Hip Hop Unity a huge travesty
Much hyped and anticipated show was a disaster with no big names
By RYANPEARSON
Staff Writer
For a concert promoter
attempting to bring a superstar array of hip hop talent together for "the
biggest hip hop show ever on planet earth," Edgewater Entertainment, the
shadowy and mysterious promoter of last Friday's Hip Hop Unity Fest '98
("In honor of Tupac, Eazy E and Notorious B.I.G"), fell far short of its
goal to pack the Coliseum for a six-hour extravaganza featuring such
hip-hop luminaries as Kurupt, Warren G, DMX, Jay-Z, Jermaine Dupri, Busta
Rhymes, Redman, Foxy Brown and Shaquille O'Neal.
In fact, the promoter fell
far short of a more modest goal to pack the L.A. Sports Arena for a
five-hour show featuring a lineup of artists such as E-40, Craig Mack, Run
DMC, Ice T, Whodini, Onyx, Missy Elliot or Nate Dogg.
Fliers and posters were
distributed more than a month ago, advertising that all of the above
artists would be performing live in concert. In between then and midnight
last Friday, something - no, everything - must have gone horribly wrong for
the promoters. First of all, the concert's slow ticket sales forced a
change in venue from the Coliseum to the smaller Sports Arena. Then, as
approximately 5,000 concertgoers found out when they arrived for the 7
p.m. start, almost none of the advertised artists or groups would be
performing.
A seemingly endless line of
unknown hip hop, R&B and African drum acts found its way onto the Sports
Arena stage during the first three hours of the concert. One could almost
hear the audience's collective jaw drop as instead of Foxy, they were given
Sylk-E-Fyne. Instead of Keith Murray, there was Fiesty from Chicago.
Instead of Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz, there was a line of Nigerian drummers
and dancing fat ladies. Instead of Warren G, there was some actor from
Moesha attempting to rap.
Most of these untalented
performers seemed extremely excited to be there and stayed onstage for as
long as possible, enjoying the spotlight and the cameras trained on them.
Quite often, however, the spotlight didn't seem to like them very much, as
Fiesty was forced to perform a cappella when stage managers couldn't find
his song's background music.
"I can't believe I came all
the way from Chicago for this (expletive)," Fiesty complained to a
sympathetic crowd. Sylk-E-Fyne had her microphone cut in and out for three
excruciating minutes before a stagehand gave her a functional one.
After three hours of what
seemed to be a cruel practical joke on those who bought the $30-40 tickets,
an abrupt concentration of actual, name-brand talent appeared. Tash from
the Alkaholiks, Daz, Xzibit, Jayo Felony, Ras Kass, Mack 10, Mr. Short
Khop, AllfrumthaI, Slick Rick, KRS-One and Mad Lion all attempted to revive
an audience whose eyes had glazed over long ago with disgust and boredom at
the antics of opening acts. It didn't work. This mass of L.A. artists and
three New York representatives (excluding KRS-One, Ras Kass and Xzibit),
seemed to sleepwalk through their songs. The audience was tired and
disappointed, and most of the rappers played down to their level.
Mr. Short Khop's crew threw
hundreds of promo singles out to the audience and was soon forced to duck
and cover as the audience threw about the same amount right back at it.
Mack 10 walked off the stage in disgust at the audience's lack of interest.
before being persuaded to return for his somnolent set. Slick Rick seemed
content to let his jewelry, clothes and status as a hip-hop icon perform
for him, and Jayo Felony spent most of his set mumbling his trademark "Uh
huh. What?"
An energetic Xzibit and
delightful KRS-One (the last of 15 acts) saved the show from complete
disaster in the same way that those guys playing classical music in
"Titanic" saved the ship from going down. They may have added a bit of
pleasant musical distraction, but there was nothing that could be done to
liven up this hip-hop concert which seemed dead in the water before the
very first flier was posted.
Copyright 1998 by the Daily Trojan. All rights reserved.
This article was published in Vol. 135, No. 63 (Tuesday, December 8, 1998), beginning on page 7 and ending on page 10.