Topic: Has Hip Hop Gone Crazy? Davey D asks
- Aug 20, 2005 04:52am by NRG - livin the art that is life !
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A Few Things to Ponder: Has Hip Hop Gone Crazy?
By Davey D
So last night I’m on my way home from seeing the Gza at the Knitting Factory in LA. It had to be one of the rowdiest and craziest shows I been to in a long time. People like to say that commercial rap crowds are off the chain, but I bear witness, at times the backpack crowd can go there as well.
As some of the opening acts proceeded to do their best and rock the overflow crowd, you saw the audience give them what was the equivalent to ‘Show Time at the Apollo Treatment’. They kept chanting; ‘Wu-Tang! Wu-Tang!’, thus forcing some acts to cut their sets short.
In some respects as brutal as it was, I can understand the sentiment. It’s packed house. It’s hot. And cats came to see Gza, not a bunch of opening acts. But still, such shows are usually safe places and in many respects, important training ground for up and coming acts to be seen and heard. Last night getting on stage at this Gza show was unfortunately not the place. Cats wanted Gza and would settle for nothing less.
It wasn’t until Seattle rapper One B-Lo took the stage that some of the rowdiness began to subside. Lots of folks were familiar with the former One Man Army member and as a result they gave him mad love and respect. Song after song had the crowd throwing their hands in the air as One B-Lo rocked the house. Suddenly the mood changed as you started seeing CDs being tossed off the stage by a couple of cats who came out the wings and stood behind One B-Lo.
The problem was the cats weren’t in his crew nor were they his CDs. One B-Lo stopped rapping and told the dudes they were being disrespectful to be coming out on stage in the middle of his set to pass out their own CDs. I thought such behavior only took place at so called ‘gangsta rap shows’.
When One B-Lo finished his set, a cat name MC Confidence got on stage to host. He let everyone know that he was half Black and half Latino. He told the crowd that all Black-Brown beef must cease and if it didn’t he was going to personally kick some ass. It was bit harsh and while there was no drama or tension at the Knitting factory, folks felt his point. He told everyone that Hip Hop brought us all together and we have to show love and respect.
About 45 minutes later, Confidence took the stage again after extended Wu-Tang family members Prodigal Sun, and BK Knights did their sets. The first thing he did was tell all the Wu cats to ‘Get the @#%$ off the stage’. He repeated himself several times and then launched into an East Coast vs. West Coast tirade. He told the crowd that he had been to Brooklyn and New York, and that he knows that everyone likes the Wu-Tang but this was LA’s House. He kept telling the crowd to make noise and let the Wu cats know that they were in LA and not in NY. This went on for a good 15 minutes. Then Confidence told one of the deejays to spin a 15 minute set so that the crowd get hear some LA talent before Gza came out. During the set the deejay went there and played a couple of Wu songs which is unusual considering Gza had not come out to perform yet. It’s usually common courtesy to never play any music from the headlining act.
Confidence later explained his bizarre behavior when I caught up with him. He said that one of the Wu family cats step to him and disrespected him backstage and he wanted to remind them that they were far from home and that in Los Angeles they better show respect. I asked him wasn’t him making it an East vs. West thing a bit contradictory considering he had earlier called for Black-Brown unity under the banner of Hip Hop. He responded by saying that he may have had a bit much to drink, but he earnestly felt the disrespect he got warranted his response. He felt the Wu cats were on some ‘rah rah we from Brooklyn’ trip and he had to let’em know to lean back.
When Gza finally hit the stage the crowd went nuts as everyone seemingly forgot about the tirades that took place on stage earlier. It was all love, especially when surprise guest Raekwon rolled through.
Now I love Wu like anyone else, but I’m gonna have to be honest. These guys need a copy of my article on how to do shows. Granted, the crowd had mad love for Gza, but if wasn’t him on stage then many of us would’ve said the show was wack. There had to be literally 50 people on stage. In fact Gza himself even admitted it. That was too much...
Then Gza would spit a verse or two and stop say a little something and go into another song. The stop start method got annoying after a while. Cats got to keep their shows moving. They have to let the audience get into the flow. That never happened so I left about half way through…I thought about the evening’s event with 50 cats on stage and said to myself ‘Hip Hop Has Gone Crazy’
So as I’m driving home I’m peeping the radio and an advertisement comes on for KKBT-100.3 the Beat’s Summer Jam which is going down this Saturday. The announcer gives a list a things one ca not do at SJ. I’ve heard these before. They tell you not to bring lawn chairs, cameras and coolers. However, this announcement went on and told cats not to bring weapons. Nor could you bring baseball hats or wear jerseys of any kind. Then they told you not to bring weapons of any kind including guns, knives and tear gas.
Tear gas? Now I know this is LA and there’s a gang problem but tear gas? Who brings tear gas to anything? As the announcer went on and told cats they could not wear purple, red, blue, orange and white t-shirts I really tripped. Cats can’t wear white t-shirts to SJ?
Has Hip Hop come this far? Have we’ve moved to appoint where they have to run commercials telling you not to bring tear gas or wear white tees?? Have we gone crazy?.
At first I thought maybe such precautions were being taken because this even would bring a large crowd. But then I thought about and realized LA has all sorts of events with large crowds including Laker games which have its share of rowdy fans who like to go buck wild and burn police cars after the playoff victories. The times I been to the Staples center I could wear whatever color t-shirt I wanted. I think I was sporting a raider jersey last time I went and while they did have metal detectors no one warned me against bringing a canister of tear gas. My point being these precautions weren’t due to large crowds. It was due to Hip Hop. Yes, folks Hip Hop has gone crazy.
If all that’s not enough, I wake up this morning to find that America’s favorite rapper Eminem is in rehab for taking sleeping pills and that his aunt and uncle are suing him because he’s trying to evict them. Yeah I know Em’s always been crazy, but after that Wu show and hearing the SJ commercials hearing his drama was a bit much.
But still folks its gets better... I go on line and come across this newspaper article about how the neo-Nazis over in Germany are using rap and espousing racist lyrics promoting their Nazi agenda. All I can say is ‘Wow Hip Hop is off the chain’. This is not the Hip Hop our parents used to listen to…With respect to these Nazi’s cats, they are certain to give rappers a big dilemma to deal with. What happens when one of these Nazi cats get on stage and starts rapping ‘What’s Up My Nigger?’, while sporting a swastika? Will we foolishly say he’s using a term of endearment?
Peep the article on nazi-Hip Hop
news.independent.co.uk/eu...306413.ece
The way things are going nowadays, I honestly believe there will be some who will actually go there and say just that-the reason why? Is because Hip Hop has gone crazy
