Benz and a Backpack

Two summers ago I was lucky enough to catch the Paid Dues Tour at New York City’s Nokia Theatre in Times Square. I was particularly excited for it because the lineup included a bunch of artists I’d never seen in concert before: Kidz in the Hall, dudes from Boot Camp Clik, Blackalicious, GZA, all culminating in what I hoped would be a satisfying set from the godfather of hip-hop, Rakim.

I remember the show with particular clarity because my boys and I endured an hour-and-a-half-long train ride that should’ve only lasted twenty-five minutes. The stifling June heat had us sweating our shirts out while we were held in station after station by train dispatchers. People in our car were fanning themselves with whatever they had: Yankees and Mets fitteds, celebrity gossip magazines, folded-up copies of the Daily News (with a picture of a smiling Barack Obama- who’d just secured the Democratic Presidential nomination- under a headline that read: ‘HISTORY!’).

Once we pulled into 42^nd Street, we bobbed and weaved through swarms of people in the station and on the fume-filled streets (hustling because we were already way late), and by the time we got to the Nokia Theatre we’d practically melted. Making it through security felt like clouds parting to allow us entrance into a very well air-conditioned heaven.

The openers were all remarkably on point, highlighted by a grinning GZA spitting Liquid Swords with ease, handling the mic like John Wall handles pressure. When Kid Capri got on the tables to work the crowd for Rakim, I could fingers tingling with anticipation.

Twenty-five minutes later, after repeated requests from Capri to come out, Rakim still hadn’t graced the stage. It was well-known that the Nokia Theatre would shut down promptly at 1, so it was with mixed feelings that the crowd embraced the Queens emcee, arguably the greatest of all time.

As expected, the mic cut off at 1 AM on the dot, and everyone shuffled out into the blazing heat with slightly hunched shoulders and defeated spirits. This sentiment is not unusual nowadays following hip-hop concerts; Kanye is notorious for making fans wait absurd amounts of time before he steps onstage; beef blows the lid off of some shows and can lead to awful outcomes; other shows reflect almost zero awareness of live performance on the part of the supposed performers- too often a rapper brings his entire team on stage and gives a majority of them mics, resulting in a muddled, sloppy set.

Hip-hop was initially oriented around performance. DJs headlined shows, performing with the singular goal of making the audience dance, whether it was on the street or in a hall. Emcees served as hype-machines to keep the energy high. B-boys and girls would breakout in the middle of the party, putting on a display of athleticism and attitude unique to hip-hop.

Now, DJs are on the backburner, and dancers rarely get the limelight. They’ve been swallowed by rappers who are more easily branded by- and thus more lucrative for- record labels. Many new age rappers, much to their detriment, lack the healthy balance between studio prowess and live performance skills that most early rappers, Rakim included, possessed.

From what I’ve heard, Rakim usually does put on a tight live show, but his lackluster performance at the Nokia Theatre fit into a larger narrative of dissatisfaction with live hip-hop I was experiencing at the time.

Younger rappers hoping to find their legs onstage, like Jay Electronica or J. Cole, should look to pioneers of live hip-hop performance, from Kool Herc  to Wu Tang, HOV to The Roots (who are always credited with putting on the best live show around, genre aside), for pointers on how to get poppin in concert.

Even though many older emcees and DJs are being pushed towards the margins in terms of CD sales and Billboard chart popularity, they should take comfort in the fact that they brilliantly outshine most younger hip-hop performers on stage. With this power, though, comes the responsibility of passing down wisdom to the younger generation of performers, a duty that many have embraced wholeheartedly.

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