There are many variables that can alter how one enjoys musical performance. It could be the time of the show, the energy level of the audience, the energy of the performer, etc. Most of the time, it’s easy to adapt to these variables. Head to the back of the room if you’re not feeling too high energy, for example. However, sometimes there are things that happen that cause a negative vibe in me that I can’t escape from.
Let me bring you back a couple months: last April, Ghostface Killah performed at the Marquee Club in Halifax. The doors opened at 9, and the show opened with talented local rappers who held down the stage until about midnight. Then we waited, and waited, and waited. People got restless, started getting upset. There were shouts for Wu-Tang, some boos, etc. But as soon as he popped out onto the stage at 1:30 (an hour and a half later,) all was forgiven. Pretty Toney jammed out some Wu classics, and everyone in the club ate it up. There was little to no music from any of his solo records, and nobody seemed to care.
At this point, I was completely put off. I felt disrespected for being made to wait so long for a 30 minute performance, a performance that was for Wu fans from the 90s. My irritation was only multiplied by the forgiving crowd, a crowd that had no problem begging for ‘Shimmy Shimmy Ya’ and ‘Protect Ya Neck’ immediately after booing.
Fast forward to last night, I arrived early at the venue to make sure I caught Cam Smith at 7:00. I had little expectations, as I hadn’t seen him perform prior, and I was totally shocked to see Neon Dreams, a 4-piece electronic group also from Halifax, set up as Cam’s backing band. As the band ripped into the first jam, it quickly became obvious that Cam Smith is not an amateur performer. He bounced back and forth along the stage, energizing an otherwise dead crowd with fist pumps, hand claps, and sing-alongs. The band was tight, the DJ from Neon Dreams even came down from his decks to spit a verse. I downloaded Cam’s newest release, Cannon, from SoundCloud last week and been spinning it often since. After seeing the entire band blast out cuts from the record like Turbo and Nonsense, it’s hard to go back to the recordings. Download Cannon for free, here.
Naturally, everyone arrives fashionably late and the crowd starts to pour in as Toronto threesome, BADBADNOTGOOD take the stage. As indicated by FUXWITHIT several days ago, BADBADNOTGOOD has recently released a couple new tracks from their upcoming release called Sour Soul. Since all of these tracks contain verses from Ghostface Killah, my expectation was that we’d see some collaborations and new tracks on the stage. In the beginning, however, the band settled in with some high energy cuts from their record released earlier this year, III, and some covers of Tyler the Creator, Gucci Mane, and Flying Lotus. There is no doubt that BBNG is tight. They are three, jazz trained musicians who have a whopping amount of technical ability and knowledge of their instruments. But technical ability does not trump creativity, groove, and catchiness in pop music. Thus, BBNG create catchy melodies, incorporate them into jazz chords and rhythms but put everything in a hip hop framework. All together, it sort of sounds like a DJ mix. Similar to with Cam Smith, BBNG had the entire crowd clapping and energized. Even without instructions to clap, the band gave off so much energy that it was impossible to move your body. They have to break between jams only to regain energy and wipe the sweat from their eyes. However, even with all that energy, I longed for some verses. Eventually, however, the band packed up, we were left waiting for Ghostface and Raekwon, and I was left wondering if I’d actually get to hear Ghost and BBNG together.
And so there I was again, waiting for the Wu. Oddly enough, I was with the same friends I was with last time. And we waited. And we waited. Eventually, people started booing and tweeting their disgust. A lot of people doubted that the Chef and Tony Starks were even in the building. It was totally a repeat of last time. Leading up to the show, I remember thinking that this show would be different. There could be no way that HPX would allow an act to be so late and disrespectly to their audience. After the nasty tweets started, the festival posted that Ghost and Rae were going to perform together and that they’d be out any minute. The boos and chants continued.
Finally, around 10:30, the stage darkened and the Wu appeared. Just like last time, the crowd completely changed their tune and cheered them on, joining in on Wu classics like ‘C.R.E.A.M.’ They even held a talent show on stage, inviting audience members on stage to perform the verses of Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Method Man, and Inspectah Deck. The beat might as well have been played from a tape deck, it even looked like the DJ was a festival volunteer. Near the end of the set, BADBADNOTGOOD was invited out onto the stage and I thought that maybe the performance was saved. But the classics just kept coming, and there were no cuts from the upcoming BBNG record, even though they are already floating about on the interweb and not ‘secret’ material.
In the end, it’s obvious to me that the Wu are just old news. Their day has come and gone and the no longer can compete with the the talent that has been exposed due to the internet. While this collaboration with new hip hop up and comers, BBNG, is an attempt to stay relevant, it doesn’t work unless you create a desire to hear new tracks amongst your fan base. HPX is renowned for bringing in artists who are on the tipping point, acts that haven’t yet been discovered and for generally being on the forefront of what’s cool. The Ghostface/BBNG collaboration is new, cool, and if you aren’t going to play the new cuts at HPX, then I don’t understand why you are even here.
