redman concert
Mar. 17th, 2002 01:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iamomJust got home from the Redman concert here in Halifax. I was surprised to see him coming here, and since he's a pretty big rap act these days, I thought I'd check it out. I'd never been to a live rap concert before.
A lot of it was like you'd expect; 4 black guys wearing loose pants, basketball shirts and dreadlocks walking back and forth across the stage, yelling into their wireless microphones. "Make sum noize, if ya wit-MEEE!" You know the drill.
Two things surprised me. First, I didn't know that the concert would be such an open tribute to pot. Saukrates and Redman and all those dudes were up on stage, calling out for people to throw up some spliffs. People would throw joints on the stage, the rappers would pick them up, light 'em up, smoke some and then throw them back over the heads of the cops in the front row back to the audience. Some guy in the audience threw a whole bag full of weed onto the stage and Redman said, "Yo, thanks mothafucka - we be smoking this bitch-ass weed later, aw-ite?"
The other thing that stood out for me had to do with the programming of the show and the production management. The format was repetitive and a let-down, because the beats are just pounding, and then after only a minute and a half, when people are literally leaping straight up into the air and screaming, the DJ stops the record and everything stops. The rapper just talks to the audience for a minute, and then the DJ spends another minute or so cueing up the next record. It starts, and it's usually louder and phatter than the previous one, but again, by the time the crowd is roaring again, they cut it, and start talking, and walking back and forth and just generally killing the vibe. It was weird.
So there's a take-home message there for all you aspiring MCs who wanna cut a record and all that shit. You know how to work the crowd, like it should be worked, y'all, then you be chillin', cuz those motherfuckers is gonna go right out -- I mean run the fuck out -- to tha H-M-V the next day and BUY that motherfucker of an album you got out man, after they got down wit-y'all on stage, yo.
I could totally be a rapper, man. I'd be fuckin' DEF, yo.
A lot of it was like you'd expect; 4 black guys wearing loose pants, basketball shirts and dreadlocks walking back and forth across the stage, yelling into their wireless microphones. "Make sum noize, if ya wit-MEEE!" You know the drill.
Two things surprised me. First, I didn't know that the concert would be such an open tribute to pot. Saukrates and Redman and all those dudes were up on stage, calling out for people to throw up some spliffs. People would throw joints on the stage, the rappers would pick them up, light 'em up, smoke some and then throw them back over the heads of the cops in the front row back to the audience. Some guy in the audience threw a whole bag full of weed onto the stage and Redman said, "Yo, thanks mothafucka - we be smoking this bitch-ass weed later, aw-ite?"
The other thing that stood out for me had to do with the programming of the show and the production management. The format was repetitive and a let-down, because the beats are just pounding, and then after only a minute and a half, when people are literally leaping straight up into the air and screaming, the DJ stops the record and everything stops. The rapper just talks to the audience for a minute, and then the DJ spends another minute or so cueing up the next record. It starts, and it's usually louder and phatter than the previous one, but again, by the time the crowd is roaring again, they cut it, and start talking, and walking back and forth and just generally killing the vibe. It was weird.
So there's a take-home message there for all you aspiring MCs who wanna cut a record and all that shit. You know how to work the crowd, like it should be worked, y'all, then you be chillin', cuz those motherfuckers is gonna go right out -- I mean run the fuck out -- to tha H-M-V the next day and BUY that motherfucker of an album you got out man, after they got down wit-y'all on stage, yo.
I could totally be a rapper, man. I'd be fuckin' DEF, yo.
