Hip Hop Live 2007

I haven't been to a lot of hip hop performances, but my brief experience tells me that live performances can be hit or miss. Hip hop is one of those genres that may sound better on CD than live. It really depends on whether the performer can grab the crowd's attention. Last night's concert was enjoyable, but I didn't leave satisfied.

We arrived at the venue on time, but the show didn't start until an hour later. The three acts were backed up by a live band. They sounded okay, and they started with a latin jazz set. I wasn't too thrilled because I didn't come to see latin jazz.

Brother Ali came on first, and he did a pretty good job of keeping the crowd hyped. His delivery is decent, but his set felt too long. Maybe it's because I'm not really a fan, because a lot of people seemed to be into him. When he started rapping about love and relationships, he lost me. His freestyle verses weren't very good either.

Ghostface Killah of Wu-Tang was next. I think he missed Wu-tang because he was determined to have as many people on stage as possible. he bought about 14 members of his entourage, and the hype men rapped more than he did. I think I saw Keven Federline up there at one point. They called for ladies to get on the stage and dance and it all went to hell from there. I don't want to watch entourage members rubbing up on women. I just don't.

Finally Rakim came on. It was my first time seeing him live, and I was impressed by his presence. He played a lot of the classics, and the crowd was into it. I was a little disappointed that he only did the first verse for "Paid in Full." He was fantastic at times, but sometimes he threw the mike to the crowd too much. I came to see him perform, not to hear the crowd participate in hip hop karaoke. Overall it was a good set. He didn't need a dozen hype men to back him up. It was Rakim doing what he does best. His performance made the night.