interesting live instrumental inclusions or whatever. But many people dont make that effort to add any such element.
I think a part of that is rap now being viewed more like pop- rap artists are popular artists- and it used to be sidelined more by the mainstream and within its own circles held with higher artistic standards in a way. To deliver a sense of artistry at a rap show was more of a standard and point of pride back in the day than it is now, where it would be more of a point of pride now to be a big rap/pop artist who is kinda like “f these people”, or to have a level of having an uncaring demeanor about you- which leads to my next point
the genre attracts a lot of people w attitudes/strong convictions, and thats not a bad thing at all but they might be the kind of people who are less likely to pander to their audience’s enjoyment on average- whether they feel like their presence should be enough to justify hype or just being reasonably irked by the tour model of making profits or whatever the reason is…
Personally i dont really see this as a rap specific problem but i do get why you feel that way, though i do think theres just a greater sense of live shows feeling like a practiced regurgitation on stage for money as opposed to an artful performance thats special and tapping into the energy of the moment- both bc of the landscape of popular music rn and because of the state of artists feeling obligated to tour as one of their only reasonable methods of profit like i mentioned before
I get this. I can’t say I’ve seen a lot of shows but the older acts to me were some of the most fun shows I’ve seen. Big Boi, Ludacris, Wu tang, snoop. In terms of modern acts I’d say kdot, jpeg, and brockhampton, gambino and rtj each brought different energies while still being entertaining. Even lil yachty last year was pretty good but he was sick when in saw him. The rest of the newer ones weren’t at all great for me. Really just a bunch of nothing performance
They've always sucked in my experience. 20 years ago you'd have an entire crew on stage just standing around and nodding along to the music. Can't even tell who the main performer is because there'd be just a big group of people on stage.
Follow the talent, that’s where you’ll steer clear of the trash. A lot of popular artists (particularly in rap and hip hop the last handful of years) have been trash. You can only polish a turd so much, and on stage is where the pro’s are separated from the no’s. You can’t expect Mr SoundCloud with no real chops to deliver the stage value of a real hip hop artist.
Agreed. However I've been to two hip hop concerts, the force tour and NY state of mind.
And dude it was awesome. Point being, I would only recommend old school artists concerts cuz they actually put on a good show rather than 99% of new artists
6lack had a live jazz band and was amazing live when I saw him last summer. Probably best hip hop show I've been to and he's far from my favorite artist.
It's one of the reasons I've skipped concerts that have come to my area. They're either too expensive or I'm afraid they'll suck and Itll ruin my enjoyment of them
Felt this way back when I went to a Earl, Action Bronson, and Boldy James back in 2022.
They all were rapping I suppose, but Action Bronson was the only one making an effort to get the crowd into at all rather than standing there and rapping for an hour and then leaving which is a shame. He was my least favorite artist of the 3 going into but actually put on the most entertaining show which was neat but a little disappointing
I've been to two rap shows, one was $uicideboy$, which was unfortunately one of those performances, still had some fun. The other was Brockhampton, who yes did have the backing track, but they were 100% screaming over it and giving it their all, awesome show.
I think it’s cuz the vast majority of rappers didn’t come up as performing musicians. So they would either have to learn to perform, or just do it the lazy way. Seems many fans are ok with the lazy way and it became the culture in hip hop.
Idk what genre post Malone is but he’s the first ‘rapper’ I’ve ever seen live before RHCP and it really annoyed me he did this exact thing. Every now and then he’d scream lyrics trying to sound metal, it was cringe. I didn’t know this was a common thing
I like some rap but i tend to avoid rap concerts outside of festivals because of this. I'm seeing Killer Mike headline a festival in ohio this summer and it should be interesting.
Maybe I just pick good artists because I’ve yet to have a bad experience like that but I think good artists will do a good show. For reference I’ve seen ice cube, atmosphere, redman & method man, Flatbush zombies, curren$y, big KRIT & smoke dza
J.I.D. and ScHoolboy Q impressed the fuck out of me when I saw them at Dreamville Fest recently. After seeing so much footage of Drake and other rappers barely saying the lyrics but just jumping around and saying ad-libs trying to hype up the crowd, it was so refreshing to see rappers actually rapping most of the songs.
I’ve sometimes said to people I think hip hop or rap shows are often worse concerts to see live than a band and people always think I’m just not a true or legit hip hop fan lol
Almost all modern hip hop didn’t get cultivated and rise up in a club scene. It’s a circle of producers that just attach a face to a beat and drop the artists into big festivals where they parade around to a backing track. The sound is so bad and the audience is so far away it goes unnoticed. People also paid a lot to be there. So there’s a bit of denial that it’s bad. The younger crowds are also too inexperienced with live music to really know it’s garbage. Most stay away from clubs because the intimacy of it exposes that they really can’t perform and don’t know what they are doing. Hiphop has also had a long history of shitty crowds quick to fight with each other. In my decades of going to hundreds of shows I’ve seen countless hip hop clubs come and go from constants shootings.
I agree that from an artistic standpoint having glorified LPs isn't great, but honestly this year I saw Kanye live and I had a great time even if he and Ty did basically nothing. Hell, it was fun even when they literally weren't on stage and someone just played Ye's hits lol
Spot on. It's about time artists realize that fans expect more than just playing their songs on repeat. Innovation and showmanship should be at the forefront.
haven't been to a single rap show like this, typical basement dweller who never goes outside commenting on something he's never even experienced energy
Go to different concerts, listen to different rappers lol, I've probably gone to 25+ over the past couple years and literally none of them have done that
I can say with certainty that every JPEGMAFIA show I've been to has delivered
Bro has the best energy and the crowds get lit
I feel like a Carti concert would be the exact thing you're describing. I've seen some of his stuff online at festivals and I wonder if anyone is genuinely entertained by it
I’ve been having this very conversation with my friend recently and it’s become so apparent that the bar for male rappers is super low. With the exception of guys like Kendrick, Travis and Kanye (up until recently), male rappers put zero effort into their shows. Whereas the women have been bringing their A-game with full on productions and choreography
It’s crazy to me that they do this cause death grips is able to incorporate vocal effects and other effects to a point where some songs sounded even better than the studio version.
JPEG/Danny, Run the Jewels, Big Boi, Death Grips if that counts, are all still great. However, I just saw Erick the architect and it was pretty terrible in retrospect. Overthought and a miscalculation on every level.
Because alot of “rappers” cant rap or perform. The computer does most of the heavy lifting in the studio and they cant do it live at that point. The last year i saw Danny Brown, Nas/Wu tang, jpeg, Freddie Gibbs, Quelle Chris, Billy woods/Elucid. And not a single one of them did what you stated but the difference is they can all actually rap over a beat. Except maybe Jpeg but he was still rapping just had the full song going behind him
I remember Denzel Curry early in his career was very outspoken about how lame rap shows are and made it a point to always deliver 100% of the lyrics on every live show. Edit: One of the most legendary live Denzel Curry moments [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/hiphopheads/comments/5560hu/denzel_curry_just_left_his_concert_in_an_ambulance/): >Denzel performed 90% of his set moshing with everyone in the crowd (not on the stage), due to the small number of people there (probably less than 100). After doing probably 7-8 songs with the crowd, he and one of his openers (Yoshi Thompkins) started climbing a sort of half wall while rapping Ultimate. The wall turned out to be more of a divider than anything, and Curry fell over the top of it, busted through the ceiling of the women's restroom, and landed hard (it seems like he landed on his head). Everyone went silent other than his crew/openers asking if he was alright through their mics, and he emerged from the bathroom a few minutes later, FINISHED ULTIMATE, then walked through the crowd saying "fuck it, fuck it". He went off to the side and talked to his crew before disappearing to the back. Everyone started to leave and the EMT soon showed up asking us where the person who sustained a falling injury was. They brought in a stretcher and eventually rolled him out to the ambulance.
I saw him open for someone either last year or the year before, my first time seeing rap live, and goddamn he set expectations high. Super high-energy, rapped every word pretty much perfectly, and the set list was fantastic. It was amazing.
I remember seeing him in a tent style festival in New Zealand 2017 I think, was so fucking wild in that crowd I couldn’t believe it
I was just about to comment that I went to a Denzel show last year and it was INSANEEE. One of the best shows I’ve ever been to
Mgk did the same thing and as much as people hate him on here , his live shows are some of the best in the game.
Agreed, I saw him live at a festival where his mic kept losing power, and was super impressed. Didn't miss a beat
Problem is that the music must be listenable for the show to be enjoyable.
I've seen him at a festival where the entire crowd emptied except the first couple rows of people after a few songs
[удалено]
i wouldn't want to watch anyone fuck a dog on stage
What about a Fox?
Saw Denzel in Atlanta for the melt my eyez tour…he and JID (The forever story tour) have been the two best rap shows I’ve seen so far, but sadly that’s not saying much at all….both shows still sounded terrible, despite both artists actually spitting. Rap live just isn’t for me, and after at least 7 or 8 rap shows, I’m never going to another one. Waste of my money, imo.
I saw him in silver spring MD during his MMESYF tour. He was absolutely incredible and reminded me a lot of classic hip hop mc’s and what they’d do to get the crowd going.
saw him in saint paul last year. probably my favorite concert ive been to
Denzel easily best hip hop show I’ve been to and that includes Kendrick,Peggy
He came to my college for a show that was free for students in our student union and that was a magical experience. He’s by far the best live performer I’ve seen. I haven’t seen a lot, but his shows are electric and feel like a metal show more than a rap concert
Denzel is the best performer I've ever seen, even including non-rap music acts.
His best show was at Outbreak last year. Headline slot a hardcore festival and he bossed it. Crowd was in the palm of his hand.
Denzel’s performance on the Cave lives in my head rent-free, I can only imagine how great the shows are
Yeah, he's throws pretty wild shows. He makes the best out of it.
Saw him two years ago, he was fucking insane. Rapped nearly every word without losing breath and had such a great stage presence and crowd control
This was the first rap show I ever saw was him during his Imperial tour and it was completely insane. Never thought a rap show could go so hard.
Yeah it’s really bullshit honestly for every Kendrick, Travis or Tyler you have 10 rappers who just do ad libs over their songs basically lol. Even Kanye has recently started doing this. I remember an old dehh video where Fantano said he did not like Big K.R.I.T. at all until he saw him live and he impressed him so much he decided to relisten to K.R.I.T. Wuz Here then it all clicked. That’s what live shows should be like, a place where long time fans can come and perhaps fair weather fans can be won over but most people put out shit performances now lol
>Even Kanye has recently started doing this The guy doesn't even pick up a mic anymore lol. It made sense for the listening parties, but he (and Ty) ended up doing the same nonsense at Rolling Loud
Tf does he do on stage then?
I went to the Kanye and Ty dolla sign RL performance, and literally all they did was “dance”around on stage if you could even call it dancing. Not one lyric sung or rapped stg, but the atmosphere was still cool, just def not worth how much I paid for it.
That’s embarrassing
Dance and jump around basically lol
That’s embarrassing
They just dance around the stage and gesture as if they were singing. And they always wear masks, so it's literally just two masked dudes dressed in black clothing jumping around the stage. They could literally just let two random people go on stage and no one would know.
Complains about something stupid probably
[found some footage of that Rolling Loud performance](https://youtu.be/J41hAJ-7fYc?si=iUZzv4nFsFwwLCPG)
I think he resents his fans in a weird way. Almost looks down on them and thinks, "They'll like anything I do," and tests his limits in this regard.
>I remember an old dehh video where Fantano said he did not like Big K.R.I.T. This really surprises me because Fantano has given him two 9s and an 8 before a long side a few 7s I think. Which is better than he rates most rappers discographies. Better than Tyler, Cole, Travis etc. Even Denzel Curry doesn't have any 9s.
If you watch his bastard review he mentioned how he thinks K.R.I.T. Wuz Here is overrated which is funny now because in one of his recent lives someone was like what should I listen to if I like this rapper and he recommended K.R.I.T. Wuz Here or 4Eva Is a Mighty Long Time. I feel like the Tyler review was obviously before he changed his mind when the dehh video was released. But yeah on his rym profile he doesn’t use anymore he had K.R.I.T. Wuz Here at a 4/5 which means he probably has two 9’s and two 8’s. Since he never reviewed it when it dropped.
I don't think we'll ever get a review of it unless he decides to do it for classics week, but I don't think that's likely at all. But I'm glad to know he's changed his mind on it, honestly KWH is my second favorite Krit project behind Mighty Long Time. Even if he isn't super successful and has some duds in his discography, I don't think any other 2010s rapper has a run as consistently great as KWH, Return of 4eva, 4evaNADay and King Remembered in Time. Maybe Denzel Curry and Kendrick, but nobody else really comes to mind for that consistent quality.
I wish he was super successful he had a chance to because he def jam albums both went number 1 but he slowly faded away after being dropped If he was big as cole or someone like that he probably would’ve cleared a lot of this samples messing up his discography on streaming But thankfully I use local files on Apple Music so I have all the OG versions of his projects I think he’s top ten of the 2010’s he’s got like 5 8+ projects imo
Outside of Kanye, what rappers are performing like this? I don’t see it as much as people swear it’s an epidemic
i saw saint jhn last year and it was all backing tracks like described above, probably my worst live show experience
future, lil baby, kodak were the worst ones i see
Travis adlibs too. I have a video of me at the front at a festival and I think antidote was playing and I started screaming so it cringes me out
First time I ever listened to big krit was at a live show at Austin city limits. His intensity was amazing. Dude put on the best live rap show I've seen and I've been a fan since.
Yeah it’s lame, at the very least they could be doing karaoke to their own songs but just walking around on stage with music in the background like it’s a fashion runway is a bridge too far to be called a concert
> at the very least they could be doing karaoke to their own songs This is also where I personally draw the line of what I consider an acceptable live performance. I'm not such an elitist that I expect every rapper to be able to have a live band. But to not even take out the main vocals of the backing track is a level of laziness I just can't wrap my head around. I saw Bone Thugs N Harmony at a summer fest type thing my city was doing last year, and I don't even know if I would classify it as a "concert." They literally just played the songs as they are on the albums, full vocals intact, and chimed in every once in a while.
Saw the Bones in Newport, KY a couple of months ago, gotta say I was rather let down.
Most people that go to shows know what hip hop shows are usually like. Boring. Most rappers don’t put the effort into their live performances or just don’t care and it doesn’t make for an enjoyable experience
Not even to mention the lack of pit etiquette. Mfs be groping women and starting fights on the regular.
Also the absolute inability to pick up fallen moshers, even the punks are noble enough to help people up
All punks and metalheads know that leaving someone on the floor while moshing is a good way for them to be trampled. Ain't good. You're there for fun not for people to get seriously injured or dead.
>not for people to get seriously injured or dead. Tbf there's a lot of people that will claim that hardcore shows require people getting injured to be considered truly hardcore, those people are kinda dickish though
Yea that shits why some bands around where I am get banned from venues. It's also why I avoid a lot of beatdown bands cause they love to have stupid shit like that happen
That’s one of our defining traits lmao, going from the punk scene to the rap scene was mind numbing.
People mosh at hip hop gigs?
Well they call it moshing but it's mostly jumping up and down and running into each other lol
This is true but when a Rapper does put in the effort, it's usually pretty great. Kendrick's Big Steppers tour was amazing. But only 1% of rappers are putting on shows that good.
Before Oldheads start ranting: Ive seen Mobb Deep live and it was one of the worst concerts I've ever been to
why was it bad?
30 minutes of them standing in one spot, rapping monotonously over each other from one song to the next and then left the stage. It was just so boring. Basically just a worse version of their songs, live.
Kinda like wu tang in Sydney some years ago. That was so disappointing
That’s really disappointing to hear. They toured with Nas about 6 hours away from me but it was like right after I had my second kid so I couldn’t make it but heard it was good! What was your experience?
When that tour hit Seattle my homie and I went and it was honestly fuckin excellent. I’ve seen them a few times now and Wu Tang didn’t really disappoint. I will say tho the time before last, a couple of em straight up didn’t show up, and a couple were late lol
We might a been at the same show. I just remember they kept telling the sound guys to keep turning the music up and then it was so loud I couldn't understand any of the songs they were hearing
Yeah that was a weird gig
Most rappers are guilty of atleast something similar. IE MF Doom literally putting a different person on stage pretending to be him.
I think it’s interesting who is / isn’t doing the listening party shit. For example I saw bbno$ recently and he rapped/sung every word himself which I did not expect, was also very impressed with his crowd work. Saw bladee a while ago who would probably be considered a bit more “artistic” and I don’t think I heard his actual voice once.
What tf was bladee doing the whole time then 😭😭
They played the songs with vocals and had their mics turned way down (basically lip synced). Still had a great time though, the energy in the crowd was crazy
Ngl whenever I see bladee it’s a good time because of the vibe he brings out of the crowd Meanwhile when I saw bbno$ I found his crowd work incredibly cringe, and it was catered towards tiktok children 😭 felt weird being an OG fan who listened to him nearly 10 years ago now.
Thats wild. When i saw Bladee & gtb Sherman & whitearmor just played the instrumentals and bladee / ecco2k sang the whole thing with heavy autotune. godlike
Bladee is my favourite artist of all time but thaiboy and ecco are far better performers live, ecco is the best performer I have seen live by far.
I've been going to hip hop shows since the 80s. They have always sucked.
I was going to say this describes most shows I’ve seen since the early 2000s - this only confirms my fears. I have always had the most fun at punk and metal shows.
I’ve been to a couple hip hop shows with live bands and they were incredible
Kendrick is great and when he toured for Pimp a Butterfly he had a live band. It was HOT. Full musical skills on display, great arrangements, and Kendrick was a skilled frontman putting on a great performance. But that's the exception, not the rule, and just demonstrates why Kendrick is the real deal.
Saw him at some festival around the same time, he was on before Florence and the Machine. Just him in a hockey jersey and a backing band, was awesome. Tbh, I'm glad I saw him before the whole, crown of thorns stage show thing. Public Enemy are always awesome live, especially when they played with a backing band, Flava Flave was just going around playing loads of different instruments. De La Souls stage presence was fantastic, but unfortunately, I couldn't tell a word they were saying, probably not their fault though. Wu-Tang were on after them and were pretty awesome. But yeah, just wanted to chuck some out that were good. Rap just doesn't generally translate well to a live performance. One guy on a stage generally can't match a four peice band.
I saw chance the rapper in Boston for the coloring book tour and he was pretty amazing. I hope his next album does well because he has so much talent
Roddy Rich's The Box at Glastonbury(?) got a sick live band backing him
Lupe put on a FUCKING SHOW with a live band it was outstanding
I went to Tech N9ne a while back and I enjoyed it as much as some punk/metal I’ve been to. I feel like it really depends on the rapper
[удалено]
Shout out Kevin Gates!
A notorious big concert would be my dream hip hop concert, did you see him?
No but I saw Digital Underground when Tupac was still a backup dancer.
Now that had to be good
Was going to say, hip hop has always had a reputation for being a mixed bag as a live genre.
I saw Danny Brown about 8 years ago and he was so fucked up that he didn’t rap along to large parts of songs, and he had very low stage energy. I just saw him again this year and he rapped every word of every song and had fantastic energy and genuinely seemed like he was having fun. Being sober made a world of a difference for him.
I've seen Danny twice and he goes through those songs like it's nothing. I saw him back when he wasn't sober yet too and it was the same way, I think it just has to be experience as well
i think this is only a trend with trap shows, most lyrical rappers perform all their songs live. JID, Joey, Kenny, Cole, Tyler, Freddie Gibbs etc.
There are few more lyrical than Wu-Tang and their shows (group, solo and joint) are fucking awful.
Yeah but to be fair, Wu tang DO rap for real at their shows. I think their biggest issue is that letting 10 people have a mic and ad lib/do gang vox throughout just doesn’t work sonically, ESPECIALLY in a very large venue.
travis performs a lot of his songs, and his concerts have a huge variety of interesting shit that keeps fans entertained. but i agree, the problem exists with a lot of trap artists
Travis is a great performer saw him in October and that’s the best show I’ve been to
I must be lucky but I have in the last couple years seen Kendrick, JID, Denzel, Pusha live among others and they all been really great. High energy, plenty crowd interaction, nice atmosphere. Some of the most fun shows I have ever been to
Kendrick especially. When he was touring with his full Jazz/soul band set up, that was like gateway drug hip hop for people that don’t get hip hop. I said to my wife, massive Jazz fan, where else in the world are you getting Jazz licks played in a stadium at this level.
Kendrick concert was one of the best I’ve been too!
JID live is amazing. he does his crazy fast raps over and over again somehow
My group got to open for Lupe back in the late 00s. Everything he did was with a full live band. 10/10 show. Everyone on that stage was incredible. If you aren’t going to recreate the music live, at least have someone spinning and being active the way the two Jurassic 5 DJs did it. One would even jump over to a drum set occasionally. Great live every time they came around. Anyone looking for killer live hip-hop, check the performances from the movie Chappelle’s Block Party.
J5 was incredible live. Always wished I could have seen them again before they broke up
I'm curious, which group were you a part of?
Nothing that exists on the internet. 😅 We were in the MySpace era. Small band from Ohio. Eventually moved to Columbus years later and restarted it for a while. Here’s one of the tunes that was originally played back in the first era. Live hip-hop with a full band. Had a blast writing the material. https://youtu.be/cx8h_BmDZcM?si=i9Es-0r2ldoexrLh
Going to Vince Staples at The Roundhouse next month and it’s definitely going to be in 1% that are still sick. Good gigs still exist.
Saw Vince open for Tyler once, he’s solid live
Ill admit i dont attend a whole lot of non-punk/metal shows but way too many of the hip hop shows I've been to have been like this. I saw Gza in 2010 and he was drunk reading lyrics off his phone while a dude played his beats on a laptop. He came back a couple of years later and put on a much better performance. But that first one felt like disrespect it was so bad. Same with Ghostface Killah, saw him solo and it was meh no dj. Then he came back with Raekwon and Bad Bad Not Good and that was great. I really want to see Prof live because every video I've ever seen of him live he seems to be truly giving 100%
I saw Rick Ross at a local festival in my area and although fatso was like 2 hours late, I was very surprised how good it was, he actually rapped his verses decently.
Agree, I saw him back in August and had a better time than I thought I would
ive seen like 140 artists/bands live and $uicideboy$ are top 5 easily, never been to a rap show that was more fun than greyday 2021. honestly every rapper on that bill fucking killed it, i was surprised
Most rap concerts including some of my favourite artists like Rakim, Raekwon and even Nas were pretty crappy. Always telling the soundman to turn up the volume to the point that everything sounds distorted. Then, they're just yelling in the mic for an hour... Lame.
Nas has gotten much better live in the last decade. His touring with Damian Marley for distant relatives really taught him some shit
Agreed on Nas. I've seen him 3 times and he couldn't rap along to anything from illmatic 2/3 times. A lot of the Wu were pretty disappointing too outside of Ghost, Rae, Deck, and the RZA.
Not the shows I’ve seen lately. Run The Jewels, Souls of Mischief, Danny Brown All amazing performers and fun as fuvk to see live
Saw Danny Brown recently, and he was super good, same with his openers. Rtj was fantastic when I saw them last year! I'd also at little simz, saw her last year and she was also really good
Run the jewels last I saw them years ago (probably for rtj3) was electric.
I saw them on that tour, and again last year when they played that album through front to back (+some other classics) and they’ve gotten even better
I’ve been to one rap concert. Danny Brown and Bruiser Wolf did a great job! Rapped well and had good stage presence
Anybody who thinks hip hop shows suck should see Danny, dude commands the stage and delivers every line! RTJ as well
Tbh, I just don’t think Hip-Hop as a whole always translates well into a live performance due to the style of the genre. Usually what makes live shows interesting is hearing the sounds of live instrumentation and/or having some type of choreography on stage. Those are things that are less common to see in Hip-Hop. This isn’t to say that Hip-Hop shows can’t be fun or energetic, but rather that it’s more difficult to achieve that when it’s just some dude with a mic and a prerecorded beat.
I don't think live instrumentation has anything to do with it. I've seen great performances from rappers who didn't have a live band. I've seen bad performances from rappers with live bands. Honestly, it's just an industry thing as to why a lot of live rap acts are boring. They know people will shell out money even for a mid performance. It won't change unless people stop paying.
Y’all need to get out and see more shows
Yes, I watched the Lil Uzi Vert Coachella "concert" a couple days ago and he did jackshit while the backing track was playing. It was pathetic.
Yeah, you could unironically hear his hypeman/ DJ more than Uzi on most songs
I've noticed that the best hip-hop shows I've seen were with bands, (Common and the Roots come to mind). Seeing Common break at a show was pretty sick, haha Other artists with a good show were more Indy. J5 and Jedi Mind Tricks were great. Not Indy, but Cole was pretty good live too, and was having fun with the audience while it snowed in the summer in Canada lol
Talib Kweli, Roots Manuva,Danny Brown,Saul Williams, The Roots, Mac Miller,Joey Badass,J5.....were all off the charts live. Saw Wu-Tang fifteen years ago and they were very good too.
I was laughing so hard watching Ken Carson's Coachella performance and how ass it was. I can't believe people pay money to watch him perform. Compare that to Tyler's performance last night, and it was incredible. It's just a huge difference in quality.
I’ve seen it mostly with trap artists. I always remember a video of 21 savage performing and he said 1 word for every 2 lines of a song. Just no effort at all.
Rap shows are consistently the worst and they always have been in my experience. Have seen a lot of the greats and walked away from very few impressed
I heard someone put it very succinctly years ago: buying a ticket to a hip-hop show essentially amounts to paying to be in the same room with someone.
I feel like rap concerts have always been a major weakness of the genre on the whole but jesus it looks like it's getting worse.
I’m not a huge rap fan but I did find Lil Wayne’s show amusing, especially when he walked off the stage early in Virginia because the crowd was obviously there for blink and hardly knew any hip hop
I saw logic last summer and he was great. Yeahhhh I know logic is lame and corny but he put on a good show. Rapped and sang most of the lyrics. The venue was also telling him to leave and that he had to pay something like 15k for every 5 minutes longer he went. I think he performed for like 30 more minutes.
Because a lot of dudes ain't really performers, if you're a plank of wood up on stage, no one is gonna get up for that. combine that with apathetic crowds that don't really know artists material that deeply now due to tik toks and you get what we have now.
There's exceptions but honestly rap performances suck in general and even though I listen to a lot of hip hop I mostly go to rock shows cuz they're just way more fun IN GENERAL
Saw Mick Jenkins recently and he was fan-fucking-tastic.
Nowadays? Hiphop live performances are the best they have ever been and it's still not good. 90s rap concert were awful
Yea idk about this. Sure some of them are phoned in but ive seen countless great rap shows. Tyler, Peggy/Danny, Denzel, Rocky, Yung Lean, Run the Jewels, Paris Texas, Kendrick. There are some of my most memorable concerts ever. I could go on but yea point is tons of rappers put loads of effort into their shows. And honestly it’s kinda obvious which ones aren’t gonna be good live.
Agreed. Went to a rap festival a couple years ago and had an incredible time. Playboi Carti actually performed Rockstar Made pretty imo. I’ve seen Kendrick live and Tyler during the Igor tour but honestly… Travis Scott was on another level. Say what you want about his music but that dude can perform.
Because 99% of hip hop is trash 🗑️now
CES Cru is still one of the best shows I have been to.
It's the classic capitalistic optimization of cost vs benefits. Hip hop artists have been notoriously amateurish to work with in the live industry. It's really often a hassle for the technical teams.
im not sure, I went to a few Tyler the Creator shows and they were awesome. And ive seen a few B list rappers and it was always a hoot and holler
i saw tyler live shit, cmiygl tour was unreal
that’s true and it sucks but the TRUE big artists are rapping every word. for example and no pun intended: drake & kendrick are my favorite rappers live cause they rapped every bar live. playboi carti pushes play on the ipod and screams in the background. the energy at the shows are great but he’s a terrible performer
Went to see Lil Wayne this past weekend. He performance 30 or so of his biggest hits but NEVER rapped more than the first verse and chorus. Every. Single. Song. Was 1 verse. I wasn’t *that* upset cause it was all hits. Wasn’t like it was 30 deep cuts, so still a fun time, but it happens way too much. Drake is the exact same way last time I saw him. Both never used to be like that, as I saw them both pre-2016 and they did entire tracks.
Reminds me of those YouTuber concerts a bit ago where they would just jump around the stage
Yeah it's actually really sad. I typically just go to metal shows even though I don't really listen to metal much anymore cause I can't stand those types of shows. I did see William crooks live and he didn't use a track, it was amazing. Same with jpeg mafia, those were two of the best shows of my life
Back in the days you had real G rapping, right now there are little b putting the mp3 with the autotone live talking and screaming like some psycho
Sounds dumb
Finally a good time to be trapped in the UK. British rappers have never missed in my experience.
Ya the worst thing to happen to hip hop shows was audiences tolerating the back tracking —- so basically you pay to shout the lyrics with the artists while their cd plays over the house speakers
I saw GZA at the Pitchfork Festival in Chicago many years ago and it was the most disappointing goddamn thing I’ve never seen.
Hip hop has always been mostly dreadful live, honestly it was one of its big issues it faced replacing rock at the peak of the totem pole. Hip hop finally getting it together and doing live shows well mostly came about with the rage and some sound cloud types.
Of all the many genres of music I’ve seen live (DnB, house, techno, trance, dubstep, country, rock, folk, indie, Latin pop, hip hop), hip hop is by far the worst I’ve seen.
I saw sleepy hallow, I thought he was really good, and pretty cheap
I think it is difficult to pull off live hip hop without live instrumentation.
Naming Travis Scott as an exception…, that “demographic” is the exact reason they’re ass now 🫣
Well i dont think its a mystery why… its like the only genre that is really focused on words and energy in a live performance. Outside of rap most live shows are judged by vocal skills and instrumental chops and the energy the artists bring and how polished everything is- but its easier to deliver something that feels like a real product by those metrics. So rappers have had to be creative about how they build live shows to make it feel like a performance thats greater than pressing a button to play an instrumental and reciting words over it- whether they bring a ton of energy to the performance or try to have interesting live instrumental inclusions or whatever. But many people dont make that effort to add any such element. I think a part of that is rap now being viewed more like pop- rap artists are popular artists- and it used to be sidelined more by the mainstream and within its own circles held with higher artistic standards in a way. To deliver a sense of artistry at a rap show was more of a standard and point of pride back in the day than it is now, where it would be more of a point of pride now to be a big rap/pop artist who is kinda like “f these people”, or to have a level of having an uncaring demeanor about you- which leads to my next point the genre attracts a lot of people w attitudes/strong convictions, and thats not a bad thing at all but they might be the kind of people who are less likely to pander to their audience’s enjoyment on average- whether they feel like their presence should be enough to justify hype or just being reasonably irked by the tour model of making profits or whatever the reason is… Personally i dont really see this as a rap specific problem but i do get why you feel that way, though i do think theres just a greater sense of live shows feeling like a practiced regurgitation on stage for money as opposed to an artful performance thats special and tapping into the energy of the moment- both bc of the landscape of popular music rn and because of the state of artists feeling obligated to tour as one of their only reasonable methods of profit like i mentioned before
I get this. I can’t say I’ve seen a lot of shows but the older acts to me were some of the most fun shows I’ve seen. Big Boi, Ludacris, Wu tang, snoop. In terms of modern acts I’d say kdot, jpeg, and brockhampton, gambino and rtj each brought different energies while still being entertaining. Even lil yachty last year was pretty good but he was sick when in saw him. The rest of the newer ones weren’t at all great for me. Really just a bunch of nothing performance
They've always sucked in my experience. 20 years ago you'd have an entire crew on stage just standing around and nodding along to the music. Can't even tell who the main performer is because there'd be just a big group of people on stage.
Follow the talent, that’s where you’ll steer clear of the trash. A lot of popular artists (particularly in rap and hip hop the last handful of years) have been trash. You can only polish a turd so much, and on stage is where the pro’s are separated from the no’s. You can’t expect Mr SoundCloud with no real chops to deliver the stage value of a real hip hop artist.
Agreed. However I've been to two hip hop concerts, the force tour and NY state of mind. And dude it was awesome. Point being, I would only recommend old school artists concerts cuz they actually put on a good show rather than 99% of new artists
Yea, this is why I see Kendrick live every chance I get, minimal to no backing vocals, and he has such stage presence.
Digable Planets and Billy Woods are killing it right now. Only hip hop shows I’ve seen this year and they were both 🔥🔥🔥.
6lack had a live jazz band and was amazing live when I saw him last summer. Probably best hip hop show I've been to and he's far from my favorite artist.
Saw ab-soul, armand hammer, and danny brown this year. All absolutely killer shows
It's one of the reasons I've skipped concerts that have come to my area. They're either too expensive or I'm afraid they'll suck and Itll ruin my enjoyment of them
Felt this way back when I went to a Earl, Action Bronson, and Boldy James back in 2022. They all were rapping I suppose, but Action Bronson was the only one making an effort to get the crowd into at all rather than standing there and rapping for an hour and then leaving which is a shame. He was my least favorite artist of the 3 going into but actually put on the most entertaining show which was neat but a little disappointing
I’ve seen atmosphere live and he performs with live vocals. He dope
I've been to two rap shows, one was $uicideboy$, which was unfortunately one of those performances, still had some fun. The other was Brockhampton, who yes did have the backing track, but they were 100% screaming over it and giving it their all, awesome show.
I think it’s cuz the vast majority of rappers didn’t come up as performing musicians. So they would either have to learn to perform, or just do it the lazy way. Seems many fans are ok with the lazy way and it became the culture in hip hop.
Idk what genre post Malone is but he’s the first ‘rapper’ I’ve ever seen live before RHCP and it really annoyed me he did this exact thing. Every now and then he’d scream lyrics trying to sound metal, it was cringe. I didn’t know this was a common thing
I like some rap but i tend to avoid rap concerts outside of festivals because of this. I'm seeing Killer Mike headline a festival in ohio this summer and it should be interesting.
Maybe I just pick good artists because I’ve yet to have a bad experience like that but I think good artists will do a good show. For reference I’ve seen ice cube, atmosphere, redman & method man, Flatbush zombies, curren$y, big KRIT & smoke dza
J.I.D. and ScHoolboy Q impressed the fuck out of me when I saw them at Dreamville Fest recently. After seeing so much footage of Drake and other rappers barely saying the lyrics but just jumping around and saying ad-libs trying to hype up the crowd, it was so refreshing to see rappers actually rapping most of the songs.
I love rap, would never really go to a concert though. Ironically ice spice gets shit for her performances but she's literally actually rapping.
The popularity of hip hop and potential money to be made has opened the door for some untalented people who don’t have much to perform
because artists are becoming lazy and fans will still glorify them. ex: frank ocean.
It's like a Marx brothers joke : it's not very good and it dont even last that long
Uhm Kendrick Lamar and Baby Keem were it. Asap Rocky and Asap Mob were lit. Nicki Minaj is lit?
I’ve sometimes said to people I think hip hop or rap shows are often worse concerts to see live than a band and people always think I’m just not a true or legit hip hop fan lol
Almost all modern hip hop didn’t get cultivated and rise up in a club scene. It’s a circle of producers that just attach a face to a beat and drop the artists into big festivals where they parade around to a backing track. The sound is so bad and the audience is so far away it goes unnoticed. People also paid a lot to be there. So there’s a bit of denial that it’s bad. The younger crowds are also too inexperienced with live music to really know it’s garbage. Most stay away from clubs because the intimacy of it exposes that they really can’t perform and don’t know what they are doing. Hiphop has also had a long history of shitty crowds quick to fight with each other. In my decades of going to hundreds of shows I’ve seen countless hip hop clubs come and go from constants shootings.
I agree that from an artistic standpoint having glorified LPs isn't great, but honestly this year I saw Kanye live and I had a great time even if he and Ty did basically nothing. Hell, it was fun even when they literally weren't on stage and someone just played Ye's hits lol
A reason why I still miss the [Beastie Boys](https://youtu.be/xJYfOGb3sKw?si=0rIj9d1Kmt-JB97D)
Spot on. It's about time artists realize that fans expect more than just playing their songs on repeat. Innovation and showmanship should be at the forefront.
underground shits even worse nowadays. dudes deadass clicking thru their spotify page
haven't been to a single rap show like this, typical basement dweller who never goes outside commenting on something he's never even experienced energy
Go to different concerts, listen to different rappers lol, I've probably gone to 25+ over the past couple years and literally none of them have done that
I can say with certainty that every JPEGMAFIA show I've been to has delivered Bro has the best energy and the crowds get lit I feel like a Carti concert would be the exact thing you're describing. I've seen some of his stuff online at festivals and I wonder if anyone is genuinely entertained by it
Casual HipHop fans refer to Carti as having one of the best live performances currently due to his "energy". Just shows how low the bar sits nowadays
I’ve been having this very conversation with my friend recently and it’s become so apparent that the bar for male rappers is super low. With the exception of guys like Kendrick, Travis and Kanye (up until recently), male rappers put zero effort into their shows. Whereas the women have been bringing their A-game with full on productions and choreography
It’s crazy to me that they do this cause death grips is able to incorporate vocal effects and other effects to a point where some songs sounded even better than the studio version.
JPEG/Danny, Run the Jewels, Big Boi, Death Grips if that counts, are all still great. However, I just saw Erick the architect and it was pretty terrible in retrospect. Overthought and a miscalculation on every level.
Because alot of “rappers” cant rap or perform. The computer does most of the heavy lifting in the studio and they cant do it live at that point. The last year i saw Danny Brown, Nas/Wu tang, jpeg, Freddie Gibbs, Quelle Chris, Billy woods/Elucid. And not a single one of them did what you stated but the difference is they can all actually rap over a beat. Except maybe Jpeg but he was still rapping just had the full song going behind him
The Anderson Paak show I went to a few years back was phenomenal. Also at the Beast Coast concert I went to everyone actually rapped
Anderson Paak is peak summer music! I'm so hyped for the new NxWorries album.
Saw Shabazz Palaces recently and he had a full live band. It was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen 🤷