By Marisol Veléz
An over packed crowd at Chicago's Congress came out on a cold night for what was anticipated to be one of the best shows in hip hop history. With big names like Nas and Lauryn Hill, it seems that simply showing up would suffice. By the end of the night, however, the sparse crowd and died down energy would speak something significantly different.
With
Lauryn scheduled to open the show, it was a surprise to see Nas go on first. (A
pleasant surprise, nonetheless, and one that I assume was probably purposely
planned after witnessing Lauryn's set. But we'll get to that later.) Clad in
casual street soldier wear, (a hat, a white tee and jeans), his simple attire
would serve to contrast his complexly crafted writing and barrage of busy
rhymes. He performed classics that kept the crowd hype like "The World Is Yours", "Get Down" and "One Mic", the crowd and I rapping
along like it was the 90s all over again. His "If I Ruled the World" sans Lauryn, though, was the first
disappointment of the night. How are you going to have two legends on the bill
and not perform that classic?
Nas performed with a DJ and a live band, but seemed to be also sans hype man. He spoke to the crowd sporadically, at one point addressing the extreme amount of street deaths in Chicago by saying that "this violence shit gotta stop". But, songs soon after like "Got Yourself a Gun" and a snippet of "Shoot 'Em Up" just displayed the dichotomy between speaking non-violence and promoting it in your music making. Many of those culpable in the epidemic of violence grew up to Nas' violent lyrics, anyways. But, that was the old Nas.
A newly single man, his performance of new single "Bye Baby" set the stage for his current state of divorce while "Cherry Wine" would usher him into his newly acquired bachelor status. A picture of he and Amy Winehouse on the large screen that served as his backdrop sparked some nostalgia in the crowd, as her voice on the performance track resonated through the theater. The crowd seemed overall pleased with Nas' performance, though I feel he breezed through some classics and didn't give us enough time to marinate on them. There were also times that I noticed Nas was either purposely censoring himself, or that his expansive rap catalog couldn't allow him to remember every lyric to every song. Could it be memory, though? Is our rap icon getting old? Say it ain't so, Nas. Say. It. Ain't. So.
The show paused after his set and the crowd dispersed to get more drinks or smoke some green, though some were smoking in the crowd and second to Nas' performance one of the more memorable moments of the night was the bright-yellow-shirt-wearing security swooping in and scooping out the unsuspecting stoners. A DJ finally came on to get the crowd moving; with a Kanye-heavy mix that was so Chi most of the concert girls and guys couldn't be upset. The impatience in the air for Lauryn Hill soon became thick and permeating, the crowd booing until finally the strums of a guitar and the voice of an angel calmed them. A false alarm, (it seemed she may have been singing from back stage, or that it was a recording), the crowd brought back up their chorus of boos and would revisit them often.
Armed
in baggy army fatigued clothing and a leather snap back, Lauryn finally hit the stage, looking like a soldier of her own - a
soldier of the struggle. Standing on the stage was the epitome of untainted
woman rap. Her first song, a rendition of "Killing Me Softly", was unrecognizable. Her energy and stage
presence, though, went unmatched. She beckoned the band and (not so in sync)
backup singers with her hands, orchestrating their every move like an obsessed
choir director. It looked like sound check more than a performance, making me
wonder how much was on-the-fly and how much her stage mates were just pawns who
fell in line behind the diva. Ms. Lauryn was clearly TTU - Too turnt up.
She went on to perform other classics such as "Everything is Everything", "Lost Ones", "Ex Factor" and "How Many Mics", however just like the aforementioned opening song, each version was a heavily bpm'd, hyper-extended variation so far from the original that it would leave the crowd unmoved and blank stared. One concertgoer tweeted that "the show Lauryn Hill put on was the equivalent of one really long drawn out sentence karaoke style". Ouch.
People walked out, first in small numbers, then in groups, and the boo's arose again. I was worried this would happen, my last experience seeing Lauryn Hill at Rock the Bells in New York years ago proved to have been a waste of a road trip. It seems people just don't like change, especially not when they fell in love with your music for its essence and originality. But, one thing is for sure: Once Ms. Hill opens her mouth to spit or sing she is incomparable. Maybe I'm just an optimist, being that I'm a woman and an MC and seeing how Ms. Hill never compromised her art. But, when you start speaking on bureaucracy and free enterprise and economics at a hip hop show, people are eventually not going to listen. You know what they say about horses and water. Concertgoers don't want to be taken to church; they want to be “miseducated” for a minute.
The Nas and Lauryn Hill show took us through a lyrical narration of where hip-hop was and where it has come. Possibly, even, where it's going. With an impending divorce and jail sentence, it seemed likely that Nas and Lauryn needed the money and threw a tour together. Is hip-hop this changed thing that can't remember its essence or lyrics? More importantly, though, both artists wore Bulls snap backs and I appreciate that homage to our city.
Some things still don't change at concerts, though. People were still extremely zooted and booted with Molly and Mary. The couples were still in the "couple at a concert" stance. Girls were still wearing heels at a hip-hop show. And, if you're a human of the five-foot variety such as myself, you might want to consider wearing heels when attending a heavily populated show at the Congress Theater
via The Hype Magazine / Jerry Doby
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JERRY DOBY